Spring and Autumn Annals

The ''Spring and Autumn Annals'' is an ancient Chinese chronicle that has been one of the core Chinese classics since ancient times. ''The Annals'' is the official chronicle of the State of Lu, and covers a 242-year period from 722 to 481 BCE. It is the earliest surviving Chinese historical text to be arranged in annals form. Because it was traditionally regarded as having been compiled by Confucius—after a claim to this effect by Mencius—it was included as one of the Five Classics of Chinese literature.

The ''Annals'' records main events that occurred in Lu during each year, such as the accessions, marriages, deaths, and funerals of rulers, battles fought, sacrificial rituals observed, celestial phenomena considered ritually important, and natural disasters. The entries are tersely written, averaging only 10 characters per entry, and contain no elaboration on events or recording of speeches.

During the Warring States period (475221 BCE), a number of commentaries to the ''Annals'' were created that attempted to elaborate on or find deeper meaning in the brief entries in the ''Annals''. The ''Zuo Zhuan'', the best known of these commentaries, became a classic in its own right, and is the source of more Chinese sayings and idioms than any other classical work.

History and content

The ''Spring and Autumn Annals'' was likely composed in the 5th century BC. By the time of Confucius, in the 6th century BC, the term 'springs and autumns' ( , Old Chinese ) had come to mean 'year' and was probably becoming a generic term for 'annals' or 'scribal records'. The ''Annals'' was not the only work of its kind, as many other Eastern Zhou states also kept annals in their archives.

The ''Annals'' is a succinct scribal record that has around 18,000 total words, with terse entries that record events such as the accessions, marriages, deaths, and funerals of rulers, battles fought, sacrificial records observed, natural disasters, and celestial phenomena believed to be of ritual significance. The entries/sentences average only 10 characters in length; the longest entry in the entire work is only 47 characters long, and a number of the entries are only a single character long. There are 11 entries that read simply (), meaning 'a plague of insects'—probably locusts.

Some modern scholars have questioned whether the entries were ever originally intended as a chronicle for human readers, and have suggested that the ''Annals'' entries may have been intended as "ritual messages directed primarily to the ancestral spirits".

Commentaries

Since the text of this book is terse and its contents limited, a number of commentaries were composed to annotate the text, and explain and expand on its meanings. The ''Book of Han'' vol. 30 lists five commentaries:

* The ''Commentary of Zou'' ()
* The ''Commentary of Jia'' ()
* The ''Gongyang Zhuan''
* The ''Guliang Zhuan''
* The ''Zuo Zhuan''

No text of the ''Zou'' or ''Jia'' commentaries has survived. The surviving commentaries are known collectively as the ''Three Commentaries on the Spring and Autumn Annals'' (). Both the ''Book of Han'' and the ''Records of the Grand Historian'' provide detailed accounts of the origins of the three texts.

The ''Gongyang'' and ''Guliang'' commentaries were compiled during the 2nd-century BC, although modern scholars had suggested they probably incorporate earlier written and oral traditions of explanation from the period of Warring States. They are based upon different editions of the ''Spring and Autumn Annals'', and are phrased as questions and answers.

The ''Zuo Zhuan'', composed in the early 4th century BC, is a general history covering the period from 722 to 468 BC which follows the succession of the rulers of the state of Lu. In the 3rd-century AD, the Chinese scholar Du Yu interpolated the ''Zuo Zhuan'' with the ''Annals'' so that each entry of the ''Annals'' was followed by the corresponding passages of the ''Zuo Zhuan''. Du Yu's version of the text was the basis for the "Right Meaning of the ''Annals''" ( ) which became the imperially authorised text and commentary on the ''Annals'' in 653 AD.

During the late Han dynasty, there was a saying that the '' Guoyu'' was an "Outer Commentary" to the ''Spring and Autumn Annals''.

There is also the '' Chunqiu shiyu'' from the Mawangdui tombs detailing less information and some say shiyu was the teacher's name who wrote it.''

Influence

The ''Annals'' is one of the core Chinese classics and had an enormous influence on Chinese intellectual discourse for nearly 2,500 years. This was due to Mencius' assertion in the 4th century BC that Confucius himself edited the ''Annals'', an assertion which was accepted by the entire Chinese scholarly tradition and went almost entirely unchallenged until the early 20th century. The ''Annals terse style was interpreted as Confucius' deliberate attempt to convey "lofty principles in subtle words" (; ). Not all scholars accepted this explanation: Tang dynasty historiographer Liu Zhiji believed the ''Commentary of Zuo'' was far superior to the ''Annals'', and Song dynasty prime minister Wang Anshi famously dismissed the ''Annals'' as "a fragmentary court gazette" (; ). Some Western scholars have given similar evaluations: the French sinologist Édouard Chavannes referred to the ''Annals'' as "an arid and dead chronicle".

The ''Annals'' have become so evocative of the era in which they were composed that it is now widely referred to as the Spring and Autumn period.

Translations

*
part 1
an
part 2
at the Internet Archive; also with Pinyin transliteration
here
.
* Reprinted (1951), Paris: Cathasia.
*
* Watson, Burton (1989). ''The Tso Chuan: Selections from China's Oldest Narrative History''. New York: Columbia University Press.
* Miller, Harry (2015). ''The Gongyang Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals: A Full Translation''. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

See also

* ''Bamboo Annals''
* '' Luxuriant Dew of the Spring and Autumn Annals''
* '' Lüshi Chunqiu''
* '' Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue''
* '' Yanzi chunqiu''

Note

References

Works cited

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External links

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Full text of ''Spring and Autumn Annals''
(Chinese)

1872 English translation
by James Legge. Also at the Internet Archive
part 1
an
part 2

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spring And Autumn Annals
Chinese history texts
Chinese classic texts
Confucian texts
5th-century BC history books
Chinese chronicles
Works of unknown authorship
Zhou dynasty texts
Lu (state)
Four Books and Five Classics