The Wu Xing, (五行 wŭ xíng) also known as the Five Phases, the Five Agents, the Five Movements, and the Five Steps/Stages are an ancient Chinese cosmological scheme that is used to describe and explain interactions and relationships between phenomena. After it came to maturity in the early Han dynasty, it was applied to many fields of early Chinese thought, including seemingly disparate fields such as geomancy or Feng shui, astrology, medicine, music, military strategy and martial arts.
The Five Phases are presented either in the order of mutual generation (Wood → Fire → Earth → Metal → Water) or in the mutual conquest sequence (Wood → Metal → Fire → Water → Earth).