Post by Teuta1975 on Jan 13, 2008 2:12:20 GMT -5
THE GREEK ELEMENTS
The four classical elements were independently proposed by early Presocratic philosophers: water (Thales), air (Anaximenes), earth (Xenophanes), and fire (Heraclitus). Empedocles proposed that they all existed together in fixed quantities from the beginning. Plato later conceived of them as consisting of atoms with the geometrical shapes of four of the five regular geometrical solids that had been discovered by the Pythagoreans but described by Plato (in the Timaeus). We now call these the Platonic Solids. Their surfaces consist entirely of regular triangles (3, the tetrahedron; 8, the octahedron; and 20, the icosahedron), squares (6, the cube), and pentagons (12, the dodecahedron). These are, of course, not the true shapes of atoms; but it turns out that they are some of the true shapes of packed atoms and molecules, namely crystals: The mineral salt (halite, NaCl) occurs in cubic crystals; fluorite (calcium floride, CaF2) in octahedrons; and pyrite ("Fool's Gold," iron sulfide, FeS2) in dodecahedrons [1]; etc. Aristotle discarded Plato's mathematical interest and saw the elements as combinations of two sets of opposite qualities, hot & cold, wet & dry. Aristotle's view was ultimately the accepted one all through the Middle Ages.
Empedocles Fire Air Water
Plato:
Platonic Solids with Triangles
Aristotle hot & dry hot & wet cold & wet
Empedocles Earth
Plato:
Platonic
Solid with
Squares
Aristotle cold & dry
It is noteworthy that Plato's theory has a very modern flavor, with mathematically defined, transmutable atoms. The theory misses its target, since Plato didn't have a clue about the modern chemical elements, and atoms do not have such geometrical structures. Nevertheless, he was not so far off the mark, and we only have to shift our aim slightly, to the crystaline packings of atoms, to find the appropriate modern applications of Plato's geometry. Aristotle, by contrast, has a completely archaic theory which looks back to the theories about opposites of Anaximander, Heraclitus, and the Pythagoreans. It is of no use whatsoever today.
THE INDIAN AND BUDDHIST ELEMENTS, AND THE GUN.AS
The Chândogya Upanis.ad contains the earliest Indian view of the elements. There are three: 1) fire (agni), 2) water (ap), & 3) earth (prithivi). These emanate in sequence from each other. Fire is associated with oil, butter, and fat, while earth is associated with all other kinds of food. Each, as food, gives rise to three bodily subdivisions: Fire into bone, marrow, and speech; water into urine, blood, and prân.a (breath); and earth into feces, flesh, and mind.
The three elements of the Chândogya Upanis.ad effectively correspond to the three gun.as of the Sankhya School and the Bhagavad Gita, with a change in sequence. The three gun.as are the three forces of nature in Sankhya thought, which, even more, are the causes of everything that happens, of which the true Self (âtman/purus.a) is only the spectator, and the sources of attachment and bondage, the causes of rebirth in the natural or phenomenal world (prakr.ti). Water corresponds to sattva, the desire for knowledge and goodness, associated with the color white and the Brahmin caste; fire corresponds to rajas, the desire for action, associated with the color red and the Ks.atriya caste; and earth corresponds to tamas, sloth, associated with the color brown (or black) and the Vaishya (or Shudra) caste (or the Untouchables). Eventually the theory of the gun.as is widely accepted in orthodox philosophy, and the association or the correspondence to the theory of the elements is lost.
Element Color Foods Body Gun.a Caste
1. Fire red oil, butter,
2. Water white water urine, blood, & prân.a (breath) 1. Sattva 1. Brahmins
3. Earth black other foods feces, flesh, & mind 3. Tamas 3. Vaishyas,
4. Shudras, &
5. Untouchables
Later other elements are added. Fire itself comes to be seen as emanating from air (vâyu), which is later seen to emanate from "aether" (âkâsha). These are similar enough to the Greek elements, and their introduction occurs late enough, that Greek influence cannot be discounted. Despite the additions, numerical systematizations (e.g. "three kinds of food," etc.) tend to use the number three, but often with a somewhat distinct fourth element: three twice born varnas (brahmins, ks.atriyas, & vaishyas), with a fourth varna (shudras); three Vedas (R.g, Sama, & Yajur), with a fourth (Atharva).
