In traditional Chinese philosophy, natural phenomena can be classified into the Five Elements (pronounced Wuxing Chinese): wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. These elements were used for describing interactions and relationships between phenomena. Five phases is another way of translating Wuxing -- literally, "five goings". Traditional Taijiquan schools relate them to footwork and refer to them as five "steps".

The doctrine of five phases describes both a generating cycle and an overcoming cycle of interactions between the phases. In the generating cycle, wood generates fire; fire generates earth; earth generates metal; metal generates water; water generates wood. In the overcoming cycle, wood overcomes earth; earth overcomes water; water overcomes fire; fire overcomes metal; metal overcomes wood.

The doctrine of five phases was employed in many fields of early Chinese philosophy, including seemingly disparate fields such as music, medicine, and military strategy.

  Correlations between the five elements and other categories

Element	Direction	Color	Musical Note
Wood	east	blue or green	jué 角 (mi)
Fire	south	red	zhǐ 徵 (sol)
Earth	center	yellow	gōng m (do)
Metal	west	white	shāng 商 (re)
Water	north	black	yǔ 羽 (la)

Some other correspondences are shown below:

Element	Heavenly creature	Season	Direction	Planet	Tastes	Sense	Viscera	Finger
Wood	Qīng-lóng (青　) the Green Dragon	Spring	east	Jupiter	sour	sight	liver	ring finger
Fire	Zhū-què (朱雀) the Red Phoenix	Summer	south	Mars	bitter	sound	heart	middle finger
Earth	Huáng-lóng (　　) the Yellow Dragon	Change of seasons	center	Saturn	sweet	smell	spleen	index finger
Metal	Bái-hǔ (白虎) the White Tiger	Autumn	west	Venus	hot	taste	lung	thumb
Water	Xuán-wǔ (玄武) the Black Tortoise-Serpent	Winter	north	Mercury	salty	touch	kidney	little finger