V. Local and Numerical Relations of the Elements.
It has been shown that at a very early date the Five Elements were
referred to the Four Seasons, a fact evidenced by the Tso-chuan and the
Liki. It is not difficult to guess—strict proofs we have not—how the elements
were assigned to the seasons. Fire could only be joined to the
hottest time of the year, when the sun sends its fiery rays, summer. Conversely,
water, considered as the extreme
Yin and the product of cold,
had to be combined with the coldest and darkest season, winter. Wood
could serve to symbolise the new growing of the vegetation in spring,
and metal the cutting of the cereals and other plants, used by man, in
autumn. For earth there was no special season first.
The obvious analogy between the Four Seasons and the Four Quarters
then led to the connexion of the elements with the Four Points of the
Compass. Within the space of a Year the four seasons: spring, summer,
autumn, and winter follow one another, and during one day the sun
successively passes from the east through the south and the west to the
north, to begin the same course on the following morning. What more
natural than the equation:
| wood, |
fire, |
metal, |
water |
= |
east, |
south, |
west, |
north. |
| spring |
summer |
autumn |
winter |
With spring the new year begins, as in the east the sun begins its course;
in summer, and in the south the sun is hottest, summer being the season,
and the south the region of the greatest heat; in autumn, and when the
sun is in the west its heat decreases; in winter, and in the north the heat
is gone, and we then arrive at the cold season and the region of cold.
Here we have a seat for earth also
viz. the centre, so that the Five Elements
correspond to the Five Points. Our point of observation is the centre,
and we have earth under our feet. The south is filled with the element
fire, the north with water, whereas wood permeates the east, and metal
the west. Facing the south, the chief direction according to the Chinese
view, we have fire in the
front and water in the
rear, wood on our
left,
metal on our
right side, and earth in the
centre where we stand. These
positions, first assigned, to the elements by
Ho Kuan Tse (p. 446) are merely
derived from their combinations with the Five Points.
The Four Quarters or, more correctly speaking, the Four Quadrants
of Heaven, [OMITTED] Sse-kung, have been symbolised by four fancy animals:—
the Green Dragon in the east, the Scarlet Bird in the south, the White
Tiger in the west, and the Black Warrior or the Black Tortoise in the north,
to which Huai Nan Tse still adds the Yellow Dragon corresponding to the
centre.[2000]
Each of these four animals embraces seven of the twenty-eight
Constellations or Solar Mansions. We find the same names in the Shi-chi
chap. 27 (Chavannes, Mém. Hist. Vol. III, p. 343 seq.) and in the Lun-hêng
Vol. I, p. 106 and 534.[2001]
Wang Ch`ung seems to regard them as heavenly
spirits formed of the fluids of the Five Elements and as constellations at
the same time. Pan Ku likewise speaks of the essence of these animals,
but instead of the Scarlet Bird he gives the Yellow Thrush and the Phœnix.[2002]
It is not improbable that the ancient Chinese really saw the shapes of animals
in these constellations and took them for celestial animals imbued
with the fluids of the four elements:—wood, fire, metal, and water, for the
Yellow Dragon of
Huai Nan Tse belongs to the earth and is no constellation.
The classes as well as the colours of these four animals harmonise
with those of the
Liki. The dragon is a scaly animal, the scarlet bird
feathered, the tiger hairy, and the tortoise shell-covered, and their colours
are green, red, white, and black like wood, fire, metal, and water. The
yellow colour of the thrush and that of the phœnix or argus pheasant
though not red, would still accord more or less with the colour of fire.