In Buddhism, the fifth element could be interpreted differently from Hinduism. The Sanskrit word , used for "aether," could also mean "sky" or "clear space." This could be the equivalent of "emptiness" (shunyata) in Buddhism, and the fifth element in Buddhism is consequently often given as "space" or the "void." The five Buddhist elements were subsequently exported with Buddhism itself to China and countries influenced by China, viz. Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. The five Buddhist elements in the Far East thus should not be confused with the original five elements of Chinese philosophy. The colors associated with the Buddhist elements below are out of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Another version exists in which the white and blue are reversed. These can actually be combined, as shown, with the "body" one color but the "light" the other. I have also seen Mâmakî and Locanâ reversed (and spelled differently, e.g. Rocanî), and Âkâshadhâtu as Vajradhâteshvarî.
THE BUDDHIST ELEMENTS & ASSOCIATIONS
element VOID WATER EARTH FIRE AIR
Buddha Function Buddha nature, approach wisdom to realize, raising condition to practice, cultivating fruit of: Boddhisattva fruit of: Nirvâna
wisdom dharma-
realm great perfect mirror non-discrim-
inating subtle observation accomplishing
family buddha vajra,
thunderbolt gem/jewel, ratna lotus, padma action,
karma
THE CHINESE ELEMENTS
AND ASSOCIATIONS
The Chinese elements come early, and their development in Chinese philosophy cannot be followed as can the development of the Greek and Indian elements. The system of five elements and classifying things by fives is already evident in Classics like the Tao Te Ching () and the Shu Ching (, the Book of History), both of uncertain date and authorship. Later such classifications are expanded almost without limit (when Buddhism arrives from India with its own five elements, it adds its own system of fives). The first individual known to have written about the five elements was Tsou Yen, of the Yin-Yang or "Cosmologist" School (), who lived in the third century B.C. But even with him, the original texts are lost, and all we know is what the Han historian Ssu-ma Ch'ien (Sima Qian) says about him in the Shih Chi (, Historical Records), the first great Chinese dynastic history.
The Buddhist elements that were imported into China were never combined with the Chinese elements, but they did, of course, need to be translated. "Air" was translated as "wind," . "Aether" or the "void" was translated with a character, , that could mean "sky, "air," or "emptiness." This suits the ambiguities of the notion of aether just fine, since the Sanskrit word could mean "aether," "sky," or "emptiness," while a kind of "air" is just the original meaning of the Greek word aithêr. Although these were, as I say, never combined into the system of five Chinese elements, we do find wind together with water in a very traditional Chinese context, , "wind and water," the name of Chinese geomancy, the method of siting, orienting, and arranging houses, temples, graves, etc. for best effect. This has become rather familiar elsewhere around the world, and one even hears the proper pronunciation ("fung shue"), which is a little unusual.
While the "symbols" associated with the five elements include four animals for East, West, North, and South and a "caldron" in the Center, we get a slightly different picture with the separate system of "animals" associated with the elements. There we get "scaled," which corresponds to the East and the dragon, "furred," with the West and the tiger, "shelled," with the North and the turtle, "winged," with the South and the phoenix, and finally "naked," associated with the Center. A caldron, of course, isn't an animal, and "naked" doesn't apply to it. "Naked" applies to one animal in particular, man. So the picture we get for the five animals are the four symbolic animals surrounding man in the Center (though he is not shown, of course, naked).
The seven day week is Western; and Sunday and Monday are, of course, associated with the sun and the moon. The Chinese would have known about the seven day week during, at the latest, the Middle Ages, through Nestorian missionaries; but full awareness of Western astronomy arrived during the Ming with the Jesuits, whose knowledge was impressive enough that they were given official posts and responsibilities with respect to the Chinese calendar.
Fantasy Seven
Element Theory
China ends up with two systems of five elements, one from Chinese philosophy and one imported from India with Buddhism. Three elements match in each system, fire, water, and earth. The Chinese elements then include two missing from the Buddhist elements, metal and wood; and the Buddhist elements include two missing from the Chinese, air and aether (or the void).
