Overwhelming

In the doctrine of the five phases, an abnormal exaggeration of restraining, where one of the phases is weakened, causing the phase that under normal circumstances would overcome it to invade and weaken it further. For example, wood normally restrains earth, but if earth is weak, then wood overwhelms it, rendering earth even weaker. In terms of the viscera, this means that the spleen, normally only restrained by the liver, will, if weak, be completely overwhelmed, becoming even weaker.