Five Element Doll – Fo (Fire) (JA0007A)

Major Material: Cotton and Polyester
Major Color: Burgundy, Pink and Cream

Wig Size: 5.5 inch

It is well known that the ancient great Greek philosophers, more than 2 thousand years ago, conducted a broad range of studies, almost all inclusive in scope; in their exploratory thinkings and studies of nature and things at their time.
Their accomplishments; was later referred in whole as the “Greek philosophy”; or the “Greek system of thinkings or area of studies”.

After careful reviews and assessments, by numerous later modern day scholars, this ancient Greek philosophy or the Greek’s way of thinking, is now widely recognized as the forerunners or as the originators of various different modern day science disciplines today such as but not limited to: political philosophy, ethics, metaphysics, ontology, logic, biology, rhetoric, aesthetics, astrology; medical sciences, and so on and so forth.

Roughly during that same period, if not before that, but located on the other side of the world, thousands of miles away in old ancient China, another group or generations of Chinese scholars, who were totally oblivious of their Greek counter parts’ work or the Greek’s particular system of thinking or studies, developed on their own, another unique type of philosophy; or an unique Chinese system of thinking or area of studies, which was later referred to as “Wu Xing” (or also commonly referred to as the Five Phases); (Chinese writing: 五行).

Like their Greek counterpart, the “Wu Xing” philosophy; or the “Wu Xing” system of thinking or studies; were equally broad in scale; abstract in theory and quite inclusive in nature.

What made “Wu Xing” the philosophy, or the “Wu Xing” way of thinking or studies, different, from their old Greek counterpart, however, was that:
As a whole, the “Wu Xing” school of thoughts, compared to the Greek philosophy, was more humanized in nature; with more of the welfare and goodness of the mind and soul of the common people as their main focus of study or emphasis.

Most noticeable within the “Wu Xing” system of thinking is a concept now called the “Five Elements”. (Also referred to by various other different names such as: the Five Agents, or the Five Movements, or the Five Processes, or the Five Virtues; etc. today).

The Five basic Elements were composed of: Metal (金), Wood (木), Water (水), Fire (火) and Earth (土); the five most common elements that were available on earth.
According the “Wu Xing” system of thinking; surprisingly these five supposedly “inert” basic natural raw material are not static nor lifeless as commonly perceived; but very alive and active and can interact so intensively that they can affect people’s daily life.

As a matter of fact, according to the “Five Element” doctrine, these 5 supposedly lifeless raw materials are so active that they constantly interacting continuously; in shaping, influencing, and molding people’s daily life, fortunes and their inner character developments daily.

As the Greek philosophy or the Greek’s way of thinking, is now recognized as the forerunners or as the originators of various different modern day science disciplines today; the original “Wu Xing” system of thinking; after undergoing similar careful reviews and assessments as their Greek counterpart did, by numerous later day modern day scholars; is now also recognized as the forerunner or as the originator of various different modern day less recognized “sciences” or “studies” such as Geomancy or Feng Shui; (In Chinese: 風水), Chinese astrology, modern day traditional Chinese medicines, music, the development or evolution of individual human characteristics; martial arts; amongst a few others.

Most noticeable is that fact that these particular “sciences” or “studies” are almost all people oriented; with the goodness and the welfare of the common people as their prime focus of study.

Within the “Wu Xing” philosophy or system of thinking; is a key concept of “五行相生, 五行相剋”. (Pronounced as Wu Xing Xiang Sheng, Wu Xing Xiang Ke). (Loosely translated; It states: while any one element of the Five Elements, can easily lead to one other; at the same time, one element can also prevail over one another.
While at the same time, the same element may easily compliment and help one other at the same time.

As these seemingly contradictory statements, are both very abstract and confusing; please excuse us if we do not go into the details any further here.

The important thing to remember here is, however, that under the constant influences of the active “Fiver Elements”, there is a strong invisible interactive bonding force actively affecting every body’s daily life; which can affect all living beings on earth continuously.

In recognizing this strong invisible force that is active operating all around us, the term “Five Elements” is used here to refer to the abstract and yet invisible strong bondings amongst the closest of friends, or to refers to the close and interlocking relationship of the 5 “Five Element dolls” here in our brand new doll series.

In our newest doll series, the “Five Element dolls” are about five children who came from five different families; with different family backgrounds and with five different personalities; who only met by chance after attending the same study tour camp together and later on developed a strong and lasting friendship among them.

After meeting each other during a study tour; the five young ladies instantaneously got attracted to one another as if united by an invisible strong magnet; where soon afterwards, a lasting and bonding friendship developed amongst the five.
Under this strong and invisible bond of friendship; the 5 young friends; each gifted with their own unique character; would assist each other to overcome their life’s many challenges later on; and helped each other to achieve their individual goals, in their later individual lives, which would have been impossible to do so, for any one of them, if acting alone.

