Sarapen's Journal

According to Chinese cosmology, there are actually five elements, though they are apparently more of a mnemonic device and are more properly referred to as the five phases or the five movements. Anyway, the five elements are:

• Fire (Chinese: 火, pinyin: huǒ)
• Earth (Chinese: 土, pinyin: tǔ)
• Metal (Chinese: 金, pinyin: jīn)
• Water (Chinese: 水, pinyin: shuǐ)
• Wood (Chinese: 木, pinyin: mù)

The number five figures into a lot of Chinese cosmology – the Five Cardinal Points (centre is included) for example, or the Five Relationships of Confucianism.

I thought of applying the Five Relations to Avatar’s bending philosophies. To wit:

1. Air - Friend to friend. Air is the bender's friend, it delights in helping its dear comrade.
2. Water - Parent and child. The bender's power flows from Tui and La, who bestow their power as a parent bestows gifts upon a child.
3. Earth - Elder brother to Younger brother. The bender is the younger brother who can only gain concessions from the elder brother of earth through standing up to him.
4. Fire - Ruler and ruled. Fire is the servant of the bender, to be ordered around and dominated.
5. Which leaves the fifth relation of husband and wife to be carefully ignored.

I’m still not certain if the one for Earth is entirely right. Perhaps the bender should be the Elder Brother, or perhaps husband and wife to Earth? I do like how appropriate the rest of it is.

I just can’t figure out how to put this into a fic. It should probably be a serious one. Maybe for The Quest I can have Katara encounter these philosophies while she travels through the Four Nations. It sure wouldn’t be appropriate for the two jokefics I’m writing.