Wuxing – the connections between the Five Dragon Kings (Ref) and the Five Elements philosophy
To better understand the origins of the Five Dragon Kings and the ancient Chinese legend, it is worth mentioning the wuxing of natural philosophy, which states that all things are composed of five elements: fire, water, wood, metal and earth.
The underlying idea is that the five elements 'influence each other, and that through their birth and death, heaven and earth change and circulate'.
The five elements are described as followed:
Wood/Spring: a period of growth, which generates abundant vitality, movement and wind.
Fire/Summer: a period of swelling, flowering, expanding with heat.
Earth is associated with ripening of grains in the yellow fields of late summer.
Metal/Autumn: a period of harvesting, collecting and dryness.
Water/Winter: a period of retreat, stillness, contracting and coolness.
The wuxing system, in use since the Han dynasty (2nd century BCE), appears in many seemingly disparate fields of early Chinese thought, including music, feng shui, alchemy, astrology, martial arts, military strategy, I Ching divination, and traditional medicine, serving as a metaphysics based on cosmic analogy.
The wuxing originally referred to the five major planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Mars and Venus), which were thought of as the five forces that create life on earth. Wu Xing litterally means moving star and describes the five types of Qi (all the vital substances) cycles through various stages of transformation. As yin and yang continuously adjust to one another and transform into one another in a never-ending dance of harmony, they tend to do so in a predictable pattern.
The lists of correlations for the five elements are diverse, but there are two cycles explaining the major interaction. The yin-yang interaction, which by increasing or decreasing the qualities and functions associated with a particular phase, it may either nourish a phase that is in deficiency or drain a phase that is in excess or restrain a phase that is exerting too much influence (see below):
The Creation Cycle (Yang)
Wood feeds Fire
Fire creates Earth (ash)
Earth bears Metal
Metal collects Water
Water nourishes Wood
The Destruction Cycle (Yin)
Wood parts Earth
Earth dams (or absorbs) Water
Water extinguishes Fire
Fire melts Metal
Metal chops Wood
The Huainanzi (2nd BCE) describes the five colored dragons (azure/green, red, white, black, yellow) and their associations (Chapter 4: Terrestrial Forms), as well as the placement of sacred beasts in the five directions (the Four Symbols beasts, dragon, tiger, bird, tortoise in the four cardinal directions and the yellow dragon.
Your favorite reporter Shiver here, with a public safety message. Officially, you are not meant to climb the scaffolds for staff in front of the Giant Clam stage. I know they're the perfect vantage point for photos. I know they're unguarded. Just saying.
SplatoonJP:
【フェス潜入レポート】
フウカどす。
シャコガイステージの正面にはスタッフ用の足場があるんやけど、危険やし登ったらあきまへんえ。
そういや2階にカメラやらドローンやらが放置されとったような?
ん~、確かに絶好の撮影スポットかもしれへんけど……。
SplatoonNA:
Frye back again, telling you it's A-OK to make your voice heard during Grand Festival shows. Feel the music and press the directional buttons to express yourself whenever it moves you! Hip hip! BOOYAH!
SplatoonJP:
【フェス潜入レポート】
ウツホじゃ!
グランドフェスティバルのライブは声出しOKじゃぞ。
音楽にノッて、好きなタイミングで方向ボタンを押すのじゃ!
それっ、ハイ! ハイ! イエーイじゃーい!!
SplatoonNA:
Ay. Ay! Ay. Ay. (It's me, Big Man, letting you know the lobby is quite a ways away from the stages at the Grand Festival. You'll want to take the free shuttle to get to your matches! Or just use the main menu. That works too.)