Wuxing (Chinese philosophy)

Wuxing (Chinese: 五行; pinyin: wǔxíng),[a] usually translated as Five Phases or Five Agents,[2] is a fivefold conceptual scheme used in many traditional Chinese fields of study to explain a wide array of phenomena, including cosmic cycles, the interactions between internal organs, the succession of political regimes, and the properties of herbal medicines.

It appears in many seemingly disparate fields of early Chinese thought, including music, feng shui, alchemy, astrology, martial arts, military strategy, I Ching divination, and traditional medicine, serving as a metaphysics based on cosmic analogy.

Wuxing originally referred to the five major planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Mars, Venus), which were with the combination of the Sun and the Moon, conceived as creating five forces of earthly life.

The art of feng shui (Chinese geomancy) is based on wuxing, with the structure of the cosmos mirroring the five phases, as well as the eight trigrams.

Each phase has a complex network of associations with different aspects of nature (see table): colors, seasons and shapes all interact according to the cycles.

[18] The Five Steps (五步; wǔ bù): The martial art of xingyiquan uses the five elements metaphorically to represent five different states of combat.

It emphasizes the unification of mind, body and environment using the physiological theory of yin, yang and five-element Traditional Chinese medicine.

During the 5th and 6th centuries (Kofun period),[27] Japan adopted various philosophical disciplines such as Taoism, Chinese Buddhism and Confucianism through monks and physicians from China.

As opposed to theory of Godai that is form based and was introduced to Japan through India and Tibetan Buddhism[28] evolving the Onmyōdō system.