Paul FORAGE

Historical illustration of Chinese metal casting. The Five Phases (wu xing)—metal, wood, fire, water, and earth—can be used to describe and classify relationships and processes at work in the realm of science.
Four kinds of organizing principles formed the basis of traditional science in China: Heaven and Man, yin–yang duality, the wu xing or Five Phases, and qi. They were combined to build a complex theoretical structure for the relationships and