From the Tso-chuan and the Liki onward the Ten Stems or cyclical signs
of the cycle of ten have been combined with the elements. The principle
has been explained above (p. 452, note 2). To distinguish each of the
Five Seasons of 72 days governed by one element, a couple of these signs,
as they follow one another in the regular series, are used. The days are
numbered by means of the sexagenary cycle, and each Season or element
is designated by the two Stems beginning the compound number of the
first and second day of the season. The two first days of spring are
chia-tse and yi-ch`ou,[2003]
therefore the whole season and its element wood
have the cyclical signs chia and yi. The first and the second days of
summer are after the sexagenary cycle a ping-tse and a ting-ch`ou[2004]
day,
therefore the whole season of summer and its element fire are connected
with the Stems ping and ting. The second characters of the component
numbers belonging to the Twelve Branches, tse and ch`ou, are left out of
account. So the Ten Stems:—chia yi (wood-spring), ping ting (fire-summer),
wu chi (earth- latter part of summer), kêng hsin (metal-autumn),
jên kuei (water-winter) serve to denote the commencements of the seasons
or the periods when each element begins its reign; they are time marks
so to say.
In the Liki only the Ten Stems are thus used, Huai Nan Tse, moreover,
conformably to the method alluded to in the Tso-chuan, joins a couple
of the Twelve Branches to the Five Elements. Their meaning is quite
different, they are local marks showing the point of the compass where
the respective element is located, for the Chinese denote the Four Quarters
and their subdivisions by means of these Branches. According to the position
of the elements, the Branches designating the east, south, west, and
north points and the intermediary points nearest to these, are added to
them. So we have: wood = yin mao, E.N.E and East;
fire = sse wu, S.S.E and South;
metal = shên yu, W.S.W and West;
water = hai tse, N.N.W and North.
With good reason Huai Nan Tse III, 17 v. leaves out earth, on the
ground that it belongs to all the four seasons. Earth being in the centre
cannot well be combined with a sign connoting a point of the compass
on the periphery. Later authors have done it all the same. Tai T`ing Huai[2005]
attributes to earth the four remaining cyclical signs:—shên, hsü, ch`ou, and
wei[2006]
viz. E.S.E, W.N.W, N.N.E, S.S.W. If this has any sense at all, it can
only mean that earth is to be found in every direction, approximately denoted
by the four characters. In Couvreur's Table only the signs ch`ou
and wei are assigned to earth.
It is well known that the Twelve Branches also serve to mark the
twelve double-hours of the day, but I doubt whether all sinologists are
aware of the reason of this peculiar use. Even when denoting the hours
of day and night, the Branches have no temporal, but only a local value,
marking the direction where the sun stands during a certain hour. In
spring and autumn, when day and night are nearly of equal length, between
5—7 a. m. the sun stands in, or passes through mao [OMITTED] = East, whence
the hour from 5—7 a. m. is called the mao hour [OMITTED]. At noon,
11—1 p. m. it passes through wu [OMITTED] = South, between 5—7 p. m. through
yu [OMITTED] = West, and at midnight from 11—1 a. m. the sun, though not
seen by us, traverses tse [OMITTED] = North. Originally the Twelve Branches
merely mark the points of the compass, their designation of the twelve hours
is only a secondary use based on the course of the sun through these points.
The ordinary numerals attached to the elements in the Liki: earth = 5,
water = 6, fire = 7, wood = 8, and metal = 9 are said to refer to the
10 stages or turns in which originally the Five Elements were evolved
from Yin and Yang, or Heaven and Earth. This is again in accordance with
the above mentioned obscure passage of the Yiking. Tai T`ing Huai[2007]
states that
| 1st |
Heaven engendered water, |
| 2ndly |
Earth engendered fire, |
| 3rdly |
Heaven engendered wood, |
| 4thly |
Earth engendered metal, |
| 5thly |
Heaven engendered earth, |
| 6thly |
Earth completed water, |
| 7thly |
Heaven completed fire, |
| 8thly |
Earth completed wood, |
| 9thly |
Heaven completed metal, |
| 10thly |
Earth completed earth. |
Now all elements are given the number of their completion: water = 6,
fire = 7, wood = 8, metal = 9 except earth which bears the number of
its generation, because, says a commentator, generation is the principal
thing for earth.[2008]
This reason is as singular as the whole theory of this
creation in ten stages.
