| | The Grand Historian, while reading the annals of Spring and Autumn, genealogies, and records, whenever he came upon King Li of Zhou, never failed to set down his book and sigh. He said: "Alas! Master Zhi saw this!" When Zhou made ivory chopsticks, Ji Zi sighed. When the ways of the Zhou dynasty declined, poets took their inspiration from the couch and bed, thus composing "Guan Ju." As benevolence and righteousness declined, the poem "Lu Ming" was written as a satire. By the time of King Li, he hated to hear about his faults. The high officials and ministers feared punishment, so calamity arose; thus King Li fled to Zhi. Disorder began in the capital, and henceforth a regency was established under Gonghe. After this, some vied for power; the strong took advantage of the weak, and raised armies without seeking permission from the Son of Heaven. Yet, invoking the righteousness of the royal court, they took the lead in alliances and punitive expeditions. Power lay with the Five Hegemons; feudal lords acted at will, indulging in excesses and lawlessness, and treacherous ministers and usurping sons began to multiply. Qi, Jin, Qin, and Chu were very weak during the reign of King Cheng of Zhou; their fiefs were sometimes a hundred li or fifty li in size. Jin was blocked by the Three Rivers, Qi faced the East Sea to its back, Chu lay between the Yangtze and Huai rivers, and Qin relied on the natural defenses of Yongzhou. Thus, these four states rose in succession, becoming successive hegemons; the great fiefs praised by Wenwang and Wuwang were all brought into submission through their power. Therefore, Confucius expounded the way of kingship and sought audiences with more than seventy rulers, but none would employ him. Hence he traveled west to observe the Zhou court, discussed historical records and old accounts, began in Lu and compiled the Spring and Autumn Annals; starting from Duke Yin above and ending at the time when Duke Ai captured a qilin below, he abbreviated the wording, removed redundancies, and established principles of meaning and law. The way of kingship was complete, and human affairs were thoroughly covered. The seventy disciples passed down his teachings orally; the texts containing censures, satires, commendations, and omissions could not be written down explicitly. The Lu gentleman Zuo Qiuming, fearing that each disciple would interpret the teachings differently and establish their own views, thereby losing the truth, therefore based on Confucius's historical records fully expounded these words, completing the "Zuo Zhuan" (Commentary of Zuo) on Spring and Autumn. Duo Jiao compiled a chronicle for King Wei of Chu, because the king could not fully read the Spring and Autumn Annals. He selected accounts of successes and failures, concluding with forty chapters, forming the "Duoshiwei." During the reign of King Xiaocheng of Zhao, his prime minister Yu Qing drew upon the Spring and Autumn Annals above and observed recent circumstances below; he also composed eight chapters, forming the "Yu Shi Chunqiu." Lü Buwei, the prime minister of King Zhuangxiang of Qin, also looked back to antiquity and edited selections from the Spring and Autumn Annals, compiling events from the six states into Eight Surveys, Six Discourses, and Twelve Chronicles, forming the "Lüshi Chunqiu." Later scholars such as Xunzi, Mengzi, Gongsun Gu, and Han Fei, among others, often collected passages from the Spring and Autumn Annals to write their own works, each with different interpretations and records. The Han prime minister Zhang Cang compiled the calendar and five virtues, while the senior official Dong Zhongshu expounded the principles of the Spring and Autumn Annals and wrote many essays.
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