Chinese philosophy thus has, as a matter of fact, seven elements, although these were never combined into one system. In combining them now, as a fantasy exercise, we might take a clue from Western philosophy, where the seven planets were the basis of the theory in Mediaeval alchemy that there were seven metals. As it happens, the five naked eye planets in Chinese astronomy were matched up with the five elements. In the adoption of the seven day week from the West, Chinese usage then assigns the five planets to the days of the week apart from Sunday and Monday, which are then named, obviously enough, after the Sun and the Moon. If we want to add two extra elements, then, the Sun and the Moon provide the slots for them. Since the element air gets translated as "wind" in Chinese, the Moon, which moves the fastest of the heavenly bodies, seems the appropriate match, while the Sun, illuminating the heavens, is not inappropriate for aether/void.
The accompanying table lists the seven elements with their Chinese characters, in the ascending order of the planets as recognized in Mediaeval Western astronomy, with the planetary symbols and the metals that Western alcheI disagreeociated with them. The toughest problem with all this are the associated colors. The Buddhist and the Chinese elements have definite color associations, which only agree for fire (red) and earth (yellow). The Greek elements do not have a traditional color scheme, but I would take red, yellow, green, and blue, from Jung's Mandala Symbolism, as appropriate for Western concepts of the four elements (with no color, i.e. white, for the often overlooked aether) -- as it happens, these are the four colors used in the 1997 Bruce Willis movie The Fifth Element. Of the five colors associated each with the Chinese and Buddhist elements, Chinese does not distinguish blue from green, which Buddhism does, and Chinese uses black, which Buddhism does not. If we distinguish blue from green and add black, that still only gives six colors, so a seventh is necessary. Meanwhile, we could do some sorting. All agree on red for fire. Chinese colors of white for metal and green for wood seem natural enough. Blue for water, instead of Buddhist white or Chinese black, seems better, as it actually occurs instead of black in the yin-yang diagram on the flag of South Korea. Buddhist green for air seems unnatural, while yellow for earth, although with Buddhist agreement, only seems the most appropriate for the floodplain of the Yellow River. Thus, yellow, the color of the air I often see in Los Angeles, is possible, while black has been thought the color of earth in many places since Ancient Egypt, the "Black Land." That only leaves one element and one color short. When I consider that purple clouds are a sign of someone entering the Pure Land of the Buddha Amida, purple may be a natural color to suggest for the element that can be used as a name of the Buddha, Kong Wang, "King of Emptiness."
An important part of Chinese five element theory is the direction represented by each element, with earth in the center. In the accompanying diagram, arranged around earth are squares containing the appropriate Chinese elements, in the right directions, if north is up and west to the left. If these five squares were to be folded up into a cube, one side would be open. If that open side were used for air, and the cube unfolded, then the arrangement would be with the square for air attached to one of the four outer elements. If air is attached as shown, then the vertical column of squares contains the original four Greek elements, which are shown with their hot/cold, wet/dry classifications by Aristotle. The folded cube is shown at left, with transparent sides for air, water, and metal and with solid colors for earth, wood, and fire, and at right with solid colors for air, water, and metal.
This leaves aether/void unaccounted for. Now earth, which was in the center for the Chinese elements, is displaced by its position on a side of the cube. The empty center of the cube thus might seem the likely place for aether/void, and it is therefore so shown at left inside a purple framework of the cube.
The use of the cube for six of the seven elements means that the Greek/Buddhist and Chinese elements can be represented, respectively, just by leaving off the appropriate sides of the cube. Thus, at far left, are the sides for the four original Greek elements, with two sides left off, while at immediate left is the cube with only one side left off for the five Chinese elements.
Finally, we might consider the relationship between the Chinese "five virtues" and how they seem to fit with the Kantian character typology considered elsewhere. None of the Chinese element associations match the Kantian typology, except one, imperfectly. However, if the idea is to map the five Chinese virtues onto the four Western humors, then some bumping and rearranging is going to happen. If "good faith," a central virtue indeed as Kantian good will, is to continue in the "center," then it would go to aether, not remain with earth. Righteousness replaces good faith; propriety goes to air; and kindness comes in to replace propriety. This leaves "knowledge" in place, but the Kantian virtue is now the closely related one of prudence.
