Despite the informative 7 page hand-out that Mike Potter gave us : “Wu Xing: Five Phases, Materials, Processes, Agents, States of Change”, I still ended up taking pages and pages of notes. This presents me with a problem in writing about it, as it is almost impossible to summarize! Mike’s course was a brain-teaser, and a completely fascinating journey into the pitfalls of thinking you understand Chinese ways of thought!

Within the overall structure of trying to understand Wu Xing (no, not five elements!) and Qi (no, not energy, or at least not just energy), we explored complexities, inconsistencies and different models of: the relationship between the 5 Phases and the flow of Qi around the body; the action of each phase on each-other in the generative and controlling cycles, and its application (or not!) to the relationships between the internal organs; meridians and acupoints (are these further examples of misleading translations?); the 5 phases in the SHEN……

All of this was set in the historical context of the adoption, in the 2nd century BC, of Qi, Yin/Yang and the 5 Phases by the First Emperor, as an official unifying orthodoxy. He then ordered the destruction by burning of all the other writings and philosophies current at the time, thus losing to us the context within which these ideas had developed. Not until 900AD were the 5 phases put into a medical context, to be used as a diagnostic tool, linked to the prevailing energy of each phase in relation to the seasons.

When Europeans came into contact with China, they completely misunderstood and mistranslated Wu Xing, which are a dynamic of change, not at all analogous to the medieval Western philosophy of the four elements. The characters that form “Xing” represent a left step and a right step: a way of proceeding, a movement, a step. “Wu Xing” is usually translated as “5 phases”.

Not until the 20th century was there much interest in Chinese medicine in the West, and in China, Western medicine and hygiene were introduced. “Traditional” Chinese Medicine has only a history of some 60-70 years behind it, with indigenous herbal healers, subject to fierce competition from Western trained medical doctors, re-inventing their medicine to be acceptable to the West.
The difficulties of translating ideas from a language that deals with relationship and paradox, into the language of medical science has led to the application of the 5 phases in healing to be somewhat contrived and with inconsistencies. However, that is not to say that it cannot be useful and helpful, so long as it is not applied rigidly as a set of “rules”.

The 5 phases have to be understood as a schema which explains the distinctive energies that bring about movement and change: in Nature with the Seasons and the times of day and in the body, with the flow of Qi and relationships between the essences and the organs; and in the connections between inner and outer, Heaven and Earth.

So – a great mind-stretching day, helpfully enhanced by LiBi Welthy, who interspersed the sessions by leading us in the Qi Gong of The Sky Fishermen (based on the 5 phases).