Spring and Autumn Annals

Spring and Autumn Annals
Chunqiu in seal script (top) and regular script (bottom) characters
Chinese name
Chinese	春秋
Literal meaning	springs and autumns
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Chūnqiū Gwoyeu Romatzyh Chuenchiou Wade–Giles Ch'un1-ch'iu1 IPA [ʈʂʰwə́n.tɕʰjóʊ] Wu Suzhounese Tshen-tshøʏ Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Chēun-chāu Jyutping Ceon1-cau1 IPA [tsʰɵn˥.tsʰɐw˥] Southern Min Hokkien POJ Chhun-chhiu Tâi-lô Tshun-tshiu Middle Chinese Middle Chinese /tɕʰwin tsʰjuw/ Old Chinese Baxter (1992) *tʰjun tsʰjiw Baxter–Sagart (2014) *tʰun tsʰiw
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabet	Kinh Xuân Thu
Hán-Nôm	經春秋
Korean name
Hangul	춘추
Hanja	春秋
Transcriptions Revised Romanization Chunchu
Japanese name
Kanji	春秋
Kana	しゅんじゅう
Transcriptions Romanization Shunjū

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 241-year period from 722 to 481 BCE. It is the earliest surviving Chinese historical text to be arranged in annals form.^[1] 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.^[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 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.^[1]