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Two element theories from East Asia appear in martial arts literature: the Japanese Buddhist Godai (五大) and the Chinese Wu Xing (五行). Both have five elements but differ in composition and in their basic idea.
Godai (五大) – the five great ones
Godai literally means “five great ones” and refers to the five elements of Japanese Buddhism. The concept goes back to the Indian teaching of the mahābhūta , was transmitted via China and shaped in Japan above all in esoteric Buddhism (Mikkyō); there it belongs to the idea of the Gorin (五輪, “five rings”).
| Element | Kanji | Reading | Symbolism |
|---|---|---|---|
| Earth | 地 | Chi | Solidity, stability |
| Water | 水 | Sui | Fluidity, adaptation |
| Fire | 火 | Ka | Energy, combustion |
| Wind | 風 | Fū | Movement, the gaseous |
| Void (also sky) | 空 | Kū | The formless, space |
The void is not regarded as a substance but as the formless in which the other elements appear. Miyamoto Musashi (宮本武蔵) named the five books of his Go Rin no Sho (五輪書, “Book of Five Rings”, 1643–1645) after these elements: earth, water, fire, wind and void.
Wu Xing (五行) – the five phases
Wu Xing (Japanese Gogyō) refers to the five phases wood (木 mù), fire (火 huǒ), earth (土 tǔ), metal (金 jīn) and water (水 shuǐ). The teaching was formulated in the 2nd/1st century BC in the Han period. Its focus is not on substances but on processes: the phases pass into one another in a generating cycle (wood feeds fire, fire creates earth, earth brings forth metal, metal creates water, water nourishes wood) and limit one another in a controlling cycle.
The difference in brief: Godai describes static building blocks (earth, water, fire, wind, void), Wu Xing dynamic phases. Wood and metal of the Wu Xing do not correspond directly to wind and void in Godai; they belong to a different model.
Significance in the martial arts
The five-elements teaching is significant in Chinese martial arts such as Taijiquan and Xingyiquan. In Japanese swordsmanship, Musashi uses Godai as a framework for presenting strategy: earth forms the foundation, water stands for adaptability and the basics of one’s own school, fire for combat and timing, wind for the engagement with other schools (the character 風 also means “style”), and the void for the unbound mind.
Gōjū-Ryū: hard and soft
Gōjū-Ryū (剛柔流) is not named after an element theory. Its name goes back to a line of the Bubishi: Hō wa gōjū o donto su (法剛柔吞吐), usually translated as “The way of inhaling and exhaling is hardness and softness.” In Gōjū-Ryū, Gō (剛, “hard”) stands for the closed hand and straight, linear techniques, Jū (柔, “soft”) for the open hand and circular movements. This polarity resembles the pair of opposites yin and yang (see Dao) more than the five elements. It also appears in the Meibukan, for example in the character 明 made of sun and moon (see Meibukan philosophy).
Connection to training
- Assigning individual techniques or kata to elements is not a fixed teaching in Gōjū-Ryū; such tables are mostly later interpretations by individual authors and schools.
- As images, the elements offer food for thought: earth for firm stances (Dachi), water for yielding, flowing movement, fire for dynamism, wind for lightness and change, void for a free mind (cf. Mushin).
- The four celestial guardians after whom the Meibuken kata Seiryu, Byakko and Genbu are named come from Chinese cosmology, which also knows the five phases (see Meibuken kata).
Sources
- Henny van der Veere: A Study into the Thought of Kōgyō Daishi Kakuban. Brill, Leiden 2021, S. 133–134, ISBN 978-90-04-48759-8.
- further reading: Wikipedia, article “Fünf-Elemente-Lehre”
- further reading: Wikipedia, article “Wuxing (Chinese philosophy)”
- G. Cameron Hurst III: Armed Martial Arts of Japan. Swordsmanship and Archery. Yale University Press, New Haven 1998, ISBN 978-0-300-04967-1.
- Seikichi Toguchi: Okinawan Goju-Ryu. Black Belt Communications, Burbank 1976, S. 14, ISBN 978-0-89750-018-0.
- Morio Higaonna: The History of Karate. Okinawan Goju Ryu. Dragon Books, Isleworth 2001, S. 67–68, ISBN 0-946062-36-6.
- Meitatsu Yagi: The Importance of Spiritual Karate. Selbstverlag 2008, ISBN 978-0978434809 (Tenchi-Kata).
- further reading: Wikipedia, article “Meibukan” (naming of the Meibuken kata)
- Patrick McCarthy: Bubishi. The Classic Manual of Combat. Tuttle Publishing, Tokio 1995.
- Miyamoto Musashi: The Book of Five Rings. Übersetzt von William Scott Wilson. Shambhala, Boston 2002.