The Seven Lucky Gods of Japan
The list of virtues is reminiscent of a story about the Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu (1623-1651), who in 1623 asked the monk Tenkei what virtues would constitute nobility. Tenkei replied that there were seven: Longevity, fortune, popularity, candor, amiability, dignity, and magnanimity. The Shogun then supposedly told Tenkei to select seven gods that would exemplify these virtues, and Tenkei picked out the gods that would then become the shichi fukujin, the seven (shichi) lucky (fuku) gods (shin), or seven gods of good fortune, (cf. Reiko Chiba, The Seven Lucky Gods of Japan, Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1966, 1992, pp.7-8, & Ian Reader, Religion in Contemporary Japan, U. of Hawaii Press, 1991, pp.164-165).
The "virtues" listed, however, are really not moral virtues. Most are gifts or graces of fortune, and the gods themselves have much more to do with benefits than with morality. This makes it rather hard to match them with Confucian virtues. Also, the match between gifts and gods is not always precise. Chiba herself gives Hotei for both popularity and magnanimity, while Jurojin represents wisdom, not one of Tenkei's virtues. Also, the gods as described by Reader sometimes have different benefits. The table gives both sets, respectively.
Hotei is the most familiar of these to Westerners, though his fat, laughing figure is often called the "laughing Buddha." But Hotei is not the, or a, Buddha, but a Chinese god, Bùdài in Chinese -- he is named after the "cloth bag," , that he carries, like Santa Claus, with gifts. Reader might be thought to have made a mistake with Fukurokuju, since Chiba convincingly illustrates his gift of longevity with a specific story. But the character for "longevity," ju, actually occurs in the names of both Fukurokuju and Jurôjin, so there is nothing preventing the gift from being associated with both, as Chiba does note it used to be with Jurôjin. Fukurokuju is of particular interest since his name combines the names of three separate and very popular Chinese gods: (fuku), (roku), and (ju). Fú, "happiness, blessing," sometimes is shown holding a baby. Lù, "prosperity, success, salary," is usually in the robes of a Chinese judge -- the good fortune of official pay. And Shòu, "longevity," looks like a Taoist sage, carrying a staff, gourd, or peach, and with the bulging forehead also characteristic of Fukurokuju.
The next step would be to match the seven gods with the seven elements. Since there is no real obvious basis for that match, I will leave it to further consideration. However, in the meantime it seems a shame to leave the matter entirely fallow, so I will employ a device to at least end on a colorful note. I am not aware of a canonical order for the seven gods, but a plaque I bought on Mt. Hiei has them standing in a row that I will match up with the sequence of the planets above.
Hotei
Jurôjin
Fukurokuju
Bishamon(ten)
Ben(zai)
-ten
Daikoku(ten)
Ebisu
popularity,
magnanimity wisdom longevity,
popularity dignity,
authority amiability,
beauty,
music wealth,
fortune candor,
honesty,
prosperity
Air
Water
Metal
Aether
Fire
Wood
Earth
Yellow
Blue
White
Purple
Red
Green
Black
Taoist
Taoist
Taoist
Buddhist
Hindu
Buddhist
Shinto
The last row in the table indicates the religious origin of the gods, according to Ian Reader. The first three are from Taoism, the . Bishamonten and Daikokuten derive from Buddhism, the , where the former begins as Vaisravans and the latter as Mahakala in India. Benzaiten derives from Hinduism, and is no less than the major goddess Sarasvatî. I am not sure that there is a pre-modern word in Japanese for Hinduism, as distinct from Buddhism. Indian gods came to Japan through Buddhism, and the character , used in the name of the Indian god Brahmâ, was often used with Buddhism, as was Brahmâ himself. Nevertheless, since there is another character for Buddhism, and this one is used to mean "India," "Sanskrit," and the like, it seems reasonable that , the "doctrine of Brahmâ" could mean Hinduism. Ebisu is a native Japanese god, and thus would be part of Shintoism, the , the "Way of the gods." Bishamonten and Daikokuten, along with another Indian god, the goddess Marinutsen (Mârîtchi), also used to be regarded as the three gods of war, , the Sansenjin.
