“The elements were termed by Empedocles ‘roots’ (rhizomata, ριζωματα) and the familiar word stoicheia (στοιχεια) was first used by Plato (-426 to – 348). Contrary to a common belief, this word seems to have had no connection with the idea of movement, but in its most primitive sense signified a small stationary upright post, in fact a gnomon.”

Most interesting. I believe the gnomon (an uprigth wooden or bony measurement staff) may be the origin of the henua glyph type.

“Earth has its place at the centre and is (at it were) the rich soil of Heaven. Earth is Heaven’s thighs and arms, its virtue so prolific, so lovely to view, that it cannot be told at one time of telling. If fact earth is that which brings these five elements and four seasons all together.” (Tung Chung-Shu)

Here I find confirmation of my ideas about the limbs of man being symbols of the 'seasons'.

“As for the five elements, the first is called Water, the second Fire, the third Wood, the fourth Metal, and the fifth Earth. 

Water (is that quality in Nature) which we describe as soaking and descending. 

Fire (is that quality in Nature) which we describe as blazing and uprising. 

Wood (is that quality in Nature) which permits of curved surfaces or straight edges. 

Metal (is that quality in Nature) which can follow (the form of a mould) and then become hard. 

Earth (is that quality in Nature) which permits of sowing, (growth), and reaping. 

That which soaks, drips and descends causes saltiness. That which blazes, heats and rises up generate bitterness. That which permits of curved surfaces or straight edges gives sourness. That which permits of sowing, (growth), and reaping, gives rise to sweetness.” (Shu Ching)

”When the waters moves, the shadows dance; men cannot decide whether they are good-looking or ugly - the state of the water is confused …” (Hün Tzu)

'The state of the water is confused'. Disorder is opposite to order. Water is the opposite of Fire, because you need fire to enlighten, put into order. But water comes first, chaos is there before order is born. Woman is needed to give birth.

“Freeman describres the dualistic cosmology of the Pythagorean school (-5th century), embodied in a table of ten pairs of opposites.

On one side there was the limited, the odd, the one, the right, the male, the good, motion, light, square and straight. 

On the other side there was the unlimited, the even, the many, the left, the female, the bad, rest, darkness, oblong and curved.”

Wood and Metal are ambivalent, they contain their own opposites. Wood permits both curvature and straightness, Metal both fluency and firmness.

Earth is perpetual cyclical change. 

“Philolaos of Tarentum (c. -430) felt the need of the fifth element because he thought that there ought to be some connection between the elements and the five known figures of solid geometry. 

He called it holkas (όλκάς), the hull (as if of a ship), or vehicle, and perhaps thought of it in a way somewhat similar to the apeiron of Anaximander. 

Plato followed this up, identifying the fifth with aether (αιθήρ), a subtler kind of air, and Aristotle relegated it to the substance of the heavenly bodies, thus banishing it from the sublunary world.”

'Sublunary world', a confirmation that Moon and Earth are close together.

In China the 5th element was Metal. Water, Fire, Wood and Earth had been there forever, but Metal must have been a mysterious new thing.

“The cyclical recurrence of the elements according to the order of their mutual production through the seasons of the year became in later centuries very much stylised. 

In each of the five seasons of the year (the sixth month being considered separately between summer and autumn), the five elements would each be in one or other of the following phases: ‘helping’ (hsiang), ‘flourishing’ (wang), ‘retiring’ (hsiu), ‘undergoing imprisonment’ (chhiu) and ‘dying’ (ssu). 

Later there were twelve phases corresponding to the twelve months of the year, which each of the five elements occupied in turn: (1) to receive breath (shou chhi); (2) to be in the womb (thai); (3) to be nourished (yang); (4) to be born (sêng); (5) bathed (mu yü); (6) to assume the cap and girdle (kuan tai); (7) to become an official (lin kuan); (8) to flourish (wang); (9) to become weak (shuai); (10) to become ill (ping); (11) to die (ssu); and finally (12) to be buried (tsang).” 

“By the Enumeration Orders I mean the orders in which the five elements were named in the various ancient and medieval presentations of the subject. These orders were far from being always the same. We may distinguish the four most important ones as follows:

 “When the principle of control was related to the Mutual Production, as well as to the Mutual Conquest order, the corollary followed that the ‘controlling’ element is always that one produced by the destroyed element. Thus W conquers E [e.g. wooden spades can dig earth up and shape it] in a process which is controlled by M [metal can cut wood and carve it], but M is the product of E [‘by fostering the growth of metallic ores within its rocks’]. 

This argument was used, following all too human Confucianist interpretations … to prove that a son had the right to take revenge on the enemy of his father. 

Nevertheless, there was a germ of dialectical thinking here. The idea of something which acts upon something else and destroys it, but in so doing is affected in such a way as to bring about later on its own change or destruction, has become rather familiar to us.”

These complexes sound interesting. I will wait until Needham 3 for more details. Everything connected with 'calendars' should be noted.