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".

The five basic elements are:

Wood (Chinese: 木, pinyin: mù)
Fire (Chinese: 火, pinyin: huǒ)
Earth (Chinese: 土, pinyin: tǔ)
Metal (Chinese: 金, pinyin: jīn)
Water (Chinese: 水, pinyin: shuǐ)

The system of five phases was used for describing interactions and relationships between phenomena. It was employed as a device in many fields of early Chinese thought, including seemingly disparate fields such as geomancy or Feng shui, astrology, traditional Chinese medicine, music, military strategy and martial arts.

The system is still used as a reference in some forms of complementary and alternative medicine and martial arts. Some claim the original foundation of these are the concept of the FWu Xing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaive Cardinal Points.

Source: Wu Xing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia