Scribd
Upload
996 views38 pages

Five Elements

The document discusses the five elements theory in traditional Chinese medicine. It describes the five elements as wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. These elements have generation and restriction relationships that maintain balance. When an element is excessive or deficient, it can over-restrict or counter-restrict other elements. The five elements are also used to classify organs, tissues, seasons, and directions in the body. Maintaining balance and treating imbalance based on these relationships is important in Chinese medical diagnosis and treatment.

Uploaded by

Fatimah Othman
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
996 views38 pages

Five Elements

The document discusses the five elements theory in traditional Chinese medicine. It describes the five elements as wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. These elements have generation and restriction relationships that maintain balance. When an element is excessive or deficient, it can over-restrict or counter-restrict other elements. The five elements are also used to classify organs, tissues, seasons, and directions in the body. Maintaining balance and treating imbalance based on these relationships is important in Chinese medical diagnosis and treatment.

Uploaded by

Fatimah Othman
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 38

The Five Elements

From five materials to five elements

The five elements refer to wood, fire, earth, metal and


water.
The five elements theory resulted from the observations
and studies of the natural world by the ancient Chinese
people in the course of their lives and productive labor.
Since ancient time, wood, fire, earth, metal and water
have been considered as basic substances to constitute
the universe and they are also indispensable for life.
It came to recognize that everything in nature might be
respectively attributed to one of the five elements.

In TCM, the five elements theory as a theoretical


tool, is used to explain different kinds of medical
problems by analogizing and deducing their
properties and interrelations.
It also used to guide clinical diagnosis and
treatment.

Nature of Five Elements


Wood has the nature of growing freely and
unfolding.
Anything that grows and flourishes freely
has the character of wood.
Fire has the nature of flaming upwards.
Fire symbolizes anything that is hot and
has such an upward flaring pattern.

Earth has the nature of giving birth to all things.


Then it represents the promotion of growth and the
nourishing process, the earth is the mother of all
things.
Metal has the nature of purifying and descending.
Anything that purify and descend corresponds to
mental.
Water has the nature of moistening and flowing
downwards.
Anything that moistens, cools and flows downward
corresponds to water.

Application of five elements

Doctor classified all things into five elements


according to their nature, function and form.
In TCM, five Zang organs are classified into five
elements according to their nature.
Liver-wood
Heart-fire
Spleen-earth
Lung-metal
Kidney-water

Five Elements Classification


WOOD

FIRE

EARTH

METAL

WATER

Season

Spring

Summer

Late Summer

Autumn

Winter

Climatic Qi

Wind

Heat

Damp

Dryness

Cold

Colour

Green

Red

Yellow

White

Black

Taste

Sour

Bitter

Sweet

Spicy

Salty

Orientation

East

South

Center

West

North

Development

Germination

Growth

Transformation

Reaping

Storing

Zang Organ

Liver

Heart

Spleen

Lung

Kidney

Fu Organ

Gallbladder

Sm. Intestine

Stomach

Lg. Intestine

Bladder

Sense Organ

Eyes

Tongue

Mouth

Nose

Ears

Body Tissue

Sinews

Blood Vessel

Muscles

Skin

Bone

Emotion

Anger

Joy/Shock

Worry

Sadness

Fear

Sound

Shout

Laugh

Sing

Cry

Moan

Example

1.
2.

3.
4.

A 32 year old man had a fight with his wife


during breakfast.
He became very angry and forgot about
finishing his meal.
He presented at the clinic with strong
cramping pain around the lower right front
ribs,
greenish facial complexion,
and a frontal headache which seemed to
affect his eyes.

Analysis
1.
2.

3.
4.

Anger is the emotion of Wood


Pain around the lower right front ribs Possible gallbladder pain-Wood
Green is the color of wood
Eyes are the sense organs of Wood
Diagnosis: The gentlemans Wood
element is out of balance.

Normal relationship and disruption


Among the five elements, there exist
The normal relationships of generation
and restriction
The disruption of over-restriction
(overmaster) and counter-restriction(rebel)

Generation relationships among


five elements
In ancient time
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

people made fire by drilling wood, so wood produce fire


people burn some substance such as tree to ashes for
fertilizing the soil, hence fire produce earth
people obtained metal from rock and earth (ore), thus
earth produce metal
Water come from ore (mineral water), hence metal
produce water
Without water, plants could not grow, so water produce
wood

Generation

Generation implies that one kind of thing


can promote, aid or bring forth another
wood generates fire,
fire generates earth,
earth generates metal,
metal generates water,
Water generates wood.

The Mutually

Generation Cycle

fire
wood

earth

water

metal

The clockwise
sequence on the
circle represents
the Generation
cycle.
Each element is
mother to the next
element.

