The five elements 五行
The Five Phases (wǔxíng) — wood, fire, earth, metal and water — are an old framework for describing how things relate and change. They appear across classical Chinese thought, from philosophy and calendars to music and the arts. Two cycles connect them.
This year's element
2026 火 Fire Yang (active) Full profile →
- 木 mù muk6
Wood — growth, spring and the colour green; associated with the east.
火 · 土
Full profile → - 火 huǒ fo2
Fire — heat, summer and the colour red; associated with the south.
土 · 金
Full profile → - 土 tǔ tou2
Earth — stability and the colour yellow; associated with the centre.
金 · 水
Full profile → - 金 jīn gam1
Metal — autumn, harvest and the colour white; associated with the west.
水 · 木
Full profile → - 水 shuǐ seoi2
Water — winter, stillness and the colour black; associated with the north.
木 · 火
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The two cycles
Generating cycle (生): each phase produces the next — wood feeds fire, fire makes ash and so earth, earth yields metal, metal carries water, and water nourishes wood.
Overcoming cycle (克): each phase restrains another — wood parts earth, earth dams water, water quenches fire, fire melts metal, and metal cuts wood.
Correspondences
Each phase is traditionally paired with a season, a direction and a colour. These cultural correspondences turn up across the calendar, the arts and spatial arrangement (fengshui as a tradition).
| Phase | Season | Direction | Colour |
|---|---|---|---|
| 木 Wood | Spring | East | Green |
| 火 Fire | Summer | South | Red |
| 土 Earth | Late summer | Centre | Yellow |
| 金 Metal | Autumn | West | White |
| 水 Water | Winter | North | Black |
Where the phases show up
Beyond philosophy, the five phases organise the traditional sexagenary calendar — each two-year span carries an element, so the zodiac speaks of a Wood Dragon or a Water Rabbit. The same season-direction-colour scheme orders the bagua trigrams and the directions used in fengshui, and the element characters are common in given names and recurring motifs in painting, poetry and ritual music. Open any phase below for the full picture.