The four classical elements were independently proposed by early Presocratic philosophers: water (Thales), air (Anaximenes), earth (Xenophanes), and fire (Heraclitus). Empedocles proposed that they all existed together in fixed quantities from the beginning. Plato later conceived of them as consisting of atoms with the geometrical shapes of four of the five regular geometrical solids that had been discovered by the Pythagoreans but described by Plato (in the Timaeus). We now call these the Platonic Solids. Their surfaces consist entirely of regular triangles (3, the tetrahedron; 8, the octahedron; and 20, the icosahedron), squares (6, the cube), and pentagons (12, the dodecahedron). These are, of course, not the true shapes of atoms; but it turns out that they are some of the true shapes of packed atoms and molecules, namely crystals: The mineral salt (halite, NaCl) occurs in cubic crystals; fluorite (calcium floride, CaF2) in octahedrons; and pyrite ("Fool's Gold," iron sulfide, FeS2) in dodecahedrons [1]; etc. Aristotle discarded Plato's mathematical interest and saw the elements as combinations of two sets of opposite qualities, hot & cold, wet & dry. Aristotle's view was ultimately the accepted one all through the Middle Ages.
Empedocles Fire Air Water
Plato:
Platonic Solids with Triangles
Aristotle hot & dry hot & wet cold & wet
Empedocles Earth
Plato:
Platonic
Solid with
Squares
Aristotle cold & dry
It is noteworthy that Plato's theory has a very modern flavor, with mathematically defined, transmutable atoms. The theory misses its target, since Plato didn't have a clue about the modern chemical elements, and atoms do not have such geometrical structures. Nevertheless, he was not so far off the mark, and we only have to shift our aim slightly, to the crystaline packings of atoms, to find the appropriate modern applications of Plato's geometry. Aristotle, by contrast, has a completely archaic theory which looks back to the theories about opposites of Anaximander, Heraclitus, and the Pythagoreans. It is of no use whatsoever today.
THE INDIAN AND BUDDHIST ELEMENTS, AND THE GUN.AS
The Chândogya Upanis.ad contains the earliest Indian view of the elements. There are three: 1) fire (agni), 2) water (ap), & 3) earth (prithivi). These emanate in sequence from each other. Fire is associated with oil, butter, and fat, while earth is associated with all other kinds of food. Each, as food, gives rise to three bodily subdivisions: Fire into bone, marrow, and speech; water into urine, blood, and prân.a (breath); and earth into feces, flesh, and mind.
The three elements of the Chândogya Upanis.ad effectively correspond to the three gun.as of the Sankhya School and the Bhagavad Gita, with a change in sequence. The three gun.as are the three forces of nature in Sankhya thought, which, even more, are the causes of everything that happens, of which the true Self (âtman/purus.a) is only the spectator, and the sources of attachment and bondage, the causes of rebirth in the natural or phenomenal world (prakr.ti). Water corresponds to sattva, the desire for knowledge and goodness, associated with the color white and the Brahmin caste; fire corresponds to rajas, the desire for action, associated with the color red and the Ks.atriya caste; and earth corresponds to tamas, sloth, associated with the color brown (or black) and the Vaishya (or Shudra) caste (or the Untouchables). Eventually the theory of the gun.as is widely accepted in orthodox philosophy, and the association or the correspondence to the theory of the elements is lost.
Element Color Foods Body Gun.a Caste
1. Fire red oil, butter,
2. Water white water urine, blood, & prân.a (breath) 1. Sattva 1. Brahmins
3. Earth black other foods feces, flesh, & mind 3. Tamas 3. Vaishyas,
4. Shudras, &
5. Untouchables
Later other elements are added. Fire itself comes to be seen as emanating from air (vâyu), which is later seen to emanate from "aether" (âkâsha). These are similar enough to the Greek elements, and their introduction occurs late enough, that Greek influence cannot be discounted. Despite the additions, numerical systematizations (e.g. "three kinds of food," etc.) tend to use the number three, but often with a somewhat distinct fourth element: three twice born varnas (brahmins, ks.atriyas, & vaishyas), with a fourth varna (shudras); three Vedas (R.g, Sama, & Yajur), with a fourth (Atharva).
