Wu Xing (Five Phases)

Water

Origin 206 BCE to 220 CE

Water (Shui) is the phase of winter and the deep of the year, the culmination of yin: stillness, storage, descent, and the conservation of hidden potential beneath a frozen surface. Its direction is the north, its color black or dark blue, its climate cold, its flavor salty, and its emotion fear, the deep instinct that, balanced, becomes wisdom, will, and the courage to endure. In the body its organs are the Kidney (the yin zang organ, storehouse of the jing or essence, root of vitality, growth, and reproduction) and the Bladder (the yang fu organ); its celestial body is Mercury, the Water Star. In the generating (sheng) cycle Water is born of Metal and gives birth to Wood, the rain and spring that quicken the seed. In the controlling (ke) cycle Water is checked by Earth and in turn restrains Fire, quenching the flame. Interpretively Water signifies depth, reflection, patience, adaptability, and the reservoir of essence and will from which the whole cycle is renewed.

Facts

Attributions

Ruling Planet

Mercury 1

Generates

Wood 1

Controls

Fire 1

Associated Emotion

Fear 1

Associated Taste

Salty 1

Direction

North 1

Season

Winter 1

Associated Color

Black 1

Yin Organ

Kidneys 1

Yang Organ

Urinary Bladder 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

Water 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

5 of 5 1

Attestation

Meaning in the Attesting Source

The classical definition is a behaviour, not a season, a colour or an emotion 2Hongfan, the Great Plan chapter of the Documents

Meaning in the Attesting Source

The Hongfan defines water by what it does: it soaks and it descends 2Hongfan, the Great Plan chapter of the Documents

Learn More

Water, the Phase of Descent and Stillness

Water (shui) is one of the Wu Xing, the five phases of Chinese cosmology. It is the phase of descent, cold, and inward stillness, associated in the classical correspondences with the direction north, the colour black, the season of winter, the emotion of fear, and the salty taste. In the generating cycle (sheng) Water produces Wood, nourishing the growing plant; in the controlling cycle (ke) Water restrains Fire, quenching the flame. These cycles of mutual generation and control order the relations among 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 the five phases, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water, turn through their generating and controlling relations to account for the movement and balance of all things.

Water closes the generating cycle (Sheng), condensing from Metal and in turn nourishing Wood, so that the sequence Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water returns to its start; in the controlling cycle (Ke) Water quenches Fire, while Earth controls Water by damming it. The Huangdi Neijing correlates Water with the kidneys and bladder, the salty taste, the colour black or deep blue, the direction north, and winter, and treats it as the phase of storage, stillness and the reserve of vital essence (jing) on which the other phases are said to draw. In four pillars (BaZi) astrology a chart dominated by Water is read as adaptable and reflective but at risk of dispersal or fear without the containment given by Earth.

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, Chinese Mathematical Astrology: Reaching Out to the StarsHo Peng Yoke

Water in the Generative and Controlling Cycles

Water is the phase of deepest stillness in the Wu Xing, the point furthest from Fire on the cycle and the one from which growth begins again. In the generative, or Sheng, order Metal feeds Water, condensing into it, and Water in turn feeds Wood, as rain feeds a root. In the controlling, or Ke, order Water controls Fire, extinguishing it, while Water is itself controlled by Earth, which dams and absorbs it. The cycle closes here only to open again, Water's own child, Wood, beginning the sequence anew.

In Chinese medicine Water governs the Kidney and its paired Bladder, and by extension the ears, the bones, and the body's deepest reserves, both of fluid and of constitutional vitality; an imbalance is read through the fear the phase is said to carry and through the exhaustion of stores it cannot quickly replace. Water's season is winter, its direction north, and its colour black, correspondences that place it at the year's most withdrawn point, when growth is stored rather than spent.

Because Water is held to be the root reserve behind every other phase, five-phase diagnosis treats a depleted Kidney as a limit on the whole system's capacity to recover, not merely a fault local to Water itself.

Connections

Associated With

1922

The phase of this year, read from its heavenly stem Ren, which is yang water. Each of the five phases holds two consecutive stems, one yang and one yin, so Water covers 1922 together with 1923, and returns after ten years.