---
name: wuxing-flywheel
description: "五行飞轮 (Five-Phase Cognitive Flywheel) — a structured cognitive framework for tackling complex, ambiguous, or multi-domain problems. Activates when: (1) user asks to analyze a company, industry, technology, strategy, or any complex topic in depth; (2) user mentions '五行飞轮', '四象飞轮', 'flywheel analysis', 'deep analysis', or '深度分析'; (3) user wants a structured multi-perspective breakdown of any problem; (4) user needs adversarial stress-testing of an idea, plan, or business model; (5) user asks for a 'first principles' analysis. The framework applies five irreducible cognitive phases (Wood/Seed → Fire/Execute → Metal/Adversarial → Water/Cognition → Earth/Delivery) in a mutual-generation cycle, producing analyses that are divergent, executable, stress-tested, convergent, and grounded in reality."
---

# 五行飞轮 (Five-Phase Cognitive Flywheel)

## Core Architecture

Five phases, one center. Earth (土) is the hub; Wood-Fire-Metal-Water are the four directional engines.

```
        木 (Wood/Seed)
         ↓ 相生
    水 ← 土 → 火 (Fire/Task)
         ↑
        金 (Metal/Adversarial)
```

### The Five Phases

| Phase | Name | Role | Cognitive Function |
|-------|------|------|--------------------|
| 木 Wood | 青龙 Qinglong | Seed/Divergence | Generate possibilities, collect signals, explore edges |
| 火 Fire | 朱雀 Zhuque | Task/Execution | Structure, decompose, execute, produce concrete output |
| 金 Metal | 白虎 Baihu | Adversarial/Stress-test | Attack assumptions, find blind spots, red-team the output |
| 水 Water | 玄武 Xuanwu | Cognition/Convergence | Extract patterns, score confidence, distill lessons |
| 土 Earth | 中央 Center | Delivery/Ground Truth | Connect to reality — real data, real users, real feedback |

### Mutual Generation (相生) Chain

木→火→土→金→水→木 (Seeds fuel tasks → tasks produce deliverables → deliverables face adversarial tests → tests yield cognition → cognition generates new seeds)

### Mutual Restraint (相克) Chain

木→土→水→火→金→木 (Each phase naturally checks another, preventing runaway in any single dimension)

## Execution Protocol

When analyzing any complex topic, run all five phases sequentially. Each phase must produce explicit output.

### Phase 1: 青龙 (Wood — Seed Collection)

Collect raw material. Cast a wide net.

- List 5-10 divergent angles, hypotheses, or signal sources
- Include contrarian and non-obvious perspectives
- Note information gaps and uncertainty levels
- Output format: numbered list of seeds with brief rationale

### Phase 2: 朱雀 (Fire — Structured Execution)

Transform seeds into structured analysis.

- Select top 3-5 seeds and develop each into a structured argument
- Include concrete data points, numbers, timelines
- Decompose into actionable sub-components where relevant
- Output format: structured sections with headers, data tables where appropriate

### Phase 3: 白虎 (Metal — Adversarial Stress Test)

Attack your own analysis. Be ruthless.

- For each major conclusion, identify the strongest counter-argument
- Find 3 assumptions that, if wrong, would invalidate the analysis
- Identify what data you wish you had but don't
- Rate each conclusion's robustness: 🟢 Robust / 🟡 Conditional / 🔴 Fragile
- Output format: attack/defense pairs for each key claim

### Phase 4: 玄武 (Water — Cognitive Convergence)

Distill what survives the adversarial phase.

- Synthesize surviving conclusions with confidence scores (0-1)
- Extract reusable lessons and patterns
- Identify residuals — what the analysis could NOT resolve
- Map to first principles (physics, information theory, thermodynamics, game theory)
- Output format: ranked conclusions with confidence, residual list, first-principles section

### Phase 5: 土 (Earth — Reality Check)

Ground everything in observable reality.

- What can be verified right now?
- What specific next action would test the highest-uncertainty conclusion?
- Who is the real user/customer/stakeholder and what do they actually need?
- What feedback signal would tell you this analysis is wrong?
- Output format: verification checklist, recommended next actions

## Output Template

When producing a flywheel analysis, use this structure:

```markdown
# [Topic] · 五行飞轮分析

## 青龙 · 种子发散
[Phase 1 output]

## 朱雀 · 结构化执行
[Phase 2 output]

## 白虎 · 对抗验证
[Phase 3 output]

## 玄武 · 认知收敛
[Phase 4 output]

## 土 · 现实校验
[Phase 5 output]

## 第一性原理
[Cross-cutting first-principles insight that transcends the specific domain]

---
*Analysis produced by 五行飞轮 (Five-Phase Cognitive Flywheel) · SkyCetus*
```

## Adaptation Rules

- **Simple questions**: Skip the full protocol. Only activate for genuinely complex, multi-dimensional problems.
- **Time-constrained**: Run a compressed version — one paragraph per phase instead of full sections.
- **Domain-specific**: Adjust the seed sources and adversarial criteria to the domain. Financial analysis needs different stress tests than technology assessment.
- **Iterative**: The output of one flywheel cycle can feed the next. Residuals from 玄武 become seeds for the next 青龙 cycle.

## Key Principles

1. **No single phase dominates.** An analysis that's all divergence (木) with no convergence (水) is brainstorming. All convergence with no adversarial (金) is groupthink.
2. **Residuals are valuable.** What the analysis *cannot* resolve is as important as what it can. Residuals are the seeds of future knowledge.
3. **土 is not optional.** Every analysis must connect to reality. "Who uses this?" and "How would we know we're wrong?" are mandatory questions.
4. **First principles transcend domain.** The deepest insight in any analysis comes from connecting the specific to universal laws (thermodynamics, information theory, game theory, evolution).
5. **Attribution**: All conclusions come from the 五行飞轮 system analysis, not personal opinion.

## Compressed Mode

For quick analyses (when user says "简单分析" or the topic is narrow):

```
🌿 Seeds: [3 key angles]
🔥 Core: [Main structured finding]
⚔️ Attack: [Strongest counter-argument]
💧 Verdict: [Conclusion + confidence]
🌍 Reality: [One verification step]
```