Guoyu(the Discourses of the States), regarded as a more detailedSpring and Autumn Annals, is a historical miscellanea about persons, events, and sayings of eight states including Zhou, Lu, Qi, Jin, Zheng, Chu, Wu, and Yue states during the Western Zhou Dynasty (11thcentury - 771BC) and the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476BC). It has been proved by modern scholars that there were blind historiographers that only memorized, recited, and narrated the history. The historical records, narrated by blind historiographers, were compiled into a book, calledYu. According to the different states, it was classified byZhou Yu,Lu Yu, and so on, which totally calledGuoyu.
In the Western Jin Dynasty (265-316AD), a lot of old books, including three chapters ofGuoyuthat spoke of the history of Chu and Jin, were found in the tomb of King Xiang of Wei State, which proved that this book started to be spread during the Warring States Period (475-221BC). The existingGuoyumay be the compilation of what remained. Because the sporadic records passed from mouth to mouth and its style was verbal statement, there were no rigorous criteria for differentiation of state and age, and arrangement of contents.
Among 21 volumes, the content ofGuoyuis not just limited to that ofChunqiu(Spring and Autumn Annals), but recorded many important events of the Western Zhou Dynasty (11thcentury - 771BC) and the Spring and AutumnPeriod.The records ofGuoyuare invaluable original historical materials; hence Sima Qian absorbed many historical materials from it as he wroteShiji(The Records of the Great Historian).
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