Water (wuxing)

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Classical elements
Hellenistic Air Water Aether Fire Earth
Hinduism / Jainism / Buddhism Vayu Ap Akasha Agni Prithvi
Chinese Wood (木) Water (水) Fire (火) Metal (金) Earth (土)
Japanese Wind (風) Water (水) Void (空) Fire (火) Earth (地)
European alchemy Air Water Fire Aether Earth Sulphur Mercury Salt
v t e

In Chinese philosophy, water (Chinese: 水; pinyin: shuǐ) is one of the five concepts that conform the wuxing. It is the low point of matter, and is considered matter's dying or hiding stage.^[1]

Among the five elements, water is the great yin symbol of the Yinyang character. Its motion is downward and inward, and its energy is stillness and conserving.

Water is associated with the color black, the planet Mercury, the moon (which was believed to cause the dew to fall at night), night, the north, winter or cold weather, and the Black Tortoise (Xuan Wu) in the Four Symbols of Chinese constellations.