The Five Elements are Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth. They can be broken down into Yin and Yang as Yang Wood, Yin Wood, Yang Fire, Yin Fire, Yang Earth, Yin Earth, Yang Water and Yin Water . They also have attraction and fighting interrelationships.
Attraction Relationship
The Attraction Relationship is like the relationship between male and female. One must be a Yin element and the other is Yang element. When they meet together, the chemistry of love, even a marriage, appears. This ancient Chinese philosophy came from observing the laws of nature. One legend tells of how ancient Chinese philosophers saw a diagram just like this on the back of a horse (maybe a hippopotamus) coming out of a river. One and six are at the bottom, two and seven are on the top, three and eight are on the left, and four and nine on the right and five and ten are at the center. Odd (Yang) and even (Yin) numbers are together just like husband and wife. Chinese philosophers applied this numerology to the Heavenly Stem sequence.
Yang Wood (1) and Yin Earth (6)
attract each other. Yin Wood (2) and Yang Metal (7) attract each other. Yang Fire (3) and Yin Metal (8) attract each other. Yin Fire (4) and Yang Water (9) attract each other. Yang Earth (5) and Yin Water (10) attract each other. |
There is an Attraction relationship when the difference of two Stem sequences is five.
Fighting Relationship
The fighting relationship is determined from the position of elements. Ancient Chinese considered "face to face" as the enmity relationship. Wood is in the east and faces Metal in the West. Water is in the north and faces Fire in the south. They dislike each other, so they live in opposite places. When Yang meets Yang or Yin meets Yin, they reject each other which is also natural.
Yang Wood (1) and Yang Metal (7) will fight each
other. Yin Wood (2) and Yin Metal (8) will fight each other. Yang Fire (3) and Yang Water (9) will fight each other. Yin Fire (4) and Yin Water (10) will fight each other. |
There is an Fighting relationship when the difference of two Stem sequences is six.