In tracing the history of wuxing, the two volumes of ‘A History of Chinese Philosophy’ by Fung Yu-Lan, translated by Derk Bodde, provide the most insightful account of the origin and description for wuxing.
For the most recent exposition on the wuxing, the article ‘The Title and Structure of the Wuxing’ by Wen, Xing (2011) contributes to ‘proper understanding of the Wuxing and Chen Lai’s four papers on the Wuxing..’
XingWen’s article appears in the Contemporary Chinese Thought Vol.43 No.2, Winter 2011-2012, pp:6-13.
As highlighted in XingWen’s article, two versions of the Wuxing texts were excavated, first one in September 1973 in Changsha, Hunan province known as the ‘Mawangdui Hans tomb silk manuscripts’, and the other in October 1993 in Guodian, Jingmen, Hubei province known as ‘Guodian Chu tomb bamboo manuscripts’.
Besides the classic Chinese History and/or Philosophy books listed under the book page, the following sources of information provide further discourse on wuxing:
The Huang Di Nei Jing Suwen- The Yellow Emperor’s Canon of Internal Medicine. This consists of two books the Ling Shu and the Su Wen, that were collated around 150 CE.
Book Title: Huang Di nei jing su wen : nature, knowledge, imagery in an ancient Chinese medical text : with an appendix, The doctrine of the five periods and six qi in in the Huang Di nei jing su wen / Paul U. Unschuld.
Author: Paul U. Unschuld, (Paul Ulrich), 1943-
Publication Details: Berkeley, Calif. ; London : University of California Press, 2003.
The Nan-Ching – The Classic of Difficult Issues, compiled in the first century CE. Author: Pien-chʾio.
Book Title: Nan-ching : the classic of difficult issues / edited by Paul U. Unschuld.
Publication Details: Berkeley : University of California Press, c1985.
A great tiny gem packed book : In the Footsteps of the Yellow Emperor: Tracing the History of Traditional Acupuncture by Professor Peter Eckman, 1996. Prof. Eckman’s work and publications at his website.
Book Title: Wu Xing, The Five elements in Classical Chinese texts
Author: Élisabeth Rochat de la Vallée, 2009
Elisabeth Rochat de laVallée’s website