You can buy a wall scroll with "The Five Elements" in Chinese characters.

This is earth, soil, ground or terra.

This is the symbol for fire, flame, or blaze in Chinese, Korean and Japanese.

This is a certain school or style of Tai Chi (Taiji). The characters literally mean "Five Elements Tai Chi Fist".

Notes:
In Taiwan, it would be Romanized as "Wu Hsing Tai Chi Chuan" - see the standard Mandarin method above in the gray box (used in mainland China and the official Romanization used by the Library of Congress).

The last three characters are sometimes translated as "Grand Ultimate Fist", so the whole thing can be "Five Elements Grand Ultimate Fist" if you wish.

I have not confirmed use of this title in Korean, but if it is used, it's probably only by martial arts enthusiasts. The pronunciation is correct as shown above for Korean.

This is the title of the five elements which are: wood, fire, water, earth and metal. The first character means "5" and the second character is simply "elements".

According to ancient Chinese science, all matter in the world is made up of these elements. One idea presented with the five elements is that when energy is added, matter is believed to expand. When energy is removed, matter contracts. Oddly, this concept is not far from Einstein's theories, and modern science. Just a few thousand years before Einstein.

See Also...  Wood | Fire | Water | Earth | Metal

This is a list of the Chinese characters for the five elements in a comfortable order (meaning that they are in the proper chronological order and will simply "feel right" to a Chinese person who views this arrangement).

The characters you see to the left are read starting at the top of the right column, and reading down, then going to the left column. Traditional Chinese is often read from top to bottom and from right to left (totally the opposite of the English left to right horizontal scheme). The order is metal, wood, water, fire, earth.

While shown here in a two-column format, you will be able to choose from a single or double column scroll on the second page of options if you choose these five characters.

Note that sometimes the metal element is translated as gold. And earth refers to soil versus the whole planet earth.

This is a warning against a futile effort. This proverb literally refers to one who is "trying to put out a burning cart of wood with a cup of water". The lesson to be learned is about using the right measure or tool for the job, and not to waste your effort if you are inadequately equipped for the task at hand - in other words the postscript should be "go get a bucket or a fire hose".

This is the symbol for metal (often means gold or money) in Chinese, Korean and Japanese.

In an interesting twist, in Japanese, this Kanji can also mean "Friday". I guess Friday is "the golden day" in Japan.

This is a Chinese, Japanese and Korean term that applies to the sacred fire of the ancient Greek Olympic torch or games.

This could also apply to other sacred fires, as it can be a somewhat generic term.

This is the symbol for water in Japanese and Chinese.

This is the symbol for wood in Japanese, Korean and Chinese. This can sometimes mean "tree" depending on context. In fact, the character comes from a pictogram that is supposed to resemble a tree.