Zuozhuan

Abstract

This entry introduces Zuozhuan ( Zuo Tradition or Zuo Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals ), the major historical work from China's preimperial age. The entry surveys debates about the nature of Zuozhuan (particularly its relation to the canonical Annals ), its dating and authorship, and its historical reliability. It highlights Zuozhuan 's role as a milestone in the development of Chinese historiography. The entry presents Zuozhuan as a peculiar product of China's aristocratic age, a text the ideological orientations of which differ considerably from those of China's later intellectual tradition.