Antique Chinese and Japanese Porcelain collector's help and info page

GLOSSARY

Five elements

In Daoism [Taoism] the Five Elements represents various parts of the natural world such as Directions, Elements and Color. To be harmonious from a daoist point of view, there are thus a number of relations that should be considered in for example art and architecture, and which colors that should dominate.

Direction, Element and Color interacts as follows:

The Elements interact in a positive manner as follows:

Elements that react positively should be used together. For example: Water compliments both Metal and Wood, therefore a painter would combine blue and green or blue and white. There is no positive interaction between Earth and Fire, therefore, a painter would not choose to mix Yellow and Red.

The Elements interact in a negative manner as follows:

Elements that interact negatively should never be used together. For example: Fire will not interact positively with either Water or Metal so a painter would not choose to mix the colors of red and blue or red and white.

See also: The Eight Trigrams

HOME

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z