"mother-child" relationship

Each of the five elements contains the dual


nature -"being generated" and "generating".
This relationship of the five elements is called
the "mother-child" relationship.
The element that generates is called the
"mother",
while the element that is generated is called the
"child".

Take wood for example

because wood generates fire,


it is the mother of fire;
but wood is generated by water,
so it is child of water.

Restriction

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Restriction means bringing under control or


restraint.
The order of restriction goes as follows:
wood restricts earth,
earth restricts water,
water restricts fire,
fire restricts metal,
Metal restricts wood.

How restriction happen

Plants grow and absorb fertilizer from the


earth, so wood subdues earth
Earth blocks water, so earth subdues
water
Water puts out fire, so water subdues fire
Fire can melt metal, so fire subdues metal
Tools made of metal are used for cutting
down trees, so metal subdues wood

The Mutually Restriction Cycle


Wood
Water

Metal

Fire

Earth

The sequence on the


circle represents the
Restriction cycle.
Water can extinguish
Fire, Fire can melt
Metal, Metal can cut
Wood, Wood can
contain Earth and
Earth can absorb
Water.

For example

Any one of the five elements has two


aspects, being restricted and restricting.
the water restrict fire,
and the water is restricted by earth.
is restricted

restrict

Generation and restriction have the correlations


inseparable in the five elements.
They oppose each other and yet also complement
each other.
Without generation, there would be no growth and
development of things;
Without restriction, there would be no balance and
coordination during development and change,
thus resulting in excessive growth would bring
about harm.

For example

wood generates fire,


fire restricts metal;
metal restricts wood.

Precisely because generation resides in restriction and


restriction resides in generation,

the relative balance maintained between


generation and restriction ensures normal
growth and development of things.

Over-restriction and counter-restriction


However, once any one of the five
elements becomes excessive or
insufficient,
there would appear abnormal
relationship among five elements:
over-restriction and counterrestriction

Over-restriction

Over-restriction is meant that one of the


five elements overacts upon another one
when the latter is weak.
Therefore, it is also called "double
restriction".

The

Over-restriction Cycle

Wood
Water

Fire

Metal

Earth

The sequence on the


circle represents the
Over-restriction cycle.
The sequence is same
to restriction cycle;
But it is too over
Because of the
restricting element is
too strong or the
restricted element is
too weak

For instance

Normally, wood restricts earth,


While excessive wood may over-restrict
earth, and resulting in insufficiency of
earth,
so called wood over-restrict earth.

Counter-restriction

Counter-restriction means that the strong


bully the weak.
It is also a morbid condition in which one
element fails to restrict the other in the
regular order, but in reverse order.
It is clear that the order of counterrestriction is just the opposite to that of
restriction.

The

Counter-restriction Cycle
Wood

Water

Fire

Metal

Earth

The sequence on the


circle represents the
Counter-restriction
cycle.
The sequence is just
opposite to restriction
cycle;
Because of being
restricted element is
too powerful.

For example

under normal conditions, metal should


restrict wood,
but in case of wood-Qi excess, or metal-Qi
deficiency,
wood will counter-restrict metal instead of
being restricted by metal,
which is known as "wood counter-restrict
metal."

Essential Question states


"When Qi of a certain element is sufficient,
it will Over-restrict the restricted element and
counter-restrict the restricting element.
When Qi of a certain element is insufficient,
it will be Over-restricted by the restricting
element and counter-restricted by the
restricted element,"

Application:
1.Normalgeneration and restriction
Wood(liver)
Water

Fire

(kidney)

(heart)

Metal
(lung)

Earth
(spleen)

Each of the internal organs pertains to the five elements

Application:
2. Abnormalover-restriction
Wood(liver)
Water

Fire

(kidney)

(heart)

Metal
(lung)

Earth
(spleen)

Application:
3. Abnormalcounter-restriction
Wood(liver)
Water

Fire

(kidney)

(heart)

Metal

Earth

(lung)

(spleen)

Example wood excess


kidney (water)

Lung
(metal)

counter-restrict
over-restrict
liver
spleen
(wood)
(earth)
(The disorder of mother affects son)
heart (fire)

purging the
son organ

supporting
the weak

Example wood deficiency


kidney (water)

Lung
(metal)

reinforcing the
mother organ

(The disorder of son involves mother)


over-restrict
counter-restrict
liver
spleen
(wood)
(earth)

heart (fire)

Inhibiting the
excess

Treatment principle
According to the theory,
Treating the excess syndrome of mother
organ by purging the son organ
The excess of liver fire can be reduced
by purging heart fire

Treating the deficiency syndrome of son


organ by reinforcing the mother organ
Building up kidney essence to generate
liver Qi

Inhibiting the excess, supporting the weak


Purging heart fire, nourishing kidney Yin

Review
Five elements
Nature of Five Elements
Normal relationship and disruption
Application

You might also like