1. Features of the Five Elements and Attribution Methods
After being raised to the level of a theory, the five elements no longer were simply re{erred to by the primordial element doctrine of the early days, but rather were applied as the abstract conception of things' properties. The five elements have different features. According to the records in the Chapter Hong Fan of Shangshu, wood has the features of growth and flourish;fire has the features of hot and flaming upwards;earth has the features of nourishing and cultivating things;metal has the features of astringing and reforming;and water has the features of moisturizing and flowing downwards. According to these features ,the things or phenomena that need to be explained are simply placed into one of the five categories by adopting the method of"attribution of things according to analogous phenomena. "On,the basis of property attribution of the five elements ,the complex relations and changes of things or phenomena can be explained or inferred by applying the laws of generation and restraint among the five elements.
In order to explain the entirety and complexity of both the inside and outside of the body, physicians in successive dynasties also extensively related the viscera, structure,physiological activities, pathological reactions, and the life of mankind to the natural world. This resulted in the attribution tables presented below.
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The Natural World | |
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Five Sounds |
jiao,zhi,gong,shang,yu |
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Five Flavors |
sour,bitter,sweet,pungent,salty |
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Five Colors |
green,red,yellow,white,black |
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Five Transformations |
germination,growth,transformation,reaping,storing |
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Five Climatic Agents |
wind,summer-heat,dampness,dryness,cold |
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Five Orientations |
east,south,middle,west,north |
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Five Annual Divisions |
spring,summer,late-summer,autumn,winter |
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Five Elements |
wood,fire,earth,metal,water |
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The Human Body | |
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Five Zang-Viscera |
liver,heart,spllen,lung,kidney |
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Five Fu-Viscerea |
gall bladder,smaal intestine,stomach,large intestine,urinary bladder |
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Five Sense Organs |
eye,tongue,mouth,nose,ear |
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Five Body Constituents |
tendon,vessel,muscle,skin,bone |
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Five Emotions |
anger,jou,pensiveness,grief,fear |
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Five Voices |
shout,laugh,sing,cry,groan |
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Five Changes |
grasp,worry,hiccup,cough,trembling |
These attribution tables are used mainly to explain the following three aspects:
① The features of the five elements are used to explain the functions of the five zang-viscera. For example, the wood has the features of growth and flourish, then liverqi likes flourish and smooth, and the liver dominates the conducting and dispersing; the water has the features of moisturizing and flowing downwards, and the kidney stores essence and dominates water flow. So the liver corresponds to the wood, and the kidney to the water. The other viscera also can be analyzed in the same way.
②The five zang-viscera are used as the main body to form the five functional activity systems, which externally correspond to the five orientations, five annual divisions, five climatic agents, etc. , and internally relate the five fu-viscera, five sense organs, five body constituents, five emotions, and so on.
③The five functional activity systems demonstrate that there also is a relationship of unity of opposites between the internal environment of the body and its external natural surroundings. For example, the spring pertains to the wood, liver-qi is exuberant in spring, there is more wind in spring, and so on. Internally, the liver has the exterior-interior relationship with the gall bladder, and opens into eyes, and is responsible for tendon, is in charge of anger, and pathologically is likely to transform into wind, etc.
2. The Significance of the Attribution of the Five Elements
The significance of the property attribution of the five elements lies mainly in the fact that it can be used to generalize some internal relationships in the properties between the body and various things or phenomena in the natural world.
For example, by means of the analogous phenomena, the features of the five elements are taken to explain some physiological functional characteristics of the five zangviscera. The wood has the features of growth and flourish with flex and extension, while the characteristics of liver-qi are soft and smooth, and the liver controls not only conducting and dispersing, but also the activities of growth and flourish. So the liver corresponds with the wood. The fire is the phenomenon of yang-hot and has the feature of flaming upwards, while the heart is an yang zang-viscus, and heart-yang has the function of warming-up, so the heart corresponds to the fire. The earth is the mother of all things,and has the features of nourishing and cultivating all things, while the spleen can transport and transform the food-essence, and is the growth and transformation source of qi and blood, as well as the acquired foundation, and thus the spleen corresponds to the earth. The metal has the features of descending and astringing, while the lung controls breath and depurative descending, so the lung corresponds to the metal. The water has the features of moisturizing and flowing downwards, while the kidney can store essence
and control the regulation of water metabolism in the body, and can promote the waste
water being discharged out of the body, so the kidney corresponds to the water.
In TCM, the relationship between man and nature is termed "correspondence be-
tween man and nature. " In the theory of the five elements, the body's viscera and figure and the related analogous things in the natural world are attributed to the five element systems, thus demonstrating the relationships of mutual correspondence and mutual influence between the five zang-visceral systems and the analogous things in the natural world. Moreover, there are relationships of inter-promotion and inter-restraint between these systems, thus demonstrating some physiological relationships which objectively exist among viscera. All of these are used to explain some pathological phenomena and to guide diagnosis and treatment of disease. For example, the spleen corresponds with earth, thus the spleen not only is in internal physiological relations with "mouth" of the five sense organs, pensiveness" of the five emotions, "late summer" of the seasons, and "dampness" of the climatic agents, but these relationships also can be seen and proved pathologically. For example, an oral sweet feeling may indicate excessive retention of spleen-dampness.
