This was a blog on my MYspace page. While my page has a lower level of Five element info, I will leave it. The lesser understanding of the five element correlations between buddhist and daoist arts is still usefull for the lower level student. At some point, your understanding must grow to truly achieve the higher levels of your art. What follows is for people at that stage of their training.
The Five elements are taoist. period. The Buddhist five elements are not five elements. They are four elements.
The Taoist five elements are Metal, Water, Wood, Fire, and Earth. Each one is the equal of the others. There is an interaction between the five elements and all coexist. You cannot have one element. Any one thing that can be defined is made up of a combination of the five elements. All Elements exist at all times in everything. When all elements are in harmony you can begin to work on yin and yang. With the five elements, they can be expressed physically, energetically, and through intent. Often an art uses all three levels of expression with some elements being physically expressed and other elements being expressed energetically and/or mentally. This is what makes a discussion on the elements so difficult when of different styles.
The Buddhist "Five Elements" are not five elements. They are four. Wind, Water, Earth, and Fire are dualities which oppose each other. When they are harmonized, they give rise to the Void which is often considered the fifth element. What this means is that Two energies need to be balanced, then the next Two. When each duality is in harmony, those two dualities become oppositional and must be harmonized. This finally opens the way to the Void.
As an example to help people understand the difference between the Buddhist and Taoist concepts.
In a Buddhist art the animals are usually Tiger, Leopard, Snake, Crane, and Dragon. This is the basic five Animals which correspond with the Five Elements. The Tiger and Crane balance each other with Leopard and Snake as the other duality. Dragon is the ultimate creature which is the result of combining the other four.
The Taoist arts use the same animals. In the Taoist arts, each animal is equivalent to the other four. They tend to mix up the order depending on what the student is good at. Easy animal first then up to the difficult animal on a person by person basis.
Most of the confusion between styles comes from a few directions.
One direction is those arts which separated the fighting from the healing. This resulted in different animal/element correlations. This is usually a benefit since the techniques often developed in unique directions without the five element concepts guiding the early training into acceptable directions.
Another Direction was the switching of animals. Tiger, Leopard, Snake, Crane, and Dragon are the basic Five. Leopard and Snake were the most often switched out with Mantis, Monkey, and Eagle being the most popular options. When the animals switched out, often the Element correlations were changed as well.
A third direction is from separate animal arts. When Crane became its own art, it achieved skills which were more advanced, precise, and wide ranging than was ever required when Crane was merely a component of a larger art. In the common time line of the animals, Tiger was the first separate animal. Then Snake, Crane, and Dragon. Leopard was the last of the Five to become its own Art. Other Animals were developed after and some were specific combinations of the first Five. When Five Animal styles began to incorporate these advancements back into themselves, It often became difficult to perceive the Element of a given animal.
A fourth direction is arts which jumped on the Five Animal Bandwagon, which is to say that they took all of their techniques and made five arbitrary divisions which were named after local animals.
The Five Animals were supposed to be used as beginner level to the five element training. If you have Chi Kungs, Pressure points, Energy Work, and/or healing with five divisions which are all equal and interacting with each other; then you have five element energies in your art.
If your divisions are a different number; then it is not the Five Elements.
If you have Void; then it is not the Five Elements.
If one Animal is superior; then it is not the Five Elements or you have a favorite.
To further develop the concept It should be noted that they share a few things. Each system has its own corresponding healing program, chi kungs, and meditations. Many Martial Arts have combined the two systems of thought into their physical training.
Since every art has a physical, energetic, and spiritual manifestation; It is possible to have more than one philosophical system.
There is an aurvedyc system which uses a base three organization. Fire, wind, and earth are the physical metaphors which all information is measured against.
There is the Buddhist/Tibetan system which has a base five system. This system involves the four elements which come from and become the fifth. Earth, Air, Fire, and Water balance to become Void, or Spirit. This is a duality based system.
There is a Daoist system which uses the Five elements. Metal, Water, Wood, Fire, and Earth are the elements which are all equal and interact with each other.
There is a Daoist system which only uses dualities. The Daoist symbol we are so familiar with, is the metaphor. The System gave rise to the four seasons, eight directions, and the Iching.
There were other systems. These tended to be absorbed into other arts. The information still exists but other systems receive the credit.
Feng Shui, for example, uses a base nine pattern to create growth and energetic balance. The magic square that many math books touch on and soduku comes from. Feng shui, with its many spellings and pronunciations, also contains chinese astrology, Eight direction information, Iching, Five elements, meditation, chi kung, and many other studies which are difficult to seperate out.
Hung Gar, itself a combination of at least nine styles of kung fu, uses the five animal and five element form as a piller, which is Buddhist. Another piller is the Iron Wire training which is unique in application and theory from any other system. I couldn't begin to tell what influenced it or where it came from other than to say that it is an iron body, iron palm, healing, and enlightenment practice which was not developed in any Temple. The Tiger Crane set uses the Daoist Yin/Yang concepts. Most of the meditations are from Tibet.
While Hung Gar has a well mapped out history, other styles are much more confusing. Many styles had a "learn and don't question" mentality which means questions were not asked and information was not explained. Everything came from the teacher. This makes it very difficult to keep concepts from being missunderstood in the midst of competing philosophies.
It should be noted that there is a Nordic Five Element system which uses Earth, Fire, Water, Wood, and Ice. You would think that it would be almost the same as the Daoist Five elements, but it is not.
When training on your own, it would be in your best interests to have access to books on the different systems. It would go a long way in explaining the apparent conflicts born of poorly explained or missunderstood information.
