Five Elements and Cycles

The Five Elements and their cycles of balance and imbalance are the basis for much of Chinese culture. These elements were used for describing interactions and relationships between phenomena:

METAL (Jin)
Yin or Zang (Solid) Organ: Lungs
Yang or Fu (Hollow) Organ: Large Intestine

WOOD (Mu)
Yin or Zang (Solid) Organ: Liver
Yang or Fu (Hollow) Organ: Gall Bladder

WATER (Shui)
Yin or Zang (Solid) Organ: Kidneys
Yang or Fu (Hollow) Organ: Urinary Bladder

FIRE (Huo)
Yin or Zang (Solid) Organ: Heart and Pericardium
Yang or Fu (Hollow) Organ: Small Intestine and Triple Heater

EARTH (Tu)
Yin or Zang (Solid) Organ: Spleen
Yang or Fu (Hollow) Organ: Stomache

These five phases describe both a creation (sheng) cycle and an destruction (ke) cycle of interactions between the phases. These cycles are sometimes called "mutual production" and "mutual conquest". These are the cycles of balance.

In the generating or creation cycle:

METAL collects WATER
WATER nourishes WOOD
WOOD feeds FIRE
FIRE makes EARTH
EARTH creates METAL

In the controlling or destructive cycle:

METAL splits WOOD
WOOD breaks EARTH
EARTH absorbs WATER
WATER douses FIRE
FIRE melts METAL

If any of the elements are over abundant they can disrupt the balance. Fire can create Earth, but too much Fire will melt the Earth. Water can control Fire, but too much Fire will evaporate Water. These are the cycles of imbalance, the overacting (cheng) cycle and the insulting (wu) cycle.

In the overacting cycle which follows the creation cycle:

Too much METAL overacts WATER
Too much WATER overacts WOOD
Too much WOOD overacts FIRE
Too much FIRE overacts EARTH
Too much EARTH overacts METAL

In the insulting cycle which is the reverse destructive cycle:

Too much METAL insults FIRE
Too much WOOD insults METAL
Too much EARTH insults WOOD
Too much WATER insults EARTH
Too much FIRE insults WATER

from http://www.northernshaolinacademy.com/new/NsaQigongMeditationFiveElements.asp