In Buddhism, the fifth element could be interpreted differently from Hinduism. The Sanskrit word , used for "aether," could also mean "sky" or "clear space." This could be the equivalent of "emptiness" (shunyata) in Buddhism, and the fifth element in Buddhism is consequently often given as "space" or the "void." The five Buddhist elements were subsequently exported with Buddhism itself to China and countries influenced by China, viz. Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. The five Buddhist elements in the Far East thus should not be confused with the original five elements of Chinese philosophy. The colors associated with the Buddhist elements below are out of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Another version exists in which the white and blue are reversed. These can actually be combined, as shown, with the "body" one color but the "light" the other. I have also seen Mâmakî and Locanâ reversed (and spelled differently, e.g. Rocanî), and Âkâshadhâtu as Vajradhâteshvarî.
THE BUDDHIST ELEMENTS & ASSOCIATIONS
element VOID WATER EARTH FIRE AIR
Buddha Function Buddha nature, approach wisdom to realize, raising condition to practice, cultivating fruit of: Boddhisattva fruit of: Nirvâna
wisdom dharma-
realm great perfect mirror non-discrim-
inating subtle observation accomplishing
family buddha vajra,
thunderbolt gem/jewel, ratna lotus, padma action,
karma
THE CHINESE ELEMENTS
AND ASSOCIATIONS
The Chinese elements come early, and their development in Chinese philosophy cannot be followed as can the development of the Greek and Indian elements. The system of five elements and classifying things by fives is already evident in Classics like the Tao Te Ching () and the Shu Ching (, the Book of History), both of uncertain date and authorship. Later such classifications are expanded almost without limit (when Buddhism arrives from India with its own five elements, it adds its own system of fives). The first individual known to have written about the five elements was Tsou Yen, of the Yin-Yang or "Cosmologist" School (), who lived in the third century B.C. But even with him, the original texts are lost, and all we know is what the Han historian Ssu-ma Ch'ien (Sima Qian) says about him in the Shih Chi (, Historical Records), the first great Chinese dynastic history.
The Buddhist elements that were imported into China were never combined with the Chinese elements, but they did, of course, need to be translated. "Air" was translated as "wind," . "Aether" or the "void" was translated with a character, , that could mean "sky, "air," or "emptiness." This suits the ambiguities of the notion of aether just fine, since the Sanskrit word could mean "aether," "sky," or "emptiness," while a kind of "air" is just the original meaning of the Greek word aithêr. Although these were, as I say, never combined into the system of five Chinese elements, we do find wind together with water in a very traditional Chinese context, , "wind and water," the name of Chinese geomancy, the method of siting, orienting, and arranging houses, temples, graves, etc. for best effect. This has become rather familiar elsewhere around the world, and one even hears the proper pronunciation ("fung shue"), which is a little unusual.
While the "symbols" associated with the five elements include four animals for East, West, North, and South and a "caldron" in the Center, we get a slightly different picture with the separate system of "animals" associated with the elements. There we get "scaled," which corresponds to the East and the dragon, "furred," with the West and the tiger, "shelled," with the North and the turtle, "winged," with the South and the phoenix, and finally "naked," associated with the Center. A caldron, of course, isn't an animal, and "naked" doesn't apply to it. "Naked" applies to one animal in particular, man. So the picture we get for the five animals are the four symbolic animals surrounding man in the Center (though he is not shown, of course, naked).
The seven day week is Western; and Sunday and Monday are, of course, associated with the sun and the moon. The Chinese would have known about the seven day week during, at the latest, the Middle Ages, through Nestorian missionaries; but full awareness of Western astronomy arrived during the Ming with the Jesuits, whose knowledge was impressive enough that they were given official posts and responsibilities with respect to the Chinese calendar.
Fantasy Seven
Element Theory
China ends up with two systems of five elements, one from Chinese philosophy and one imported from India with Buddhism. Three elements match in each system, fire, water, and earth. The Chinese elements then include two missing from the Buddhist elements, metal and wood; and the Buddhist elements include two missing from the Chinese, air and aether (or the void).
