The meaning of Wu Xing

tutor

The meaning of Wu Xing

The 5 “Elements” are called “Wu Xing” (五行) in Chinese. The Chinese character “Xing” (行) actually means “travel” or “movement”. It can also mean “to carry out” or “engage in”. “Xing” does not translate into “Element”. However, Chinese words consisting of two or more characters cannot be properly translated by trying to string the literal meanings of each individual character together.
Instead, it is more meaningful for us to look at the characters in combination.
“Wu Xing” can be more accurately referred to in English as the “5 Classifications” or “5 Categories”.

To understand the nature of the “Wu Xing” it is necessary to understand how the ancient Chinese classified or labeled things.
The Chinese used 5 to include all beings in the Universe and believed that 5 was the figure to show completeness. The Chinese categorized many things into this system of “5 Classifications”. For example they had “5 Directions”, 5 behaviors of members in a Social System (Ren He 人和), 5 types of energy (as in Feng Shui), 5 classifications of labor in Chinese social structure (ju mang 旬芒, zhu rong 祝融, hou tu 后土, ru shou 蓐收, xuan ming 玄冥).

Each of the 5 categories that made up the Wu Xing required a name. The Chinese labeled these as Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water. It is a tribute to the genius of the ancient Chinese that they thought of 5 labels which could, to some extent, also describe the “cause and effect” relationship between the items in each category. For example, items categorized under “Wood” could promote, create, produce items categorized under “Fire”, could restricts items categorized under “Earth”, subjugates items categorized under "Metal" and countercreate items categorized under "Water". Therefore the labels of these 5 categories of the Wu Xing by themselves were able to represent the complete interaction of all of the forces of nature. Because of this the ancient Chinese were able to utilize the Wu Xing to classify all natural phenomena and explain their interactions.

Since Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water are merely category labels that group items of a particular range of characteristics, it is not really correct to attempt to define the nature of the items in each of the Wu Xing categories purely by the characteristic of its label. For example, it does not mean that items classified under the “Fire” label can be purely described in terms of “fire” as we know it (i.e. hot, bright, able to burn things). In order for us to truly understand any item in any of the 5 categories of the Wu Xing it is very important for us to be able to distinguish the true characteristics of an item from the stereotype characteristics of its label. Items classified under “Fire” are not real fire, items classified under “Water” are not real water. They may have some of the energetic “characteristics” if we compare them with some correspondence items, that is only a comparative classification.
Because the only real Wood is the wood itself and nothing else, we can determine scientifically Wu Xing
as Symbols of Comparative / Relative Energetic Entities and Qualities. For example Liver and Gall Blader organs belongs to Wood only if we compare them with the total of the major organs.

The translation of the Chinese characters Wu Xing (五行) into English as “5 Elements” is misleading because the English educated reader will automatically associate this with the actual “elemental" characteristic of the Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, labels. This is very unfortunate. Chinese readers will not make this mistake because they know that the Chinese characters for Wu Xing do not refer to “Elements”. From this they know that the classification labels of the Wu Xing are be used to describe the relative nature of the energy itself.

tutor

In fact, the Five Elements are indeed the elements at the beginning!

Personally I prefer an English word "walk". It means to move or travel on one hand, but on the other hand, also it means a category, or a trade, anyway something as a group or a field.

Here in the Five Elements, the word "Xing" mainly means "to move", moving from one to another, then a boundless category.

The translation of Five Elements IS not a good one!

Originally it was translated in Europe or in the North America.
So, later, the professionals of traditional Chinese medicine in China had no choice but just to take it.

As we all know, Chinese culture or even Chinese people were greatly discriminated in overseas, and the worst is traditional Chinese medicine!!!

So, later, in order to spread traditional Chinese medicine to the world to make it benefit more people, the Chinese professionals and scholars just try to take the familar terminologies to make it easier for more western people to accept TCM.

So, both the Chinese and the western people should reevaluate the Chinese culture.

tutor

well, i think you are quite right about the meaning of XING, but if we further consider that this word can also mean BEHAVIOUR, it gets much clearer. the five XING would then refer to the characteristics or five behaviours of each material thing. for example fire has a hot behaviour and so has joy, we wind anger, both wind and anger being an expression of wood, etc.

in any case I find that the common translation into 5 ELEMENTS is ok as long as one keeps in mind that many of the concepts of western and eastern medicine or cosmology are rather different and we do not try to superimpose the one onto the other.

tutor

dear Tutor.

Thanks.

I would like to understand what you mean by: I hope you don't superimpose.........etc. see what happened in Italy..........etc.
I don't have the slightest clue what this comment has to do with our course or even with TCM???

tutor

Dear Kangyawen,
I don't think you read my post clearly.

I said:"I'm quite sure you won't superimpose traditional Chinese medicine, or even Chinese culture".
I am still quite sure you won't.

Here I have to request for the excuse for I'm not a native English speaker, so my understanding for some English words is not that accurate, so I thought the word "superimpose" has the similar meaning as discrimination, I'm still not quite sure about that.

But I want to tell the fact that Chinese culture as well as Chinese people ARE indeed discriminated by some western people!!!

That's why I listed the situation in Italy and in US.

Dear Kangyawen, I did feel your good feeling to the Chinese culture, so I am confident you won't discriminate Chinese culture.

Tutor

tutor

I am also not a native English speaker so I looked the words up in the dictionary in order to get it right:

to superimpose= to lay over, to apply to, to place over etc.

to discriminate= to distinguish, tell apart, differentiate or show favour, show prejudice, vicitmise.

I am sure you were thinking of the meaning "to show prejudice or to vicitmise", which has nothing to do with what I have said or meant. :wink:

still not sure why you answer with these examples of discrimination of the Chinese people or culture, which does not have anything to do with our course or with trying to understand the basic TCM! :?

tutor

That was because I misunderstood the word "superimpose"!


So, I thought of the discrimination to Chinese people and Chinese culture by foreigners.