Wu Xing (Five-Phase Theory, Five Element Theory) grew out of a developmental process lasting several hundred years or more. It chrystalised just before 200BCE during the first unification of China and grew out of multiple strands, or schools, of thought.
To really understand the theory,we do need to understand the meanings of Xing (行) in the context of the theory. In line with traditional Chinese thought, Xing are all about movements and transformation and there is always a dynamic association, which means to proceed, to walk, or to move.
In this context of constant movement earlier references regarding Wu Xing were of the five materials and five resources to support human life and nourishment.
The Material Context of the Five Elements (Wu Xing)
In the material context, Wu Xing really meant that if you are going to work with a material to make things, you needed to understand the nature of material. For example with metal, its nature is different to that of wood. Metal can be shaped, sometimes cold but better after being heated. If you make a terrible mistake with metal you can melt it down and start again – so metal can be transformed. Metal can also be recycled to make other things. With wood, however, if you make a mistake and cut a length too short, well, that’s gone to waste. Wood cannot be reshaped – you’ve got one chance.
Of course, there are lots of other nuances and subtleties to each material that only masters will know and understand through their experience working with the material.
The Resources Context of the Five Elements (Wu Xing)
In the resources context, it means understanding the essential resources available within the environment that support human life such as water, minerals, heat, soil to grow things, and wood as in plants and trees. The original purpose was to understand how the resources can be used, but also how they needed to be responsibly managed to be sustainable for social wellbeing and future generations.
This is where we see that Wu Xing is not born out of a categorisation of elements, or the constituent elements of a particular material, but about the nature and quality of the material or resource as a whole and how this can best be used, with both current and future needs in mind.
The Five Elements (Wu Xing) guiding how to proceed
As Wu Xing was developed, it came to mean a way to proceed correctly. It became a means to understand natural processes and patterns so that a person can decide the most appropriate way to act. For example, in agriculture, a farmer needs to understand the relevant patterns of the seasons and weather to determine when to plant a certain crop, how to nurture that crop and when to harvest, then they need to understand the nature of the crop in order to process it appropriately afterwards. And then they need to understand the nature of the market to make use of the crop to derive value and profit from the activities, which are nourishing to the farmer and society, at the same time as being sustainable.
Wu Xing consolidated as China unified following the Warring States at the beginning of the Qin Dynasty 221BCE. This is when Wu Xing came to be used as a means to intentionally design and manage the complex systems necessary to operate and regulate the state successfully.
This use extended from how to structure the state itself to administrative and bureaucratic systems, to distribution systems, all of which suddenly increased in size and complexity by several orders of magnitude. At the same time, there were significant developments in society and culture, all of which influenced and were influenced by Wu Xing.
This was the ‘philosophical’ development of Wu Xing as there was a simultaneous development in medicine where Wu Xing is used as a fundamental tool in both diagnosis and treatment.
In conclusion, Wu Xing is a way to observe and understand the patterns within a system or several systems and their interactions in such a way that it enables correct and appropriate action within the relevant system. It can therefore be put to use in life in general to, as some people put it, live the good life, in business systems to structure the organisation, manage, lead it and change the organisation appropriately according to wider market conditions. It can also be used to assist in structuring and regulating the affairs of state. Any system, whether natural, or constructed, can be assessed in light of Wu Xing both for its healthy function or to guide action within it. Mostly notably, sustainability and health of the system remain inherent within Wu Xing, something that is often overlooked in many of the modern man-made systems we construct.
Wu Xing remains both a conscious and unconscious part of Chinese culture and society and is therefore still of great influence in how the Chinese think and conduct themselves in society.