Chinese philosophy thus has, as a matter of fact, seven elements, although these were never combined into one system. In combining them now, as a fantasy exercise, we might take a clue from Western philosophy, where the seven planets were the basis of the theory in Mediaeval alchemy that there were seven metals. As it happens, the five naked eye planets in Chinese astronomy were matched up with the five elements. In the adoption of the seven day week from the West, Chinese usage then assigns the five planets to the days of the week apart from Sunday and Monday, which are then named, obviously enough, after the Sun and the Moon. If we want to add two extra elements, then, the Sun and the Moon provide the slots for them. Since the element air gets translated as "wind" in Chinese, the Moon, which moves the fastest of the heavenly bodies, seems the appropriate match, while the Sun, illuminating the heavens, is not inappropriate for aether/void.
The accompanying table lists the seven elements with their Chinese characters, in the ascending order of the planets as recognized in Mediaeval Western astronomy, with the planetary symbols and the metals that Western alcheI disagreeociated with them. The toughest problem with all this are the associated colors. The Buddhist and the Chinese elements have definite color associations, which only agree for fire (red) and earth (yellow). The Greek elements do not have a traditional color scheme, but I would take red, yellow, green, and blue, from Jung's Mandala Symbolism, as appropriate for Western concepts of the four elements (with no color, i.e. white, for the often overlooked aether) -- as it happens, these are the four colors used in the 1997 Bruce Willis movie The Fifth Element. Of the five colors associated each with the Chinese and Buddhist elements, Chinese does not distinguish blue from green, which Buddhism does, and Chinese uses black, which Buddhism does not. If we distinguish blue from green and add black, that still only gives six colors, so a seventh is necessary. Meanwhile, we could do some sorting. All agree on red for fire. Chinese colors of white for metal and green for wood seem natural enough. Blue for water, instead of Buddhist white or Chinese black, seems better, as it actually occurs instead of black in the yin-yang diagram on the flag of South Korea. Buddhist green for air seems unnatural, while yellow for earth, although with Buddhist agreement, only seems the most appropriate for the floodplain of the Yellow River. Thus, yellow, the color of the air I often see in Los Angeles, is possible, while black has been thought the color of earth in many places since Ancient Egypt, the "Black Land." That only leaves one element and one color short. When I consider that purple clouds are a sign of someone entering the Pure Land of the Buddha Amida, purple may be a natural color to suggest for the element that can be used as a name of the Buddha, Kong Wang, "King of Emptiness."
An important part of Chinese five element theory is the direction represented by each element, with earth in the center. In the accompanying diagram, arranged around earth are squares containing the appropriate Chinese elements, in the right directions, if north is up and west to the left. If these five squares were to be folded up into a cube, one side would be open. If that open side were used for air, and the cube unfolded, then the arrangement would be with the square for air attached to one of the four outer elements. If air is attached as shown, then the vertical column of squares contains the original four Greek elements, which are shown with their hot/cold, wet/dry classifications by Aristotle. The folded cube is shown at left, with transparent sides for air, water, and metal and with solid colors for earth, wood, and fire, and at right with solid colors for air, water, and metal.
This leaves aether/void unaccounted for. Now earth, which was in the center for the Chinese elements, is displaced by its position on a side of the cube. The empty center of the cube thus might seem the likely place for aether/void, and it is therefore so shown at left inside a purple framework of the cube.
The use of the cube for six of the seven elements means that the Greek/Buddhist and Chinese elements can be represented, respectively, just by leaving off the appropriate sides of the cube. Thus, at far left, are the sides for the four original Greek elements, with two sides left off, while at immediate left is the cube with only one side left off for the five Chinese elements.
Finally, we might consider the relationship between the Chinese "five virtues" and how they seem to fit with the Kantian character typology considered elsewhere. None of the Chinese element associations match the Kantian typology, except one, imperfectly. However, if the idea is to map the five Chinese virtues onto the four Western humors, then some bumping and rearranging is going to happen. If "good faith," a central virtue indeed as Kantian good will, is to continue in the "center," then it would go to aether, not remain with earth. Righteousness replaces good faith; propriety goes to air; and kindness comes in to replace propriety. This leaves "knowledge" in place, but the Kantian virtue is now the closely related one of prudence.
