A room of Water · 水

One of the five phases behind your Primal Zodiac Animal

Water in myth and culture

上善若水

上善若水 (shàng shàn ruò shuǐ), the highest good is like water. Laozi's line from the Dao De Jing sets the tone for how China reads Water: it benefits all things, seeks the low place others avoid, and overcomes the hard by yielding.

The philosophy of water

In chapter 8 of the Dao De Jing, water is the model of the sage: it nourishes everything, contends with nothing, and settles where others will not go. Softness that outlasts hardness is the whole teaching, echoed in the proverb 水滴石穿 (shuǐ dī shí chuān), dripping water pierces stone.

Rivers, dragons, and the flood

Water runs through Chinese myth: the Dragon Kings 龍王 who rule rain and sea, the Yellow River 黃河 and the Yangtze 長江 as the country's lifelines, the flood-taming of 大禹 (Yu the Great), and 玄武 the Black Tortoise, guardian of the north and of Water. The chengyu 飲水思源 (yǐn shuǐ sī yuán), drink water and think of its source, carries the same current into daily speech.

Where Water sits

Leave Water in any direction

The five phases are one lens on your Zodi Animal, the creature you get when your Western Sun sign crosses your Chinese zodiac year.