Five Elements

            During the Han dynasty the fi    Metal (jing), water (Shui), wood (Mu), fire (Ho) and Earth (Tu) are five elements used by ancient Chinese to express a conceptual scheme in the development of Chinese thought, they are dynamic and interdependent. The driving force behind the five elements is Yin and Yang. The concept existed for more than 3000 years however before the Han Dynasty (202 BCE to 20 CE) the five elements concept was used to understand the natural process, not a well-defined school of thought.

ve elements evolved into a distinct philosophical tradition, Wu Xing Jia or Five Elements School. From then on the five elements have been adopted to develop social norms, aesthetic principles, political structure, etc... Today the five elements concept is used virtually in every aspect of daily life including medicine, morality, Feng Chui, cooking, military strategy, cosmology, and technology.

Relationship between the five elements

            The foremost important concept in the five elements is the cyclical change among each other through the process of generation and destruction.

The generational (shen) is synonyms with birth, creation, nourishment, etc...The destruction (Ke) is synonyms with restrainment, restriction, subdual, etc...

            Generation cycle:

1-    Wood feeds Water

2-    Fire creates Earth

3-    Earth bears Metal

4-    Metal carries Water

5-    Water nourishes Wood

Destruction cycle:

1-    Wood parts Earth

2-    Earth absorbs Water

3-    Water quenches Fire

4-    Fire melts Metal

5-    Metal chaps Wood

Yin and Yang are the fundamental forces that cause both generating and destructing processes. The previous processes are the basics. Each pair of the five elements also exhibits an inverse relationship of destruction between them for example:

If the Fire is too strong, then the normal relationship between water and fire will change, it’s the same with all the other elements:

1-    Instead of water extinguishing Fire, it becomes Fire evaporate Water

2-    Instead of Metal chops wood, it becomes Wood dulls Metals

3-    Instead of Wood depleting the Earth, it becomes Earth Rots Wood

4-    Instead of Fire melting Metal it becomes Metal de-energise Fire

This is an example where the balance of the five elements changed due to some extreme factors.

            Another application of the five elements in terms of the inverse generation is the theory that to strengthen one element we can strengthen and nourish the prior elements which are also called the mother element. For example:

1-    To strengthen the wood element we can nourish the Water

2-    To strengthen the Fire element we can nourish the Wood

3-    To strengthen the Water element we can nourish the Metal

4-    To strengthen the Earth element we can nourish the Fire

The five elements have become a fundamental element of Chinese philosophy due to their abundant application in Chinese culture. It was eventually adopted by the martial arts systems including Shaolin and the internal arts.

Five elements in Xing Yi

It is important to clarify that power and force are two different concepts in martial arts. Power is Jin, force is Li. In martial arts, we focus more on Jin since Li is an aspect of Jin. Without motion, Li alone is useless in self-defense. Jin is the combination of Li and velocity, in other words, power is the combination of force and speed.

The five elements in xing yi help practitioners develop 5 different types of forces. The reason is that through slow-motion practice, we try to align the muscle structure, breathing, and mind altogether to generate and transfer the Xing Yi force naturally and smoothly, then with an increased speed, we will be able to generate power.

Along with application and magnitude, the direction of application is key to distinguishing the xing yi five forces.

1-    Pi Quan: forward and downward

2-    Zuan Quan: forward and upward

3-    Beng Quan: forward

4-    Pao Quan: diagonally angle between 45 to 60 degrees from forward (inward diagonal)

5-    Heng Quan: diagonally angle 45 degrees then outward to 30 degrees from forward (outward diagonal)

Every element have five different variations so in total there are 25, here we are talking about the standard five elements.

It is very important to clarify that in the application, we do not follow the constructive or destruction cycle, we should focus on our instinct. In practice, any element can be used to counter any other element.

Three different stages of five elements practice

In Xing Yi, imagery is used to describe the final result, for example, we used twelve animals to describe twelve sets of techniques and skills. In the five elements:

1-    Metal: Axe

2-    Wood: Arrow

3-    Water: Lightning

4-    Fire: Explosion

5-    Earth: Cannonball

Wu Xing Ben Li - Five elements nature force

‘’Practitioners should be able to express the five elements through the five forces’’ means:

1-    in the beginning, we learn the movement of the five fists based on the five elements

2-    Next, we practice the five forces through the five fists

3-    Finally, we can express the nature of the five elements through the five fists, which sounds like the inverse of the initial stage.

The nature of the five forces according to the connotations of their associated elements:

1-    Metal force: Strong and solid as metal

2-    Water force: Dynamic and fluid like water

3-    Wood force: solid yet flexible like wood

4-    Fire force: Powerful like an explosion

5-    Earth force: table as a mountain

The higher stage of practice is the union of the five elements or ‘’Wu Xing He Yi’’ which is the stage where every movement expresses the nature of all the elements.

            Sets of short proverbs :

1-    Wu xing sheng wu Quan: five elements create five fists

2-    Wu Quan yan wu li: five fists creates five forces

3-    Wu li xian wu xing: five forces express five elements

Wu xing zai he yi: five elements unite as one