The world is composed of five categories of attributes: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. All things or phenomena in the world can be classified according to the properties of the Five Elements.
What are the Five Elements?
The Five Elements is a theory used by our ancient ancestors to explain the formation of all things in the world and their interrelationships. The Five Elements refer to Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth, which interact with each other, causing changes in nature and influencing human destiny.
Generating Relationships of the Five Elements: Wood generates Fire, Fire generates Earth, Earth generates Metal, Metal generates Water, Water generates Wood.
Controlling Relationships of the Five Elements: Wood controls Earth, Earth controls Water, Water controls Fire, Fire controls Metal, Metal controls Wood.
How to Determine a Person’s Five Element Attributes?
When a person is born, they primarily consist of four elements: year, month, day, and hour. These four elements are referred to as the “Four Pillars” in destiny studies, and each element is composed of Heavenly Stems, forming what is commonly known as the “Eight Characters of Birth”.
There are many common methods to determine a person’s Five Elements personality traits, one simple way is to look directly at the Day Stem in the Eight Characters of Birth.
The Day Stem refers to the Heavenly Stem of the birth date, which is the core of the person, representing the individual’s Five Elements. Below are the Five Element attributes of the Heavenly Stems for reference:
Jia, Yi: belong to Wood.
Bing, Ding: belong to Fire.
Wu, Ji: belong to Earth.
Geng, Xin: belong to Metal.
Ren, Gui: belong to Water.
For example, Year: Geng Shen, Month: Gui Wei, Day: Xin Si, Hour: Ding Chou. Here, the Day Pillar corresponds to Xin Si, so the Day Stem is Xin, which from the above table shows that Xin belongs to Metal, indicating that this person’s Five Elements belong to Metal.
Characteristics of People with Different Five Element Attributes
Metal: People belonging to Metal are decisive and serious, with clear likes and dislikes. They are visionary and possess strong organizational skills. They value loyalty and will do their utmost to help friends in need. However, they can be overly impatient and self-centered.
Wood: People belonging to Wood are gentle and amiable, treating others kindly. They are compassionate and have a strong sense of justice, often making good friends. They are serious and diligent in their careers, though they may lack ambition. They are optimistic and open-minded, but can sometimes be too stubborn, inadvertently offending others.
Water: People belonging to Water are wise and resourceful, intelligent and eager to learn, with foresight. They are very methodical in whatever they do and never act blindly.
In life, they are knowledgeable and sociable, having many friends, and are very loyal in relationships. However, their meticulous nature can lead to indecisiveness and a reluctance to take risks.
Fire: People belonging to Fire are enthusiastic, optimistic, and generous. They are always full of energy, often taking the lead in situations, treating others with humility and politeness, which earns them respect. However, they can also be impulsive, losing their rationality and acting without considering the consequences, which can offend others.
Earth: People belonging to Earth are honest, trustworthy, and generous. They are the most grateful and filial towards their parents. In life, even if they suffer losses, they do not take advantage of others, often earning the trust of those around them. However, they can also be stubborn and resistant to change.
We warmly welcome TCM enthusiasts from all over to exchange and discuss!