What Are the Five Steps of Tai Chi Chuan As Related to the Taoist Five Elements?

The five elements are central to Taoist philosophy and serve as a paradigm for everything from Chinese medicine, to feng shui, to cooking, to martial arts and much more. The five elements have been at the heart of Chinese culture for thousands of years. These elements were once the everyday things of an old agricultural society. The Taoist five elements are: metal, water, wood, fire, and earth. These are depicted around a pentagram - the circle representing a cycle of creation, and the inner star representing a cycle of neutralization. For example, on the outer circle, water follows metal because metal is said to create the conditions that allow water to manifest. Remember that this was during a time of no central heat or A/C. If you left a rice pot sitting on the stove cooling overnight, in the morning you would find water droplets beaded up inside and possibly outside the wall of the metal pot. This is the action of condensation.

Wood follows water, as water rains down upon the earth and feeds plant life. Fire follows wood, as something like wood is needed to help fire manifest. Earth follows fire, as there are ashes left behind when something burns. Finally, metal follows earth, as metal is obtained by refining the earth.

Feng Shui

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The inner star of the five elements pentagram links neutralizing qualities. For example, a line links water to fire, as water squelches a fire. Earth is connected by a line to water, as earth absorbs water and restricts its flow. Metal is connected to wood, as metal implements like axes were used to cut down the wood and break it into smaller pieces. Fire connects to metal, as heat was used to liquefy metal, and wood connects to earth, as wood sucks the nutrients out of the earth, and the roots of trees break up the solidity of the earth.

What Are the Five Steps of Tai Chi Chuan As Related to the Taoist Five Elements?

In tai chi, there are only a few things your footwork will allow your body to do. You can go forward, backward, turn left, turn right and move up and down. Any other footwork on the ground is just some combination of these directions. Even if you jump or kick, you are doing it by way of these five directions. And so an author of the Tai Chi Classics related these five basic directions to the five elements. The author is reputed to have been Zhang San Feng.

The correspondences he wrote are as follows: metal = advancing, wood = retreating, water = turning the body leftward, fire = turning the body rightward, and earth represents either moving up and down, or pausing movement at an equilibrium point. It's important that you can maintain your structure, peng and root while moving between the "five steps." Very few people understand that tai chi principles of structure are very easily lost the moment that movement begins! That is why Zhang San Feng placed so much importance on the footwork - so much so that he associated each directional move with a core concept from Taoist philosophy. If he didn't think that paying such concentration on footwork was important, he certainly would not have associated it with the five elements!

How much attention to detail and awareness do you place on your footwork?

What Are the Five Steps of Tai Chi Chuan As Related to the Taoist Five Elements?

Loretta Wollering, MS is a recognized expert and master-level instructor of tai chi chuan (taijiquan). She specializes in teaching from its ancient principles and from the traditional lineage of Master Jou Tsung Hwa. She has pioneered a tai chi DVD with online support so you're no longer alone in your self-learning. Wollering welcomes your inquiries for workshops & presentations. She's open-minded & accepting of all people, no matter their beliefs or level of ability. Visit: http://www.internalgardens.com. You can also join beginners - advanced enthusiasts at America's biggest and friendliest tai chi gathering: Tai Chi Gala - headed by Ms. Wollering: http://www.TaiChiGala.com YES - All are welcome here.

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