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The Wu Xing (), also known as the Five Elements, Five Phases, the Five Agents, the Five Movements, Five Processes, and the Five Steps/Stages, is a fivefold conceptual scheme that many traditional Chinese fields used to explain a wide array of phenomena, from cosmic cycles to the interaction between internal organs, and from the succession of political regimes to the properties of medicinal drugs. The "Five Phases" are Wood (木 ''mù''), Fire (火 ''huǒ''), Earth (土 ''tǔ''), Metal (金 ''jīn''), and Water (水 ''shuǐ''). This order of presentation is known as the "mutual generation" (相生 ''xiāngshēng'') sequence. In the order of "mutual overcoming" (相克 ''xiāngkè''), they are Wood, Earth, Water, Fire, and Metal.〔Deng Yu et al; Fresh Translator of Zang Xiang Fractal five System，Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine; 1999〕〔Deng Yu et al，TCM Fractal Sets中医分形集，Journal of Mathematical Medicine ，1999，12（3），264-265〕 The system of five phases was used for describing interactions and relationships between phenomena. After it came to maturity in the second or first century BCE during the Han dynasty, this device was employed in many fields of early Chinese thought, including seemingly disparate fields such as geomancy or Feng shui, astrology, traditional Chinese medicine, music, military strategy and martial arts. The system is still used as a reference in some forms of complementary and alternative medicine and martial arts. ==Names for Wu Xing== "Wu Xing" is often translated as Five Elements and this is used extensively by many including practitioners of Five Element acupuncture. This translation arose by false analogy with the Western system of the four elements.〔Nathan Sivin (1995), "Science and Medicine in Chinese History," in his ''Science in Ancient China'' (Aldershot, England: Variorum), text VI, p. 179.〕 Whereas the classical Greek elements were concerned with substances or natural qualities, the Chinese ''xíng'' are "primarily concerned with process and change," hence the common translation as "phases" or "agents."〔Nathan Sivin (1987), ''Traditional Medicine in Contemporary China'' (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, The University of Michigan) p. 73.〕 By the same token, ''Mù'' is thought of as "Tree" rather than "Wood". The word 'element' is thus used within the context of Chinese medicine with a different meaning to its usual meaning. It should be recognized that the word ''phase'', although commonly preferred, is not perfect. ''Phase'' is a better translation for the five ''seasons'' (五運 Wǔ Yùn) mentioned below, and so ''agents'' or ''processes'' might be preferred for the primary term ''xíng''. Manfred Porkert attempts to resolve this by using ''Evolutive Phase'' for 五行 ''Wǔ Xíng'' and ''Circuit Phase'' for 五運 ''Wǔ Yùn'', but these terms are unwieldy. Some of the Mawangdui Silk Texts (no later than 168 BC) also present the Wu Xing as "five virtues" or types of activities.〔Nathan Sivin (1987), ''Traditional Medicine in Contemporary China'', p. 72.〕 Within Chinese medicine texts the Wu Xing are also referred to as Wu Yun (五運 wǔ yùn) or a combination of the two characters (Wu Xing-Yun) these emphasise the correspondence of five elements to five 'seasons' (four seasons plus one). Another tradition refers to the ''Wǔ Xíng'' as ''Wǔ Dé'' (五德), the Five Virtues (:zh:五德終始說). There is possibly an equivalence of the states of matter found in western physics as follows: * Metal: metallic / crystalline solid with strong chemical bonds & radiation-conductive vacuum-like inter-atomic voids * Water: ionic/solvent liquid phase * Wood: complex organised living composite material with enzyme catalysis * Fire: energised gas-plasma * Earth: disorganised semi-living composite solid material with microbial culture * 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Wu Xing」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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