Five Elements 五行, Metal 金
Lucky colors of the Metal element
Metal takes white 白 in the texts, not a metallic color, and it sits in the west
Metal in the Five Elements texts
- Direction
- West
- Season
- Autumn
Color in the texts
- Element colorwhite 白
Metal is white in the texts
A metallic color is what many expect, yet the 《素問》 line is 西方白色, the west with white. The character 金 in the name of the element does not set its color.
Early autumn in 《禮記·月令》 brings 衣白衣 and 載白旂, robe and banner alike in white. Liu An names 白虎 for this element, so 白 appears in all three books.
Where Metal sits in the two cycles
土生金 puts Earth before this element, and 金生水 puts Water after it. On the overcoming side, 火剋金 sets Fire above it, while 金剋木 sets it above Wood.
庚 is white, 辛 is red
庚, a yang stem, is white like the element. 辛, a yin stem, has 紅 (hóng), a different character from 赤 though English also calls it red. The text counts it as a mixed color.
- 庚white 白Yang stem, true color
- 辛red 紅Yin stem, mixed color
Stem colors are the colors in the text, not lucky colors of the year.
These colors are traditional belief, not a prediction.