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Reference · 五行 The five elements · 5 entries

The five elements

Wood, fire, earth, metal and water are not five personality types. They are five positions in two cycles, and an element means something different depending on where it sits and what season it landed in. This is the vocabulary every one of these systems is built on.

The five

In the order they feed each other

Wood 木

01 of 05
The element that pushes outward and needs somewhere to go. Wood feeds Fire, checks Earth, and is cut back by Metal. Feeds Fire · checks Earth Read the page →

Fire 火

02 of 05
The element that shows. Fire takes from Wood, gives to Earth, refines Metal, and is the one element Water answers directly. Feeds Earth · checks Metal Read the page →

Earth 土

03 of 05
The element that holds. Earth takes from Fire, gives to Metal, contains Water, and is the only element carried by four of the twelve branches. Feeds Metal · checks Water Read the page →

Metal 金

04 of 05
The element that decides. Metal takes from Earth, gives to Water, cuts Wood back, and is the one element Fire reshapes. Feeds Water · checks Wood Read the page →

Water 水

05 of 05
The element that moves and finds out. Water takes from Metal, gives to Wood, answers Fire directly, and is held by Earth. Feeds Wood · checks Fire Read the page →

The two cycles

Computed · 生 and 剋

Every relationship between two elements is one of these two, run in one direction or the other. There is no third cycle and no exceptions, which is why the vocabulary is worth learning once.

The feeding cycle 生

Each element makes the next one possible. What feeds you costs you something to be fed by.

木 Wood feeds → Fire
火 Fire feeds → Earth
土 Earth feeds → Metal
金 Metal feeds → Water
水 Water feeds → Wood
The checking cycle 剋

Each element holds one other in bounds. Being checked is not being harmed; it is where a limit comes from.

木 Wood checks → Earth
火 Fire checks → Metal
土 Earth checks → Water
金 Metal checks → Wood
水 Water checks → Fire

Why five, and why cycles

The five are a way of describing change rather than a list of substances. Each one names a stage in a process that feeds forward, and each one holds a second stage in check so the process cannot run away with itself. Two cycles over five terms is the whole model.

This is why an element on its own says very little. Wood that has water behind it and wood with metal on it are the same element in two completely different situations, and a chart is nothing but a record of which situation you were born into.

No element is lucky

The elements get sorted into good and bad more than any other part of this practice, usually by people selling something. The classical texts do not sort them. They ask a different question: what is this chart short of, and what does it have too much of.

An element that helps one chart harms another, and the same element helps or harms the same chart at different times. Working out which case you are in takes the whole chart and the season it sits in, and that is what a reading does. Anything shorter than that is a guess with better production values.

Which elements your own chart is short of

Draw your four pillars free →

Every chart holds all five in some proportion, and the ones missing are as readable as the ones stacked up. A reading weighs yours against the season you were born in and says what follows from the balance.

BaZi Reading 八字 The four pillars read in full, with the ten gods translated into everyday roles and the luck pillars drawn as a timeline. Order on Etsy →
Korean Saju Reading 사주팔자 Your ilgan 일간, the element balance holding it up, your daeun 대운 cycles, and the sinsal worth knowing about. Every hanja translated where it sits. Order on Etsy →
Chart Legend A single sheet that decodes any BaZi chart: the stems, the branches, the five elements and the ten gods, each translated once and properly. Made to sit beside a reading. Order on Etsy →

Still working out which system answers your question? Start with your day master

Method and sources

The two cycles, the stems and branches carrying each element, and every seasonal status on these pages are computed from the same engine functions the readings use, so the vocabulary here and the vocabulary in a delivered document are the same. What each element tends to mean follows the classical texts listed below.

Read against the classical commentaries on stem strength and chart structure:

  • 滴天髓 Ditian Sui Drops of Heavenly Marrow
  • 子平真詮 Ziping Zhenquan The True Interpretation of Ziping
  • 淵海子平 Yuanhai Ziping The Deep Sea of Ziping
  • 三命通會 Sanming Tonghui A Comprehensive Treatise on the Three Fates
  • 窮通寶鑑 Qiongtong Baojian The Precious Mirror of Seasons