Spring and Autumn Annals
Spring and Autumn Annals | |||||
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Hán-Nôm 經春秋 | | ||||
Korean name | |||||
Hangul | 춘추 | ||||
Hanja | 春秋 | ||||
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Japanese name | |||||
Kanji | 春秋 | ||||
Kana | しゅんじゅう | ||||
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The Spring and Autumn Annals is an ancient Chinese chronicle that has been one of the core
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.[1] The entries are tersely written, averaging only 10 characters per entry, and contain no elaboration on events or recording of speeches.[1]
During the Warring States period (475–221 BC), 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.[1]
History and content
The Spring and Autumn Annals was likely composed in the 5th century BC.[1] By the time of Confucius, in the 6th century BC, the term 'springs and autumns' (chūnqiū 春秋, Old Chinese *tʰun tsʰiw) had come to mean 'year' and was probably becoming a generic term for 'annals' or 'scribal records'.[1] The Annals was not the only work of its kind, as many other Eastern Zhou states also kept annals in their archives.[2]
The Annals is a succinct scribal record, 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.
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".[1]
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 (鄒氏傳)
- The Commentary of Jia (夾氏傳)
- 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 (春秋三傳; Chūnqiū Sānzhuàn). 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
The
During the late Han dynasty they said the Guoyu was the outer Commentary to the spring and Autumn Annals.[5]
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.[6]
Influence
The Annals is one of the core Chinese classics and had an enormous influence on
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.[1]
Translations
- Legge, James (1872), The Ch'un Ts'ëw with The Tso Chuen, The Chinese Classics, Vol. V, Hong Kong: Lane, Crawford, & Co. (part 1 and part 2 at the Internet Archive; also with Pinyin transliterations here).
- Couvreur, Séraphin (1914). Tch'ouen ts'ieou et Tso tschouan [Chunqiu and Zuozhuan] (in French). Ho Kien Fou: Mission Catholique. Reprinted (1951), Paris: Cathasia.
- Malmqvist, Göran (1971). "Studies on the Gongyang and Guliang Commentaries". Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities. 43: 67–222.
- 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
- katydids'.[3] Schuessler (2007) reconstructs the Old Chinese pronunciation of 螽 as *C-juŋ, and compares it to Burmeseကျိုင် kyuing 'locust'.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Wilkinson (2012), p. 612.
- ^ Kern (2010), p. 46.
- ^ Du Yu, 《春秋經傳集解》 Chunqiu Zuozhuan - Collected Explanations. Sibu Congkan First Series version, "vol. 1" p. 69 of 189 quote: "螽……蚣蝑之屬為災"
- ^ Cheng (1993), p. 72.
- ISBN 978-0-300-09201-1.
- ISBN 978-1-5015-1710-5.
- ^ Cheng (1993), p. 67.
Works cited
- ISBN 1-55729-043-1.
- Kern, Martin (2010). "Early Chinese literature, Beginnings through Western Han". In Owen, Stephen (ed.). ISBN 978-0-521-11677-0.
- Wilkinson, Endymion (2012). Chinese History: A New Manual. Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series 84. Cambridge, MA: Harvard-Yenching Institute; Harvard University Asia Center. ISBN 978-0-674-06715-8.
External links
- Works related to 春秋左氏傳 (Spring and Autumn Annals – Commentary of Zuo) at Wikisource
- Works related to 春秋公羊傳 (Spring and Autumn Annals – Commentary of Gongyang) at Wikisource
- Works related to 春秋穀梁傳 (Spring and Autumn Annals – Commentary of Guliang) at Wikisource
- Full text of Spring and Autumn Annals (Chinese)
- 1872 English translation by James Legge. Also at the Internet Archive: part 1 and part 2