Inter-promotion and inter-restraint among the five elements
Inter-promotion
Inter-promotion means that one thing bears the effect of promoting or generating another in the five elements. The order of inter-promotion among the five elements follows certain rules and forms a circle, i.e.
wood promoting fire (木生火),
fire promoting earth (火生土),
earth promoting metal (土生金),
metal promoting water (金生水), and
water promoting wood (水生木).
The one that generates is called "mother" while the one that is generated is termed "child". So the inter-promotion relationship among the five elements is also called mother-child relationship.
Take fire for example. The one that generates fire is wood and the one that is generated by fire is earth. So wood is the mother of fire and earth is the child of fire.
Inter-restraint
Inter-restraint means that one thing controls and restrains another thing in the five elements. The order of inter-restraint also follows certain rules and forms a circle, i.e.
wood restraining earth (木克土),
earth restraining water (土克水),
water restraining fire (水克火),
fire restraining metal (火克金), and
metal restraining wood (金克木).
Since the thing being restrained "can not dominate the one that controls it" and the thing restraining another "dominates the one that it controls", the inter-restraint relationship among the five elements is also known as the relationship of domination and submission.
Take water for example. The one that restrains water is earth and the one that is restrained by water is fire. For this reason, earth is called the dominator of water and fire is called the submitter of water.
A garden is always a series of losses set against a few triumphs, like life itself.
- May Sarton
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