The Chunqiu Annals ("Spring and Autumn"春秋, called as a year) is a very brief outline of internal events of the old state of Lu(鲁) (the annals of Chu楚had been called Taowu梼杌, the annals of the state of Jin晋Cheng乘; both are lost), combined with shortest reports of inter-state relationships with other feudal states and records of natural disasters in the period of 722 to 481 B.C (hence called the Chunqiu period 春秋时代). The authors seem to have very neutrally written down only the outer features of every event and only the insider knows what really happened during the conferences, meetings and feuds between the different lords of the disintegrating Zhou kingdom(周
). If we say "the autors", it should be noticed that Confucius (Kongzi 孔子
) who was told to have been the author of it, had at least a deep knowledge about the contenct of the oldest chronicle of China that has survived. Mengzi(孟子
) was the first to claim Confucius' authorship of the book.
The two commentaries Gongyang(公羊
) and Guliang(谷梁
) are two surviving of a whole of four. The two lost commentaries were written by Master Zou (邹氏
) and Master Xia(夹氏
). The commentaries have a very different interpretation of the sometimes obscur entries in the annals. The authors of the Gongyang and Guliang commentaries represent the New Text School and follow a Mengzi scheme to praise and blame (baobian 褒贬
) the rulers and actors in history. In their eyes, every single word in the original annals has its own meaning in judging the times past and to give a moral lessen to the present ruler. The Gongyang Commentary is said to have been written by a master called Gongyang Gao(公羊高
) but it can be traced back to late Warring States times (Zhanguo 战国
). The author of the Guliang Commentary was called Guliang Xi(谷梁喜
) or Guliang Shu(谷梁淑
). The Zuozhuan book - often referred as another commentary - is a different report of the same events as the Chunqiu annals with a few significant differences. First, it covers a longer period than the Chunqiu, that is until 463 B.C. The second, even more eye-catching, is the more narrative character of the Zuozhuan who makes a quite readable anecdote collection out of the dry, enigmatic charactered Chunqiu Classic. There are many events in the Zuozhuan that are not mentioned in the Chunqiu, so one can barely say the Zuozhuan is a commentary to the old annals. Originally stated to be an opus written by Zuo Qiuming(左丘明
), a contemporary of Confucius, we can learn that Liu Xin(刘歆
) was the Han times(汉
) discoverer of the Old Text Zuozhuan, some scholars say he forged a new version of the text to please the usurper Wang Mang(王莽
). The Annals cover the reigns of twelve dukes of the state of Lu and end abruptly in the year 481 BC when a fabulous beast (qilin 麒麟
) was killed. It is told that Confucius was disappointed by then and he decided to give up all educational work.
Print 
Email Article 
Favorite Font
Size: 
