Have you ever heard of the five elements? Maybe, maybe not.
“Water. Earth. Fire. Air.
Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked…”
No, it’s not that. Fire, water, earth air and finally aether fall under the Western tradition of thought. What I’m really referring to here, in today’s theorising for fun session, are the five elements in the Chinese tradition. They are: 金，木，水，火，土. Metal, wood, water, fire and earth. Well, yeah, three of them look the same as what’s in the Western tradition. However, there is much more added complexity to them!
Basically, what I’m going to focus on today are the cycles, that comprise of interactions.
There are two kinds of interactions for the five elements. The first is generating interactions, which you can think of as one element boosting another. The second is overcoming interactions, which you can think of as one element holding an advantage over another.
Basically, my aim today is to relate the interactions between the five elements to relations in the natural world. Hopefully it will all click and fit together nicely – that’s really the best thing about theories.
So, let’s begin.
The five generating interactions are as follows:
Earth contains metal. Metal carries water. Water feeds wood. Wood fuels fire. Fire forms earth.
First, earth contains metal. We can think of the earth as literally the planet Earth, containing the society we live in and making up our very worlds. What about metal? So, a side trip to my worldview.
Viewing it as an objective observer independent of space and time, I view the earth as containing a multitude of wills. These wills clash, each with their own motivations and beliefs. Eventually, some emerge victorious, and with their victory, they rewrite the world as they would like it to be. In a sense, if you think of the world as a file and human beings as data, the victors rewrite themselves onto the file as ‘truths’ while the losers are ‘erased’ and do not get written. Simply put – history is written by the victors.
Earth contains metal. In this world, there are numerous people in existence, each with their own motivations and beliefs. Equating these two statements together, I can thus relate metal to ‘wills’.
Alright, let’s stick with that for now and go on to metal carries water. How could that work?
What does every human being ‘carry’ that is like water? Hmm…let’s go with the defining characteristics of human beings. Basically, as I mentioned in an earlier post, many philosophers would say that rationality defines human beings. Personally, though, I would specifically point towards how it allows us to tread out paths of our own.
What about the characteristics of water? Well, water has no fixed shape or form. When inside a container, it will take on its shape. Water flows from high ground to low ground. Sometimes, the existing path splits. Water follows. Where there is a path, water will stick around and see where it goes. Water is a journey. Somewhere, water departs. Along the way, it finds that there is no straight path, that its flow simply does not go unhindered, ‘unchallenged’. Water continues unperturbed, chugging (well, more like flowing) away till ultimately, it erodes, bursts over, bypasses – well, simply overcomes the obstacle.
Water finds a way. And if you think about it…it’s much like the ingenuity of human beings, isn’t it?! With our flexible, fluid intelligence that rational thought grants us, we are able to triumph over life’s challenges as we journey through it and face blockages.
Right, that seems like enough justification to tentatively set water as intelligence (broadly speaking) in this theory.
Next, water feeds wood. Hey, that’s pretty straightforward, actually. As we journey through life, our intelligence (or lack thereof) directs our focus towards certain things. As a result, we end up learning about the world around us, acquiring both skills and knowledge.
Now, liken human beings and our growth to that of trees (that are made of wood). We all start out small, inexperienced, yet to see much of the world. Over time, the tree is ‘watered’. We grow, shooting upwards in height (trunk), spreading out in breadth (branches). As a human being, we gain experience, assurance (sometimes dogmatism and inflexibility) and also confidence.
So, let’s liken wood to… content for now, till and if another word later comes along that seems it fits better.
Okay, the fourth generating interaction! Wood fuels fire. Well, that’s like super easy, isn’t it. Just think of a character clenching his hand into a fist, his fists and eyes literally blazing with fire as he declares that he won’t give up (akiramenaide!). Basically, you can liken fire to literally ‘flames of passion’. How does this relate to wood? Well, one cannot be passionate about a vacuum (not this again!). There must be a subject that the person in question is being passionate about. And that has to come from their content!
Finally, fire forms earth. Yeah, that’s actually pretty straightforward too. When you’re passionate about something, you’ll talk about it pretty enthusiastically. People say: Laughter is contagious. Well, I believe that passion is pretty contagious too. Hmm…for example, someone recommended a Chinese drama to me three days ago. Word of Honor is a 古装 (period) drama which I actually prefer way more than modern dramas. It’d been a long while since I last saw a Chinese period drama. Furthermore, she was passionate about it! Some people can act like stone in real life because it’s pretty dull. However, when an interesting subject comes to the table, bam! A switch is turned on and the other person is enthusiastic and full of life. Personally, I find this to be super great – seeing the shackles of modern society come off as we get to feel truly alive as opposed to repressed.
I was told that said person appears to try to promote her interest to everyone who will listen. I think that’s really really great! When you are passionate about something, you will hope that other people properly give it a chance and see how great it really is. Which is what I naturally did, of course. I’m midway through episode 10 now (when I do something, I like to throw myself into it) and I’ve found it to be pretty wholesome and heartwarming. Enough said, I’m digressing.
