Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
Wu Xing (Five Phases)

Water

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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 1Tradition: Han correlative cosmology
Origin Period
400 BCE to 250 BCE 2Tradition: Hongfan, 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 2Tradition: Hongfan, 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 2Tradition: Hongfan, the Great Plan chapter of the Documents
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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.

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

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

1922, Years

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.

1923, Years

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

1932, Years

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 1932 together with 1933, and returns after ten years.

1933, Years

The phase of this year, read from its heavenly stem Gui, which is yin water. Each of the five phases holds two consecutive stems, one yang and one yin, so Water covers 1933 together with 1932, and returns after ten years.

1942, Years

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 1942 together with 1943, and returns after ten years.

1943, Years

The phase of this year, read from its heavenly stem Gui, which is yin water. Each of the five phases holds two consecutive stems, one yang and one yin, so Water covers 1943 together with 1942, and returns after ten years.

1952, Years

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 1952 together with 1953, and returns after ten years.

1953, Years

The phase of this year, read from its heavenly stem Gui, which is yin water. Each of the five phases holds two consecutive stems, one yang and one yin, so Water covers 1953 together with 1952, and returns after ten years.

1962, Years

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 1962 together with 1963, and returns after ten years.

1963, Years

The phase of this year, read from its heavenly stem Gui, which is yin water. Each of the five phases holds two consecutive stems, one yang and one yin, so Water covers 1963 together with 1962, and returns after ten years.

1972, Years

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 1972 together with 1973, and returns after ten years.

1973, Years

The phase of this year, read from its heavenly stem Gui, which is yin water. Each of the five phases holds two consecutive stems, one yang and one yin, so Water covers 1973 together with 1972, and returns after ten years.

1982, Years

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 1982 together with 1983, and returns after ten years.

1983, Years

The phase of this year, read from its heavenly stem Gui, which is yin water. Each of the five phases holds two consecutive stems, one yang and one yin, so Water covers 1983 together with 1982, and returns after ten years.

1992, Years

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 1992 together with 1993, and returns after ten years.

1993, Years

The phase of this year, read from its heavenly stem Gui, which is yin water. Each of the five phases holds two consecutive stems, one yang and one yin, so Water covers 1993 together with 1992, and returns after ten years.

2002, Years

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 2002 together with 2003, and returns after ten years.

2003, Years

The phase of this year, read from its heavenly stem Gui, which is yin water. Each of the five phases holds two consecutive stems, one yang and one yin, so Water covers 2003 together with 2002, and returns after ten years.

2012, Years

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 2012 together with 2013, and returns after ten years.

2013, Years

The phase of this year, read from its heavenly stem Gui, which is yin water. Each of the five phases holds two consecutive stems, one yang and one yin, so Water covers 2013 together with 2012, and returns after ten years.

Water, the phase of the north and of winter.

Contained In

Wu Xing, Disciplines

One of the five phases the system is made of.

Disciplines That Use This

Tai Chi, Disciplines

The five phases, which order the form as they order the rest of Chinese medicine.

Originates in Language

Source The Five "Confucian" ClassicsMichael Nylan
Sources
1. Medicine in China: A History of Ideas
Paul U. Unschuld, University of California Press, 1985On the doctrine of systematic correspondence and the five phasesView the Source
2. The Five "Confucian" Classics
Michael Nylan, Yale University Press, 2001On the Documents, and the Hongfan enumeration of the five phasesView the Source
Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 2: History of Scientific Thought
Joseph Needham, Cambridge University Press, 1956Water: the generating and controlling cycles and correspondencesView the Source
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