Talk:The Elements (eastern)
do you think that this should be (eastern) or (chinese). If it needs to be changed, it's better to do it early.
The system of elements outined in this section is accurate, but incomplete. it is better to leave it as eastern, as there are many places where the system has been adopted outside of china, sue to thousands of years of trade with other civilisations.
In japanese theory, there are two systems of elements, the go dai, and the go gyo. What is outlined above is the go gyo section only. it describes how that elements in creation interact with each other through organic processes within the body, and is used chiefly as a mimetic device for students of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The Go Dai uses a slightly different set of elements (earth, water, fire, wind, void) to describe how the 10,000 things arise from out of the void.
It is used for more metaphysical purposes, in order to understand creation.
Neither is considered to be "true" in an absolute sense. they are mearely devices for catagorisatoin and learning, nothing more. Medical practitioners that rely to much on the go gyo wind up missing some of the finer points of organ theory, as it tends to oversimplify processes.