Wu Xing (Five Phases)

Earth

Origin 206 BCE to 220 CE

Earth (Tu) is the pivot phase, associated with late summer and, in the fuller theory, with the transitional interval between each of the four seasons; it is the still center around which the cycle turns. Its direction is the center, its color yellow (the imperial color), its climate damp, its flavor sweet, and its emotion pensiveness or worry, the ruminating thought that, balanced, becomes steadiness and empathy. In the body its organs are the Spleen (the yin zang organ, governing digestion, transformation, and the making of qi and blood from food) and the Stomach (the yang fu organ, which receives and ripens nourishment); its celestial body is Saturn, the Earth Star. In the generating (sheng) cycle Earth is born of Fire and gives birth to Metal, minerals condensing within the ground. In the controlling (ke) cycle Earth is checked by Wood and in turn restrains Water, its banks and dikes containing the flood. Interpretively Earth signifies nourishment, stability, groundedness, reliability, and the capacity to hold and integrate.

Facts

Attributions

Ruling Planet

Saturn 1

Generates

Metal 1

Controls

Water 1

Associated Emotion

Pensiveness 1

Associated Taste

Sweet 1

Direction

Center 1

Season

Late Summer 1

Associated Color

Yellow 1

Yin Organ

Spleen 1

Yang Organ

Stomach 1

Origins

Origin Period

206 BCE to 220 CE 1Han correlative cosmology

Origin Period

400 BCE to 250 BCE 2Hongfan, the Great Plan chapter of the Documents

Origin Period

Earth is one of the five phases that take shape among Warring States naturalist philosophers, traditionally associated with Zou Yan, in the fourth and third centuries BCE; the full correlative scheme binding each phase to organs, colors, tastes, seasons and directions belongs to Han dynasty cosmology, 206 BCE to 220 CE. 1

Language

Classical Chinese 2

Identity

Position

3 of 5 1

Attestation

Meaning in the Attesting Source

The Hongfan defines earth by what it does: it takes the sowing and gives the harvest. The classical definition is a behaviour, not a season, a colour or an emotion. 2Hongfan, the Great Plan chapter of the Documents

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Earth, the Phase at the Centre

Earth (tu) is one of the Wu Xing, the five phases of Chinese cosmology, and it holds the central place. It is the phase of stability, nourishment, and balance, associated in the classical correspondences with the centre rather than a compass point, the colour yellow, the transitional period of late summer, the emotion of pensiveness or worry, and the sweet taste. In the generating cycle (sheng) Earth produces Metal, ores forming within it; in the controlling cycle (ke) Earth restrains Water, damming and absorbing it. These cycles of mutual generation and control order the five phases and underlie their use in Chinese medicine, the almanac, feng shui, and fate calculation. These are the conventions of the Chinese cosmological tradition, in which Earth, at the pivot of the scheme, mediates the turning of the other four phases through the seasons.

Earth occupies a distinct structural position among the five phases: rather than sitting between two neighbours on a single ring, it is frequently placed at the centre, mediating the other four, with late summer or the transitional turn of each season sometimes assigned to it instead of a season of its own. In the generating cycle (Sheng) Fire's ash produces Earth, and Earth in turn yields Metal, which is mined from it; in the controlling cycle (Ke), Earth dams and absorbs Water, while Wood controls Earth, as roots break soil. The Huangdi Neijing correlates Earth with the spleen and stomach, the sweet taste, the colour yellow, and the centre, and treats it as the phase of nourishment and transformation of food into substance.

Sources Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 2: History of Scientific ThoughtJoseph Needham with Huangdi Neijing (The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic)Traditionally attributed to Huangdi; actual authorship unknown

Earth at the Centre of the Generative and Controlling Cycles

Earth occupies the centre of the Wu Xing rather than a point on its circuit, and some classical diagrams place it in the middle of the other four rather than between them in sequence. In the generative, or Sheng, order Fire's ash feeds Earth, and Earth in turn feeds Metal, its ore drawn from the ground. In the controlling, or Ke, order Earth controls Water, damming and absorbing it, while Earth is itself controlled by Wood, whose roots break the soil. Earth is therefore both a stage in the sequence and, in the centred reading, the pivot the other four phases turn around.

In Chinese medicine Earth governs the Spleen and its paired Stomach, and by extension the mouth, the flesh, and the transformation of food into usable energy; an Earth imbalance shows as poor digestion, worry, or the pensiveness the phase is said to carry. Earth's season is late summer or the turn of each season, its direction the centre, and its colour yellow, correspondences that place it at every transition rather than at one fixed point of the year.

Because Earth feeds and is fed by every neighbour in a centred reading, practitioners of five-phase diagnosis treat a weak Earth as a systemic risk: a Spleen unable to transform food starves every other organ of the nourishment the whole cycle depends on.

Connections

Associated With

1928

The phase of this year, read from its heavenly stem Wu, which is yang earth. Each of the five phases holds two consecutive stems, one yang and one yin, so Earth covers 1928 together with 1929, and returns after ten years.