The central concept of the Wuxing tradition is the idea of qi, the force that connects and binds all life. Qi manifests itself in many ways and is often connected to the five basic elements of the tradition: fire, water, earth, wood, and metal. It also acts in connection with the two poles known as yin and yang, which are sometimes compared to order and chaos, or peace and tumult.

Much of the efforts of a wujen (which is what practitioners of Wuxing are called) are focused on getting various elements of qi to line up properly. As such, wujen often focus on ritual magic, particularly when those rituals can help them adjust background counts or ley lines to their liking.

The Wuxing tradition tends to be orderly, and it has found a home in many corporations (such as Wuxing, of all things). Wujen often thrive in orderly corporate environments and are skilled at working their way through hierarchies. This translates to their view of spirits, as they tend to have a hierarchical, almost bureaucratic view of the spirit world. This means that they are generally respectful to spirits, if a little stiff.

Wuxing is not tied to any larger religion, so there are no connections between wujen and any larger organizations (besides the corporations that often hire them). Within a corporation or similar organization, wujen tend to be friendly and collaborative with each other, especially when it comes to feng shui-related rituals seeking to make mana in an area flow as they would like. They do not, however, tend to cross organizational boundaries well, and often wujen from one corporation or equivalent organization will view others with a degree of suspicion, as if they were not truly pure in their practice of the tradition.

The orderly nature of Wuxing thought translates into the ways wujen often use magic. They like to be in control of any situation; if an encounter seems to be going off the rails, their first actions are generally aimed at getting everything calmed back down so they can deal with things the way they would like. Often this involves conjuring spirits to restrain those that need to be calmed down and impose order on an unruly spot. Wujen tend to have significant conjuring power, though pure spellcasters can also be found in the tradition. Adepts are somewhat less common, as their particular fly-in-theointment- style exploits do not always lend themselves well to Wuxing thought.

If you want the best teachers of Wuxing, go to Hong Kong. But not everyone can get there, and the teachers over there charge an arm and a leg for their services. For a better bargain, visit Charlie Sun in Vancouver. Recently retired from a Evo subsidiary, Sun has been finding fulfillment in his downtime by sharing his work experiences with whoever might be willing to listen. He can be rambling, but he is getting a growing body of friends because they say that as long as you pay attention, you’ll find out the old man had a depth of knowledge that far surpassed the middle management position he obtained.