The doctrine of five phases describes two cycles, a generating or creation (生, shēng) cycle, also known as "mother-son", and an overcoming or destruction (克/剋, kè) cycle, also known as "grandfather-nephew", of interactions between the phases.

Generating
The common memory jogs, which help to remind in what order the phases are, are:

• Wood feeds Fire;
• Fire creates/produces Earth (ash);
• Earth bears Metal;
• Metal carrie Water (as in a bucket or tap, or water condenses on metal);
• Water nourishes Wood.

The Wu Xing (Chinese: 五行; pinyin: wǔxíng), or the Five Movements, Five Phases or Five Steps/Stages, are chiefly an ancient mnemonic device, in many traditional Chinese fields.

It is sometimes translated as Five Elements, but many of the applications are for systems with five stages, hence the preferred translation of "movements", "phases" or "steps" over "elements". Also, Mu is thought of as "Tree" rather than "Wood" and Jin is "Metal" rather than "Gold".