General concepts

Wu Xing (Five Phases)

Also known as: wuxingfive phasesfive elementschinese five elementschinese elementsfive agentsfive movements五行sheng cycleke cyclegenerating cyclecontrolling cyclewood fire earth metal waterbazi elements

Wu Xing (五行) are the five phases of Chinese thought, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water, linked by a creating cycle (Sheng) and a controlling cycle (Ke). They describe stages of change rather than substances, and BaZi reads every sign of a chart through them.

The word xing means to move or to act, so many scholars prefer "five phases" or "five agents" to the common translation "five elements". The phases are not building blocks of matter but five ways in which things grow, peak, settle, contract and rest. The theory took shape in the Warring States period and the Han dynasty, joined the older idea of yin and yang, and became a shared language of Chinese medicine, the calendar, music, architecture, feng shui and BaZi.

Each phase gathers a family of correspondences. Wood belongs to spring, the east and the colour green, and stands for growth. Fire belongs to summer, the south and red, and stands for the peak of activity. Earth belongs to the centre and to the turns between the seasons, with yellow, and stands for balance. Metal belongs to autumn, the west and white, and stands for gathering and contraction. Water belongs to winter, the north and black, and stands for rest and storage.

The phases are linked by two main cycles. In the creating cycle, Sheng, Wood feeds Fire, Fire leaves Earth as ash, Earth bears Metal, Metal gathers Water as dew and Water nourishes Wood. In the controlling cycle, Ke, Wood breaks Earth with its roots, Earth dams Water, Water puts out Fire, Fire melts Metal and Metal cuts Wood. Control is not destruction: it keeps a phase in measure. When the balance is lost, the tradition speaks of overacting, when control becomes too strong, and of insulting, when a phase turns against the one that should control it.

In BaZi every Heavenly Stem and every Earthly Branch has a phase and a polarity. The Ten Gods are built directly from the two cycles: a stem can be the phase that creates the Day Master, the one it creates, the one it controls, the one that controls it, or the same phase. The season of birth adds weight. The phase of the month branch is called prosperous, the phase it creates is strengthening, the phase that creates it is resting, the phase that controls it is imprisoned, and the phase it controls is dead. A Fire stem born in summer is therefore described very differently from one born in winter.

A simple count of phases is only the first look. Three Water signs do not make a chart strong in Water if they have no roots and stand in the wrong season, and the popular idea of a "missing element" leaves out the hidden stems and the season. The tradition aims at balance and movement between the phases, not at having all five in equal numbers.

The Chinese five phases differ from the four elements of Western astrology. The Greek elements fire, earth, air and water group the zodiac signs by temperament. Wu Xing has no air, adds Wood and Metal, and is above all a theory of cycles.

The free BaZi calculator in AstroSensus counts the phases among the eight visible signs and separately among the hidden stems, names the phase of the season of birth and says clearly that these are counts of signs, not strength.