五行、八卦与四元素学说探析

五行学说与易经八卦体系,有着明显的不同：八卦代表的天、地、水、火、山、泽、雷、风属于自然物质,而五行则把人类劳动创造的“金”也纳入了自然万物之中,使人类的活动与自然万物形成了有机的联系,促成了天人一体的整体观.因为没有人的参与,土不能生金,金不能克木,金也不能生水.可以说,五行是改良的八卦,它与元气一元论、阴阳二元论一起,给了中医学摆脱巫术的科学的世界观和方法论,是中医学善于解决复杂问题的根本原因所在.五行学说与西方的四元素学说也有着明显的区别：五行学说创立了万物之间互相联系、互相影响的关系论,是系统科学的胚基;四元素学说,属于构成论,是分析科学的萌芽.

Exploration and analysis of theories of five phases, eight trigrams and four elements

The theory of five phases is significantly different from that of eight trigrams of I Ching ( Book of Changes) ; the eight trigrams represent the materials or phenomena in the nature, whereas five phases put " metal" created by human activities into nature, which organically incorporate the human activities and all the things in the nature and promote the formation of holistic concept of heaven and human being. Without the attendance of man, earth can't generate metal, metal can't restrict wood, and metal can' t generate water. So, it can be concluded that the five phases is the improved eight trigrams. Together with monism of original qi and the dualism of yin-yang, it contributes to Chinese medicine the scientific world view and methodology to shake off wizards, and is also the root cause for the Chinese medicine being good at resolving complicated problems. The theory of five phases is also significantly different from the theory of four elements in the western world: The five phases create the relationship of the interaction and interrelation among everything on earth and is the embryo and basis of systemic science. The theory of four elements belongs to constructivism and is the sprout of analytical science.