The Seven Lucky Gods of Japan
The list of virtues is reminiscent of a story about the Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu (1623-1651), who in 1623 asked the monk Tenkei what virtues would constitute nobility. Tenkei replied that there were seven: Longevity, fortune, popularity, candor, amiability, dignity, and magnanimity. The Shogun then supposedly told Tenkei to select seven gods that would exemplify these virtues, and Tenkei picked out the gods that would then become the shichi fukujin, the seven (shichi) lucky (fuku) gods (shin), or seven gods of good fortune, (cf. Reiko Chiba, The Seven Lucky Gods of Japan, Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1966, 1992, pp.7-8, & Ian Reader, Religion in Contemporary Japan, U. of Hawaii Press, 1991, pp.164-165).
The "virtues" listed, however, are really not moral virtues. Most are gifts or graces of fortune, and the gods themselves have much more to do with benefits than with morality. This makes it rather hard to match them with Confucian virtues. Also, the match between gifts and gods is not always precise. Chiba herself gives Hotei for both popularity and magnanimity, while Jurojin represents wisdom, not one of Tenkei's virtues. Also, the gods as described by Reader sometimes have different benefits. The table gives both sets, respectively.
Hotei is the most familiar of these to Westerners, though his fat, laughing figure is often called the "laughing Buddha." But Hotei is not the, or a, Buddha, but a Chinese god, Bùdài in Chinese -- he is named after the "cloth bag," , that he carries, like Santa Claus, with gifts. Reader might be thought to have made a mistake with Fukurokuju, since Chiba convincingly illustrates his gift of longevity with a specific story. But the character for "longevity," ju, actually occurs in the names of both Fukurokuju and Jurôjin, so there is nothing preventing the gift from being associated with both, as Chiba does note it used to be with Jurôjin. Fukurokuju is of particular interest since his name combines the names of three separate and very popular Chinese gods: (fuku), (roku), and (ju). Fú, "happiness, blessing," sometimes is shown holding a baby. Lù, "prosperity, success, salary," is usually in the robes of a Chinese judge -- the good fortune of official pay. And Shòu, "longevity," looks like a Taoist sage, carrying a staff, gourd, or peach, and with the bulging forehead also characteristic of Fukurokuju.
The next step would be to match the seven gods with the seven elements. Since there is no real obvious basis for that match, I will leave it to further consideration. However, in the meantime it seems a shame to leave the matter entirely fallow, so I will employ a device to at least end on a colorful note. I am not aware of a canonical order for the seven gods, but a plaque I bought on Mt. Hiei has them standing in a row that I will match up with the sequence of the planets above.
Hotei
Jurôjin
Fukurokuju
Bishamon(ten)
Ben(zai)
-ten
Daikoku(ten)
Ebisu
popularity,
magnanimity wisdom longevity,
popularity dignity,
authority amiability,
beauty,
music wealth,
fortune candor,
honesty,
prosperity
Air
Water
Metal
Aether
Fire
Wood
Earth
Yellow
Blue
White
Purple
Red
Green
Black
Taoist
Taoist
Taoist
Buddhist
Hindu
Buddhist
Shinto
The last row in the table indicates the religious origin of the gods, according to Ian Reader. The first three are from Taoism, the . Bishamonten and Daikokuten derive from Buddhism, the , where the former begins as Vaisravans and the latter as Mahakala in India. Benzaiten derives from Hinduism, and is no less than the major goddess Sarasvatî. I am not sure that there is a pre-modern word in Japanese for Hinduism, as distinct from Buddhism. Indian gods came to Japan through Buddhism, and the character , used in the name of the Indian god Brahmâ, was often used with Buddhism, as was Brahmâ himself. Nevertheless, since there is another character for Buddhism, and this one is used to mean "India," "Sanskrit," and the like, it seems reasonable that , the "doctrine of Brahmâ" could mean Hinduism. Ebisu is a native Japanese god, and thus would be part of Shintoism, the , the "Way of the gods." Bishamonten and Daikokuten, along with another Indian god, the goddess Marinutsen (Mârîtchi), also used to be regarded as the three gods of war, , the Sansenjin.