Theory of the five phases or movements.

The theory of the Five Elements (Chinese: 五行; Pinyin: wǔxíng) is a form to classify the natural phenomena, and their interrelations, according to the traditional Chinese philosophy. One more a more exact translation would be five phases or five movements, not to lose the dynamic character and of transformation that it has in Chinese.

This theory explains the natural phenomena on the basis of five changes or transformations, which are interrelated to each other by means of two cycles.

The five elements are: wood (木, mù), fire (火, huǒ), earth (土, tǔ), metal (金, jīn) and water (水, shǔi). The theory describes the cycles of generation (生, shēng) and of domination (克, kè) among them.

According to the cycle of generation (also call cycle of creation and written “cheng”):

the wood feeds the fire,

 the fire, with its ashes, produces earth,

 the Earth lodges minerals,

 the minerals feed the water,

 the water gives life to the wood.

According to the cycle of domination (also called star of the destruction and writing “Ko”):

the wood is nourished of the Earth,

 the Earth retains the water,

 the water extinguishes the fire,

 the fire founds the metal,

 the metal cuts the wood.  

This theory is, along with the notion of the Ki and the theory of ying-yang, fundamental to understand the way to think Eastern, so and as it is in the following extracted diagrams of Internet, in particular of the Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Xing