Chun Qiu: Spring and Autumn

Spring and Autumn Annals is one of the "Five Classics" of Confucianism, traditionally believed to have been compiled by Confucius based on the records of the official historians of the State of Lu. It is an annalistic history covering 242 years, from the first year of Duke Yin of Lu (722 BCE) to the fourteenth year of Duke Ai of Lu (481 BCE). Though brief in length, it is renowned for its "subtle words with profound meaning," and is the earliest extant annalistic history in China, as well as a key text for understanding the "Spring and Autumn style" and the spirit of ancient historiography.

The Spring and Autumn Annals records events with extreme conciseness, often embedding praise or blame in a single word. Terms such as "assassinate" (弒), "kill" (殺), "conquer" (克), and "enter" (入) all carry moral judgments. Later generations believed that Confucius "wrote what he would write and deleted what he would delete," using historical composition to express political ethics such as honoring the Zhou king, repelling the barbarians, clarifying good and evil, and rectifying names and statuses. The Three Commentaries—Zuo's Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals, Gongyang's Commentary, and Guliang's Commentary—interpret the principles of the Spring and Autumn Annals from different perspectives. Among them, the Zuo Commentary is particularly rich in narrative and has become an important historical document.

During the Han dynasty, the study of the Spring and Autumn Annals flourished. The Gongyang and Guliang schools were established as erudite scholars, influencing politics and classical studies. Zuo Qiuming's Zuo Commentary, with its detailed narrative, became a treasure of both historiography and literature. Du Yu's annotations to the Zuo Commentary allowed it to circulate alongside the Spring and Autumn Classic. After the Song dynasty, the Spring and Autumn Annals remained among the Five Classics, and its tradition of "great principles" profoundly influenced Chinese historiography and political culture.

As a perfect integration of "history" and "classic," the Spring and Autumn Annals inaugurated the tradition of conveying the Way through history. Reading this work allows one to appreciate how Chinese historiography, with its brief records, carries profound value judgments, and to understand the far-reaching influence of the "Spring and Autumn style" on later historical writing and political ethics.