Oh yeah,I've been meaning to ask...

[nightair]

Does anyone know anything about 5 elements.Maybe even some websites that I can go to for good info on stuff like that..Thank you

---------------------------"uh oh, what is going to happen next?"

[old jong]

Do you mean earth,fire,air,water and ether? There is an old relation of these elements with traditional M.A (old myths).Now with MMA they now include as the 6th one! But is is another story! ;) :eek:

Les paroles s'envolent.
Les écrits restent!...

[Jeff Liboiron]

the only five elements i know of are ninjutsu's which are earth fire wind water and void.

The object is not to hurt someone else, but to stop them from hurting you

[Starchaser107]

go to the southern board and ask a hung gar stylist i believe thier style has some basis in the elements. or ask gene to link you to an article i remember reading about this in the mag

"everything is everything"_W.Rodney

[KC Elbows]

****it, I'm drawing a blank on them. I know metal, fire, water, and wood are four of them, but I can't remember if the last one is air. Someone here knows them.

[drbannon]

One of the best discussions of the Five Elements is Miyamoto Musashi's Book of Five Rings.

No matter which translation you choose, it is a thorough discussion of how the Five Elements apply DIRECTLY to the martial artist.

Of the many translations available, Victor Harris' still stands out as the most reliable. Read it complete at:

http://www.samurai.com/5rings/

Kaufman's translation is a bit less stiff, but some scholars consider less reliable.

[kungfuyou]

1. Fire
2. Wood
3. Water
4. Metal
and....
5. Wind

[Mr. Nemo]

There are differnt five element systems. Ninjitsu has one, hung gar's is different, northern kung fu's is different.

The five elements I learned from bagua are water, wood, fire, earth, metal.

[mantis108]

Looks like there is quite a bit of confusion about the 4 Elements and 5 Phases

4 Elements: Earth (body), Water(blood & fluid), Wind (breath), and Fire (temperature).

This is more a Hindu tradition (Buddhism uses this too). Musashi's Scroll of 5 Rings was based on this 4 Elements plus the Void, which is central thought to Buddhism. BTW, Musashi study Buddhism to compliment his training. That's why he borrowed the 5 Rings to write his book.


5 Phases (aka 5 Elements): Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, and Metal

It used to be an individual school of thoughts dating back pre-Qin (nearly 2500 years ago) but is now consider a Taoist thought. This is one of the central thoughts of Chinese worldview. 5 Phases would be a better term to reflect the properties and the interaction between them.

Metal, earth..Wind as 5 Elements thing is Hollywood invention for the TV movie "invincible"
Well..Hollywood you can't live with it nor can you live without it. *Sigh...*

Mantis108

Contraria Sunt Complementa

[Budokan]

The 5 Heian katas are also supposedly based on the five elements of fire, water, earth, air and void. Dunno how correct that is, though.

K. Mark Hoover

[nightair]

I know what the five elements are, and what organs they represent and the different cycles and all that good stuff(mother-son,the controlling function and all) but I was wondering how they are applied to martial arts.For example, I've heard teachers classify certain styles with different elements.Like Tiger style is a "metal" style or something like that? :confused:

---------------------------"uh oh, what is going to happen next?"

[nightair]

does it imply that martial arts can be fitted into the different five element cycles.

[Metal Fist]

From the Hsing-I Chuan, they are Metal, Wood, Fire, Water and Earth. They relate to certain organs in the body and they are the basic building blocks of Hsing-I (Hebei style). They have inter-relating creation and destruction cycles, check out www. emptyflower.com for more info. There are a few othjer sites that give some good info on the 5 Elements that I mentioned and how they work. Good Luck.:D

[nightair]

wood-east,green,spring,wind,liver,gall bladder,eyes/sight,anger,sour,tendon,nails,shouting,rancid,tear s,chicken meat

fire-south,red,summer,hot,heart,small intestine,tounge/speech, joy/fright,bitter,blood vessels, complexion,laughing,burned,sweat,mutton,glutinous maximus

earth-center, yellow,late summer,dampness, spleen,stomach,mouth/taste,worry,sweet,muscles,lips,singing,fragrant,sa liva,beef,millet

metal-west,white, fall,dryness,lung,large intestine,nose/smell,sadness/grief,pungent/acrid,skin,body hair,weeping,rotton,mucus,horse,rice

water-north,black,winter,cold,kidney,urinary bladder,ears/hearing,fear,salty,bone,head hair,groaning,putrid,urine,pork,beans

promotion cycle-water>wood>fire>earth>metal>water>wood> so on and so on.

controling cycle-water>fire>metal>wood>earth>water> and so on

but which martial arts styles go in each element chart?

[mantis108]

Nightair,

If you are asking about specific style's usage of the 5 Elements, it would be better to go to the particular style and ask them why and how. Good luck in that though because the majority of the time you will get something like "oh as we were told" or "it will come in time" or even some new age answers (more like hypothesis).

There are just to many approaches out there, you just have to keep an open mind and try to find the one that suits your need.
Good luck in your search.

Mantis108