The easiest way to understand ‘fire forms earth’ is by thinking about how people connect to others. How are people inspired? Well, it is certain that people are not inspired by a vacuum (enough of that already!). Rather, someone must take the first step by expressing their honest feelings. When it gets through to people and they are inspired, now there’s the conflagration. Take singing and dancing for example. The performance of the ones up on stage transmits their passion to the audience, who is in turn moved and inspired by it. It can be said that in doing so, the earth is transformed. Think about rebellions. It is through the fire burning in the heart of the masses, with maybe a martyr or two that change comes about – strength from tragedy. Come to think about it, the name of Book 2 of the Hunger Games, Catching Fire, is really not bad.
And so we’ve come full cycle. What now? Well, basically, I’ve come up with a five elements theory by examining generating interactions. Next, I’ve got to test out the theory to see if it works.
And just how are you going to test out the theory, you ask? This isn’t physics or chemistry, you know? Well, I am obviously unable to test out this theory using observable phenomena. However, there is a method that feels legit too! That method is subbing in the ‘values’ of the five elements that I came up with from generating interactions into overcoming interactions. If they fit nicely into the equation, hooray! The theory stands!
See, theory-making is based on logic, just like mathematics. They’re plenty related haha. Anyway, overcoming interactions.
Fire melts metal. Metal penetrates wood. Wood separates earth. Earth absorbs water. Water quenches fire.
Fire melts metal… well, there is such a thing as too much. We have limited vessels. Being passionate about something can cause us to go pretty hard at it. Been there, done that (the five days of one post per day starting on second vaccination day were pretty rough). Still, ultimately, our desires cannot be sustained as an eternal flame. We need our rationality to help us to control them (like a play 3 game, rest 30 min gaming cycle). Our wills splutter out and fail otherwise, however everlasting our passion.
Hey, maybe we should go in reverse order! Because I just noticed that actually explains how water quenches fire!
Our intelligence tells us to be realistic. We may idealistically know that the world would be a better place if only everyone were more open-minded. And yet we realistically know that this is very unlikely, because ‘many people are just dumb’ or ‘this is just too novel’. Our intelligence thus helps us temper our expectations… But even so! There is a grave danger to this!
I’ve probably said this before, but rationality can be a very cold and alienating thing indeed. Sometimes, it tells us – don’t even bother trying. How many people out there succeed? Only a small, tiny percentage…
I think jaded people are very sad. Honestly, don’t let your fire die out, or your life’s just sad!
Next, earth absorbs water. 2 mins later… okay, got it. Now, society seeks to improve in what we call societal progress. This progress is only remotely possible because of the crystallised intelligence of our human race (liken it to absorbing). Straightforward enough?
Wood separates earth. Well, that actually seems to make quite a bit of sense as well! Groups of people tend to believe in different things, due to their differing experiences and worldviews. It is divisive! Some people are racist, while some people are anti-racist. The human race as a whole is separated into divisions based on thought differences (content).
And finally! Metal penetrates wood! Okay, so people explore the depths of pre-existing systems. They question what currently is, incisively break through it and surpass the old. This is applicable to both the individual and society if you think about it. Even as some people live in gloom, delusion and negativity, others decide that ‘they want to change’. They actively focus on self-improvement, observing and gaining insights from the world around them and trying to put theory into practice. This is something that I think is really wonderful – striving towards the better rather than resignedly abandoning oneself to permanent gloom and listlessness. That’s also why Tomozaki was like my favourite last season (just type Tomozaki into Google if you want to know what that is).
Now, as for breakthroughs at the societal level. These can happen when enough people use their brains and question what is usually not questioned and given truth status. Rather than being like sensors (not hating) in only seeing what there is and not considering how things could be otherwise, they use the intuitive process and grasp what is not inbuilt into the structure of this world. Okay, to make it simpler, consider this. Slavery was once widely accepted everywhere. People simply never questioned it. It was in everyone’s content, worldview and experience. Well, till somebody did. With their wills (metal), they drove a figurative nail into everyone’s minds and broke that rotten wood (so to speak).
People seek change. Metal penetrates wood. If you think about it, that’s precisely what terrorists try to do! They try to hammer a nail into your head to remind you that they don’t agree with how your country works. Taste a reminder of my will! Hmm.
Cycle 2 complete! Value subbing worked! Theory consistent! Approval stamped!
Now, was that reeally hard? I hope not! For me, it was pretty fun even though it took up the morning AND so much of the afternoon too. With a lot of luck, I was able to get everything to fit together nicely. There is a real sense of achievement. And I hope that I managed to offer some valuable insights too!
Alright, so today was the first Theorising For Fun post since Phase 1 or ‘let’s not have an empty homepage’ a couple of days back. I’ve naturally been thinking about a schedule, and the best I can come up with is posting whenever I want but once per week at the very least. I don’t know when content insights can come after all! Suggestions on what to write would be appreciated. Additionally, there will probably be a branching out from the main website to post about stuff that is not theorising. For example, reviews of books, thoughts about shows and random stuff about life – I mean, I figure that if a friend wants to post about stuff too, there’s a lot of free space available. Um, maybe Japanese language-related stuff? Seriously, I have no idea at all. This website is just like theory – you figure it out as you go along, and then you see how it feels as you try to fit it all nicely together…
Theory is the vessel, and fun the goal. Have a nice weekend!