The comparison of shi-no-ko-sho to spring, summer, autumn, and winter may be associated with the concept of Wuxing (The Five Practices), and it is quite interesting that shi-no-ko-sho are compared to a cycle of four seasons so as to arrange the social statuses in a row instead of putting them in a hierarchical order.
士農工商を春夏秋冬に当てはめるのは五行思想と関連していると思われるが、四季という循環性のあるものになぞらえ、身分を階級序列というよりは順次並列させているところが興味深い。