The second member of the “Five Element” doll series, presented here, is Fo – the element of Fire; full name: Ms. Man Ni Fo.
Young Ms. Fo was born in Russia, her mother is Russian, while her father is Chinese.
Ms. Man Ni Fo has one elder brother and one elder sister.
Being the youngest member in a family of five, all the elder members of the family pampered her, which caused young Ms. Fo to end up a bit whimsical in character.

Living in Russia, and born half Chinese, childhood Man Ni was fascinated by her Chinese heritage. Luckily her father would always obliged by telling her interesting traditional Chinese folktales and give her constant lessons about different aspects of Chinese culture.
One day, Ms. Fo Man Ni’s father told her a story about a famous Chinese calligrapher named: Wang Xi Zhi (王羲之), and his related story named “Exchange goose (food) with the use of Chinese Calligraphy” (In Chinese writings:”寫經換鵝”; in English it reads: “xie jīng huan e”.
From the story, young Ms. Fo later comprehended that: good hand writing may lead to fortunes or rewards.
Realizing that she had not pay much efforts and attention on her past hand writings, Ms. Fo felt embarrassed.
Spotting young Ms. Fo’s uneasy reaction, her father asked why she disliked the story.

To this, Young Man Ni replied: “No father, I like this story; but I realized that I had not been paying much attention to my Chinese hand writings in the past. After hearing Wang Xi Zhi’s story, I feel ashamed.”

Father said: “Then let me teach you how to correctly write Chinese calligraphy. Do you want to learn?”

To this question, young Ms. Fo became very excited and exclaimed: “Yes, father! I shall pay all my efforts to learn and practice it every day. I want my hand writings to be as good as Wang Xi Zhi’s Chinese calligraphy one day.”

Far from being complicated, Chinese characters are made out of simple single strokes and variations of these simple basic strokes. All strokes have their own name and are combined together according to a few rules.
It's very important to learn to recognize them, since the number of strokes in a character is often the easiest way to find the finished word in an index; or in Chinese dictionaries.
These basic strokes are the basic building blocks to form the final logographic Chinese words – which are sometimes mistakenly referred to as “Chinese alphabets”; which they are not.
The basic strokes (or basic building blocks) of Chinese writings were: “Dot stroke; horizontal stroke; down stroke to the left; down stroke to the right; vertical stroke; hook stroke; and etc.” (In Chinese writings: 點、橫、撇、豎、鉤etc.), and then combinations and/or variations of these basic strokes together to form various different logographic Chinese written words.

Ms. Fo was surprised and amazed.

A few days ago, Ms. Man Ni saw a TV program. In this show, some Chinese children, led by a few elderly Chinese gentlemen had gathered in a beautiful garden veranda. Together they held a huge large brush (more like a giant cleaning mop in reality), and used it to write or draw Chinese words on the cement floor. Their motions aroused young Man Ni’s curiosity. She had always liked to do watercolors. Young Ms. Fo just loved to see the flow and movement of watercolors on paper.
In the TV program, where the veranda floor had become a giant paper and the brush (the cleaning mop) moved freely on this huge paper, made Ms. Fo Man Ni felt very excited.

Here afterwards, every day after finishing her homeworks, young Ms. Fo would eagerly take out father’s Chinese calligraphy “four treasures” (In Chinese writings:文房四寶, In English it read: wen fang sì bao) – which were: paper, writing brush, Calligraphy ink and ink stone (In Chinese writings: 紙、筆、墨、硯) to practice her Chinese calligraphy patiently.

Witnessing this, Fo’s parents promptly arranged young Man Ni to attend a more proper Chinese calligraphy lesson, while happy to see their little daughter enjoying such a worthy activity with enthusiasm.
Months later, Ms. Fo’s father’s company established a new branch office in Beijing, China; where Fo’s father - and all his family members together – were reallocated to stay for a long period of time. Worried about their little daughter, and concerned that she may not be able to assimilate into the new social surrounding, Man Ni’s parents prudently arranged a study tour camp for her, where she can get to meet different children from various different parts of the world.

Ms. Fo Man Ni was a bit nervous about her upcoming study tour camp. “Would I meet new friends who enjoys Chinese calligraphy and like Chinese culture as I do? Will they like me?” These are the questions that resonate in Man Ni’s mind before she finally fell asleep.

Item included: Nude doll with make-up, Wig, Blouse, Skirt, Under-pant, Head-piece, Tight, Shoes, Paper, Writing Brush and Limited edition story book

Limited Edition