Green represents wood, growth and spring. In this season, the wild bees begin to swarm in the forest of Shennongjia, the famous green Biluochun tea is harvested in the Dongting region, and the Hani people use water buffaloes to till their rice terraces.

Red incense honours the ancestors and red is the colour of the Chinese New Year. Then lanterns and garlands in bright red line the streets. Red is also the traditional colour of weddings, and celebrations for thousands of years.

Yellow is the colour of the earth, it represents the balance of all things and actions, which is very important in Chinese thinking. Medicine aims to balance the internal organs, while cooking is about balancing the tastes. Yellow is the colour of the centre and for centuries it has been exclusively for the emperor.

The colour white is associated with autumn, the west and the setting sun. It is also the colour of mourning; cemeteries and gravestones are kept in white and a funeral is referred to as a ‘white occasion’. But just as light cannot exist without shadow, the colour white is also inextricably linked with its opposite, black. This is most evident in Chinese painting and in the yin and yang symbol.

Darkness, night, the life-giving element of water. In China, all of this is associated with the colour black – in the ancient philosophy of Wu Xing, the cycle of change. Winter is the black season, a time of resst; the cardinal direction of the fifth phase is north.