Metal, wood, water, fire, and earth are collectively called the Five Elements, which refer to the five basic elements that constitute matter. Ancient Chinese philosophers used the Five Elements Theory to explain the formation and interrelationship of all things in the world.
1. The Five Elements:
Gold generates water, water generates wood, wood generates fire, fire generates earth, and earth generates metal.
2. The five elements are in conflict with each other:
Metal restrains wood, wood restrains earth, earth restrains water, water restrains fire, and fire restrains metal.
Extended information
The correspondence between the five elements and the human body:
Anyone with blood and energy must use yin and yang to establish the nature, and the five elements can form the shape. In the body, it is the image of the five things: wood and bones, metal and tendons, earth and muscle, water and blood, and fire and qi. The reality of the five things is that each has its own benefit.
The substances in the world can be divided into five categories: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. The five substances correspond to the five colors, green, red, yellow, white, and black, which are reflected in the human body and mind. Corresponds to sadness, panic, joy, crying, and illness. Among the five elements, wood, fire, metal, and water each govern a season. For example, spring is the growth period of vegetation, so wood is the most prosperous, which is the king. The fire generated by wood is the second most prosperous, which is the phase, while metal is in a state of imprisonment, because the second is the phase. The prosperous fire restrains it, the earth restrained by the most prosperous wood and the water consumed by the wood are in a dead place.
Baidu Encyclopedia - Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth