September 19, 2011
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Five Elements and The Human Body
Five Elements and The Human Body
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Chinese philosophy identifies 5 different ways that Qi manifests itself in the universe as the five elements.(screenshot) How five elements affect each other in our body?
In Chinese medicine, a human body is divided into five systems, namely, wood, fire, earth, metal and water. Human organs and tissues correspond to the five elements. The body’s five systems not only automatically self-regulate according to the laws of yin and yang, but also co-ordinate with the five elements from the outside world at the same time in order to achieve health.
In the outside world, people most likely react to a few things, such as climate, colour, sound and so on. Climate exhibits as spring, summer, autumn and winter; the colours present as red, yellow, white, black and green; in sounds, they are do, re, mi, sol and la.
In fact, even moral and ethical elements correspond with the five elements. For example, benevolence is wood, righteousness is gold, propriety is water, wisdom is fire and trust is earth.
There are five windows connecting with the outside world for the major systems in the human body. Traditional Chinese medicine calls these “apertures” or “mouths”, such as for the spleen, it is the mouth; for the lung, it is the nose; for the liver, it is the eyes; for the heart, it is the tongue; and for the kidneys, it is the ears. Human beings learn about the outside world through these orifices.
Let’s look at the relationship between the five systems and the elements.Five elements: earth, metal, wood, fire and water.
Five orifices: mouth, nose, eyes, tongue and ears.
Five colors: yellow, white, green red and black.
Five notes: do, re, mil, sol and la.
Five inner organs: spleen, lungs, liver, heart and kidneys.
Five hollow organs: stomach, large intestine, gall bladder, small intestine and bladder.
Five principles: trust, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and courtesy.
The five colours, five notes and five principles exhibit from different perspectives, but they all convey the same thing. Only when the notes are pure can they inspire people to connect to the Tao and awaken people’s conscience.
Then, how do the five elements affect each other? For example, “metal” is the daughter of “earth”, which has “fire” as its parent. Earth’s subjects are water and its official is wood. If all these were employed in a metaphorical relationship in human beings, it would look like this – a virtuous man is loving and kind to his children, honours his parents, cares about his subjects and is also a sincere and righteous official.
Thus, it appears that every element is closely related to the other four elements. Therefore, when the ears, the orifice of the kidneys, hear wonderful music, the other four organs also benefit; when the eyes see something elegant, the other four organs share in beauty. When the inner meanings from the sounds and colours pass through the inner organs, they awaken our moral elements. In other words, it helps a person to follow the universal principles and behave like a righteous human being.http://en.kanzhongguo.com/health_science/five_elements_and_human_body.html
