What are the Five Thieves in Taoism? 什么是五贼
Paul PengWhat are the Five Thieves in Taoism?
Another term for the Five Elements (Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth).
The ancients used the Five Elements to explain the generation and transformation of all things, holding that they maintain a relationship of mutual restraint and mutual benefit.
What are the Five Thieves in Taoism?In Discourses Weighed in the Balance · On the Nature of Things, Wang Chong recorded a saying by an anonymous author:
“Heaven uses the qi of the Five Elements to generate all things; humans use all things to accomplish all affairs.
If things cannot control one another, they cannot employ one another.
If they do not harm one another, they cannot become useful.
If Metal does not overcome Wood, Wood cannot be made useful.
If Fire does not refine Metal, Metal cannot be formed into vessels.
Thus all things harm and benefit one another.”
Taoism inherited this idea.
In the Yellow Emperor's Hidden Talisman Classic, the Five Elements are called the “Five Thieves.”
It states:
“Heaven possesses the Five Thieves; those who understand them will flourish.”
This highlights the role of mutual conquest and harm among the Five Elements, stressing that without mutual restraint, there can be no completion; without mutual harm, there can be no mutual benefit.
Once humans comprehend this principle of the Five Elements—mutual restraint and benefit, opposition and complementarity—they can assist in the transformation and nourishment of Heaven and Earth.
