Wu Xing · 五行
Five elements. One language.
Everything in classical feng shui and BaZi is spoken in five words: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water. They are not substances. They are five kinds of movement.
Wood rises, Fire radiates, Earth settles, Metal contracts, Water sinks and flows. A room has a balance of them. So does a person.
The elements feed one another in a circle: Wood feeds Fire, Fire makes Earth, Earth yields Metal, Metal carries Water, Water grows Wood. They also keep one another in check: Wood breaks Earth, Earth dams Water, Water quenches Fire, Fire melts Metal, Metal cuts Wood. Harmony is never one element winning. It is all five in conversation, each with somewhere to go.
In your home, the elements are the materials, colours and shapes you have already chosen, whether you meant to or not. In your BaZi chart, they are the year, month, day and hour you were born, written as eight characters, each one an element. Reading either is the same act: notice which elements are strong, which are missing, and what would bring them into balance.
Choose an element to begin.
Read your own chart
Which element are you?
Your Day Master is one of these five. A BaZi reading tells you which, what feeds it, and what is in its way.