TREE OF LIFE: The Wood Element

“十年树木 › 百年树人 。”
— It takes ten years to cultivate wood, and a hundred years to cultivate man.
From the works of Guan Zhong, a politician in the Spring and Autumn Period, on education.

It is wood.

But other than its diverse physical nature, in Chinese philosophy, wood, sometimes translated as “tree”, represents the growth of matter. Wood is the first, and in Taoism, its attributes are considered to be strength and flexibility. Trees and bamboo are our closest concept to the element of wood. Wood corresponds to spring, and is referred to as “young yang”. It covers and penetrates the earth, growing, rooted, and proliferating rapidly. Wood is flexible, yielding, strong and durable. Wood expands away from its centre, grasping the deep Earth essence and drawing it toward heaven. It also burns to make fire.