The Five Elements vs the Five Pitches (in the Pentatonic Scale)

           Anyone who has the slightest idea about Chinese culture might know that the Chinese emphasized a lot on the nature, elements, harmony; as a result, they assigned each note in the pentatonic scale to one of the elements, where each of the elements represents a number of different things including the five major human organs, directions, climates, basically everything a person would encounter in their daily life. The Chinese believed everything is interlinked.

Five Tone (Pentatonic Scale)	宮Gong	商Shang	角Jiao	徵Zhi	羽Yu
Scale Degree (Western Diatonic)	1	2	3	5	6
Men & Things in General	Chief, Ruler, Emperor	Minister	People, Public	Affairs of the State	Material Objects
The Five Elements	Earth	Metal	Wood	Fire	Water
Human Organs	Spleen	Lungs	Liver	Heart	Kidney
Directions	Center	West	East	South	North
Climates	Moist	Dry	Wind	Heat	Cold
Tastes	Sweet	Hot	Sour	Bitter	Salty
Mindsets	Meditate	Sad	Angry	Happy	Scared
Body Actions	Sitting	Laying Down	Walking	Looking	Standing

Table 1 Examples of things in co-relation with the 5 elements 

The Chinese believed that “金生水, 水生木, 木生火, 火生土, 土生金” which means “Metal generates Water, Water generates Wood, Wood generates Fire, Fire generates Earth, and Earth generates Metal”. The best way to understand this logic is that the earth is full with Metal elements, and Water at some point in history all started from the earth, so Metal generates Water. Water helps the growth of tree and hence generates Wood; Wood burns to create Fire, Fire burn things to the ground create Earth, and Earth contains Metal.

The Chinese also believed that “金克木, 木克土, 土克水, 水克火, 火克金” which means “Metal damages Wood, Wood damages Earth, Earth damages Water, Water damages Fire, and Fire damages Metal”. Which could be understood as, Metal makes axes which chop down trees (Wood), the trees (Wood) drains the nutrients out of the Earth, Earth can be piled up to block Water, Water (of course) puts out Fire, and Fire can melt Metal.

Combining the two principles above, the Chinese believed that if, for example, someone had weak lungs, the lungs belongs to Metal, so the person should avoid everything that is associated with Fire, and try to acquire more things that are associated with Earth; so sit and meditate, and avoid laughing (imagine someone with asthma laughing real hard without their inhaler, that would be the reason for this). One may ask, how is this related to music? Doctors in ancient China would actually prescribe patients music they should listen to, use the previous example, a doctor would tell a patient with weak lungs to listen to music in the Gong key (Earth), and avoid music in the Zhi key (Fire).