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How did Zou Yan connect yinyang with the Five Phases?

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Moxibustion — traditional Chinese medicine In moxibustion, or moxa treatment, small cones of an herb (typically *Artemisia moxa*) are burned on top of needles placed in designated points of the body, generally the same points as those used in acupuncture.

Zou Yan, a prominent Chinese cosmologist of the 3rd century BCE, is credited with integrating the theory of the Five Phases (wuxing) with the doctrine of yinyang.12

He proposed that the natural world is composed of shifting combinations of the Five Phases—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—which function as active energies or "breaths". Zou Yan connected these phases to the yinyang framework by establishing that the Five Phases are governed by the fundamental polarity of the cosmic principles: yin (associated with earth, passivity, and absorption) and yang (associated with heaven, activity, and penetration).132

By linking these concepts, Zou Yan helped construct a systematic cosmology that correlated natural phenomena with human events, providing a foundation for various fields, including traditional Chinese medicine, where the Five Phases correspond to specific organs within the human body.23