A key concept within Taoism is that if you reduce something that is complex to its component parts, you will then be able to understand it. The I Ching uses the analogy of a tree whose development is traced back to its seed. And modern physicists, with their stripping back of atoms to the particles that make them, and their investigations, by means of powerful machines, into the moment of creation, are, in their own way, doing the same thing.
Taoists took the universe in all its incomprehensible majesty and, like the physicists thousands of years later, broke it down. What even physics today calls Nothingness and describes as a pregnant potential that existed before time and space, the Taoists called Wuji. This translates to Without Boundaries. It is represented symbolically as an empty circle. In reality, far from being empty, it contains all things. But all things in a static balance. Wuji is also known as Tao in stillness.
Then there was movement and with it came separation. This is represented by the symbol of the Supreme Ultimate -- commonly known (though not always historically so) as Tao in Motion, or the Taiji or Yin-Yang symbol.
The process of stillness giving way to movement is laid bare by the Bagua (eight trigrams). The Earlier Heaven sequence (below) of eight trigrams show the trigrams in opposition to each other. As a result, the sequence is perfectly still and reflects the state of Wuji.
Owing to the tension created by the opposition of the trigrams, movement takes place. This is described by the Later Heaven sequence (below). It is the Later Heaven sequence which keeps tantalisingly popping up in the TV series Lost. The eight trigrams are in motion now but are seeking a return to balance and stillness.
The returning is the movement of the Tao -- Tao Te Ching, Chapter 40
But the movement of the trigams is not arbitrary. According to the Taoists, it is governed by a set of simple laws which they called Wuxing.
Translating 'Wuxing' into English is not so easy. Idiomatically, it is most accurately translated as the Five Phases, though often rendered as the Five Elements. The latter derives from the fact that the Phases are represented each by an element that they, in some way, resemble. But the word is misleading, as elements are static, whereas Wuxing is dynamic. This is why 'Phases' is probably closer the mark.
The Five Phases are:
1. Wood
2. Fire
3. Earth
4. Metal
5. Water
Below is a table that displays just some of the very many categories that, having been assigned an element, can be understood by their interactions with each other.
Element | Direction | Weather | Yin Organs | Yang Organs | Colours | Tastes | Animal |
Wood | East | Wind | Liver | Gall Bladder | Green | Sour | Chicken |
Fire | South | Hot | Heart | Small Intestine | Red | Bitter | Goat |
Earth | Centre | Humid | Spleen | Stomach | Yellow | Sweet | Cow |
Metal | West | Dry | Lung | Large Intestine | White | Pungent | Horse |
Water | North | Cold | Kidney | Urinary Bladder | Black | Salty | Pig |
These are different to, though often confused with, the elements of the same name that are attached to the eight trigrams. Those of the Five Phases refer to the transformation of qi energy; those of the Earlier Heaven sequence of trigrams refer to the forces in opposition with each other; and those of the Later Heaven sequence refer to the directions of change. However, the Fire of each (to take Fire as a random example) exhibits characteristics of 'real' fire, and so on.
These elements interact with each other: either building up, pulling down or controlling the next. These three cycles have varying names. For the benefit of this essay we shall call them Creative, Destructive and Countering.
Productive Cycle
In this cycle, each phase is said to be the mother of that which follows it: one begetting the next in a continually generative process.
Controlling Cycle
The Creative Cycle needs some checks and balances or it will grow out of control. The Controlling Cycle does just that. Each element controls the next. This is sometimes — and erroneously — called the Destructive Cycle.
Reducing Cycle
Sometimes, the cycle is reversed. For instance, whereas, ordinarily, Water extinguishes Fire, if the Fire is stronger it will cause the Water to evaporate.
Although explained in the most basic terms, the above cycles explain why Change happens the way it does. It is at the very heart of the nature of Tao and applicable to every level of our experience.
In Taoism, there is a concept called Tao Fa Ziran, which means Tao Follows Nature. This is what is being demonstrated by the Five Phases, in that the evolution of the Phases is driven and governed by the Phases themselves: a self-perpetuating process that follows nature, conducted in this ancient Waltz by Yin and Yang.
The Five Phases serves as the philosophical basis for all Taoist thought and underpins such arts and practices as medicine, divination, astrology and martial arts. What has been described here are only the basics; and while it may not be necessary to know all there is about the Five Phases, the greater our understanding of this mechanism of change the closer we edge to the centre of the process itself.
(Special thanks to 'Taomeow' for teaching the author most of what he knows about the five phases, and for spotting a mistake which has now been corrected!)
