Editing Wuxing (Chinese philosophy) (section)

==Etymology==
[[File:Imperial Encyclopaedia - Education and Conduct - pic001 - 太極圖.png|thumb|''[[Taijitu]]'' diagram featuring the ''wuxing'' in the center (from the ''[[Complete Classics Collection of Ancient China]]'' by [[Chen Menglei]])]]
''Wuxing'' originally referred to the five [[classical planet]]s (from [[Apparent magnitude|brightest to dimmest]]: [[Venus]], [[Jupiter]], [[Mercury (planet)|Mercury]], [[Mars]], [[Saturn]]), which were with the combination of the [[Sun]] and the [[Moon]], conceived as creating yang and yin of the five forces of earthly life. This is why the word is composed of Chinese characters meaning "five" ({{lang-zh|c=五|p=wǔ|labels=no}}) and "moving" ({{lang-zh|c=行|p=xíng|labels=no}}). "Moving" is shorthand for "planets", since the word for planets in Chinese has been translated as "moving stars" ({{lang-zh|c=行星|p=xíngxīng|labels=no}}).<ref name="Zai 2015">Dr Zai, J. [https://books.google.com/books?id=-WzMCQAAQBAJ ''Taoism and Science: Cosmology, Evolution, Morality, Health and more'']. Ultravisum, 2015.</ref> Some of the [[Mawangdui Silk Texts]] (before 168 BC) also connect the ''wuxing'' to the ''wude'' ({{lang-zh|c=五德|p=wǔdé|labels=no}}), the [[Virtue|Five Virtues]] and Five Emotions .<ref name="Contemporary China p. 72">[[Nathan Sivin]] (1987), ''Traditional Medicine in Contemporary China'', p. 72.</ref><ref name="Dechar 2006 20–360">{{Cite book |last=Dechar |first=Lorie |title=Five Spirits: Alchemical Acupuncture for Psychological and Spiritual Healing |publisher=Lantern Books |year=2006 |isbn=1590560922 |location=New York |pages=20–360 |language=English}}</ref> Scholars believe that various predecessors to the concept of ''wuxing'' were merged into one system of many interpretations in the [[Han dynasty]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Littlejohn |first=Ronnie |title=Wuxing (Wu-hsing) |url=https://iep.utm.edu/wuxing/ |access-date=2023-04-30 |website=[[Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] |language=en-US}}</ref>

''Wuxing'' was first translated into English as "the Five Elements", drawing parallels with the Greek and Indian Vedic static, solid or formative arrangement of the [[Classical element|four elements]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rohmann |first=Chris |title=The dictionary of important ideas and thinkers |date=2002 |publisher=Arrow |isbn=978-0-09-941568-8 |location=London |pages=112}}</ref><ref name="Contemporary China p. 73">[[Nathan Sivin]] (1987), ''Traditional Medicine in Contemporary China'', p. 73.</ref><ref name="Dechar 2006 20–360"/> This translation is still in common use among practitioners of [[Traditional Chinese medicine]], such as in the name of Five Element acupuncture and Japanese meridian therapy.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hicks |first1=Angela |last2=Hicks |first2=John |last3=Mole |first3=Peter |title=Five Element Constitutional Acupuncture |date=2010 |publisher=Elsevier Health Sciences |edition=Second |isbn=978-0-7020-4448-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Au-DsixVkTwC |access-date=4 August 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Birch,Ida |first=Stephen,Junko |title=Japanese Acupuncture. A Clinical Guide |publisher=Paradigm Publications |year=1998 |isbn=9780912111421}}</ref> However, this analogy could be misleading as the four elements are concerned with form, substance and quantity, whereas the post heaven arrangement of the ''wuxing'' are "primarily concerned with process, change, and quality".<ref name="Chinese History p. 179">[[Nathan Sivin]] (1995), "Science and Medicine in Chinese History", in his ''Science in Ancient China'' (Aldershot, England: Variorum), text VI, p. 179.</ref> For example, the ''wuxing'' element "[[Wood (wuxing)|Wood]]" is more accurately thought of as the "[[Élan vital|vital essence]]" and growth of trees rather than the physical innate substance wood.<ref name="Lecture Room, CCTV-10">{{cite AV media|script-title = zh:千古中医之张仲景 |trans-title=Wood and Metal were often replaced with air|publisher = [[Lecture Room]], CCTV-10}}</ref> This led [[sinologist]] [[Nathan Sivin]] to propose the alternative translation "five phases" in 1987.<ref name="Sivin 1987.73">[[Nathan Sivin]] (1987), ''Traditional Medicine in Contemporary China'' (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, The University of Michigan) p. 73.</ref> But "phase" also fails to capture the full meaning of ''wuxing''. In some contexts, the ''wuxing'' are indeed associated with physical substances.<ref name="Nappi">{{cite book |last1=Nappi |first1=Carla |title=The Monkey and the Inkpot: Natural History and Its Transformations in Early Modern China |date=2009 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |page=172 |isbn=978-0-674-03529-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1Bf-Yb6zOcUC |access-date=4 August 2023}}</ref> Historian of Chinese medicine Manfred Porkert proposed the (somewhat unwieldy) term "Evolutive Phase".<ref name="Nappi" /> Perhaps the most widely accepted translation among modern scholars is the "five agents" or "five transformations".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Unschuld |first1=Paul N. |title=Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen: Nature, Knowledge, and Imagery in an Ancient Chinese Medical Text |date=2003 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |page=84 |isbn=978-0-520-23322-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DW0lDQAAQBAJ&dq=wuxing+marc+kalinowski&pg=PA84 |access-date=4 August 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Nan Jing: the classic of difficult issues: with commentaries of Chinese and Japanese authors from the third through the twentieth century |date=2016 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-29227-7 |editor-last=Unschuld |editor-first=Paul U. |location=Oakland, California}}</ref>