iVillage

The Five Elements in Chinese philosophy can be traced back to around 300 B.C. and the work of the philosopher Chou Yen. From the very beginning these five elements were not seen as static states, but were considered phases or stages in the ongoing cyclic process of life. They were said to produce one another, to exhaust one phase and turn into the next. This is what is called the Production Sequence of the five elements, and it takes the order of wood, fire, earth, metal and water, each changing into the next as follows:

Wood burning produces
Fire, which in the end leaves
Earth, as ashes, from which we derive
Metal, which can be melted down to flow like
Water, which nourishes
Wood, and so on.