Recording the great events of Lu state from 722 BC to 481 BC (or 479 BC) during the Spring and Autumn Period(770-476BC),Chunqiu(Spring and Autumn Annals) is a book of chronological history but was incomplete in terms of content. It is exctly an original record, which has 16,000 words, and relates to politics, military affairs, economy, culture, astronomy, and society. Because there are 30 times of solar eclipse out of 37 ones written in the book, tallying with the workout of modern astronomy, which is enough to prove that the contents inChunqiuis true. Formerly it was said that Confucius wroteChunqiu, however, it had been proved by some scholars thatit was compiled by historiographers of the Lu state in the past dynasties, and was spread before the birth of Confucius.
The existingChunqiucan be seen inZuozhuan, Guliang ZhuanandGongyang Zhuan(the Zuo, Guliang and Gongyang commentaries onSpring and Autumn Annals),and the three original texts are largely identical but with minor differences.
The content ofChunqiuis very curt: the each year recordation, the summarization of historical events, just more than 20 items at most, only 2 items at least; the longest item has 40 words only, and the shortest one has several words. The reason is that the then history mainly came down via dictation, and the text was only used to hint.
Though with brief content,Chunqiurecorded the exact time, site, and person, which proved the historiographers' dictation: it is a large progress in historiography. AndZuozhuancomplements the historical data inChunqiu.
Nevertheless, there are some differences in political views betweenChunqiuandZuozhuan.After the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD)Chunqiuwas deemed as scripture written by Confucius, so it had the highest status in politics and academic study. Confucian scholars of the past dynasties commentated and made it influential in the fields of Confucian classics, historiography, even in politics.
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