Spring and Autumn Annals (Annotated)

The Spring and Autumn Annals is a terse chronicle of the state of Lu, covering the years 722–481 BCE and recording accessions, wars, treaties, sacrifices, omens, and deaths with remarkable economy. Its spare, annalistic style—often no more than a sentence per event—became central to classical Chinese historiography because later readers found in its wording a subtle moral judgment. Set amid the fr...