Chapter 18 Section Eleven Yin Yang and the Five Elements

At the beginning of the universe, the heaven and the earth were chaotic together. There was a powerful god named Pangu who split the sky and the earth with a huge axe.After his death, his head became four mountains, his eyes became the sun and moon, his fat became rivers, and his hair became vegetation.There was another goddess named Nu Wa who made human shapes out of soil and gave them life, so there were people on the earth.These beautiful fairy tales reflect that the ancestors were very concerned about the origin of all things in the world and human beings very early on, and worked hard to find the answer.

In the pre-Qin period, with the progress of civilization, many theories about the origin of the universe were also produced. Among them, the theory of yin and yang and the five elements had a great influence on the later traditional scientific culture. The theory of Yin and Yang was born at the turn of the Yin and Zhou dynasties.From the experience of daily life, such as men and women, male and female, life and death, cloudy and sunny, sun and moon, day and night, cold and heat, etc., people "take things close to them and things far away" ("Yi Xici"), The concept of yin and yang was born.From this, it is further believed that the formation, activity, and change of all things in the world are produced by the interaction of yin and yang.

The Five Elements Theory also emerged at the turn of the Yin and Zhou Dynasties. It believes that everything in the world is composed of five basic elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.Ancient Greece had the theory of the four elements of water, air, fire, and earth, and ancient India had the theory of the four elements of earth, water, fire, and wind.Although there are differences and differences between countries, they all use familiar things in daily life and production to explain the origin of all things. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, both the Yin-Yang and the Five Elements theories were developed and began to be combined to become a theory to explain the creation and changes of things in the world.In "Guanzi Four Seasons", it is proposed that the four air currents of "wind, yang, yin, and cold" turn into four seasons, and produce four basic elements that constitute everything and the human body.Wind is the qi of spring, which produces wood and bone; yang is the qi of summer, which produces fire and qi; yin is the qi of autumn, which produces metal and armor; cold is the qi of winter, which produces water and blood.In addition, the soil in the five elements matches the four seasons, and it forms the skin of the human body.In this way, from qi to four seasons and five elements, a complete natural system is formed.On the other hand, the Yin-Yang school expanded the theory of Yin-Yang and Five Elements from nature to human affairs, giving it a mysterious color.

The theory of Yin-Yang and Five Elements has a profound influence on traditional medicine, astronomy, mathematics, agriculture, earth science, architecture, etc.Until now, it is still one of the important basic theories of Chinese medicine.