Wuxing (五行, wǔxíng)
Wuxing (五行, wǔxíng) is the Chinese system of five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, water. It describes the world through cycles of generation and control; on this site the five elements serve as a map of the six classes of tea.
Wuxing is one of the load-bearing models of Chinese thought, coeval with the natural philosophy of the Warring States. The five elements — wood, fire, earth, metal, water — are not "building-block elements" but five phases in the movement of energy: wood grows, fire expands, earth gathers, metal contracts, water descends and stores. The elements are linked by a cycle of generation (wood feeds fire, fire creates earth, earth bears metal, metal collects water, water grows wood) and a cycle of control. With this grid the Chinese tradition mapped everything: seasons, organs of the body, tastes, directions of the compass.
Tea fits onto this map surprisingly naturally, and our site uses it as its primary system of navigation. Wood is green tea: spring growth, freshness, upward movement — like Longjing. Fire is the oolongs: roasting, aroma, the culmination of craft — like Da Hong Pao. Earth is yellow tea: slow smothering, the center, equilibrium. Metal is white tea: restraint, purity, minimal processing. Water is the dark teas, black tea and pu-erh: depth, age, memory — like an aged shu pu-erh. Red tea in this scheme is the passage of fire into earth: full oxidation carries the leaf's fiery nature to a warm, bready steadiness.
It is important to understand this map's status: it is not a scientific classification but a language of images that helps you hear a tea's character and match it to your state. The technological basis, meanwhile, is honest: the classes of tea really do differ in degree of oxidation and processing. Wuxing is a lens, not a dogma; and looking through it is simply more interesting.
Teas where this appears
Chinese tea glossary