Extended data
The reason why Confucius wrote the Spring and Autumn Annals is recorded in Historical Records: "Yu (Tai Shigong) heard Dong Sheng say:' Zhou Dao is corrupt, Confucius is like a bandit, and the princes harm it, and the doctors kill it. Confucius did not use what he said, but he did not do what he said. For 242 years, he thought it was just a matter for the king to look down on the world, demote the emperor, retire the vassal and ask for a doctor. " ?
Confucius said,' I want to carry empty words, but I should see them clearly in my actions.' Sima Qian spoke highly of the Spring and Autumn Annals: "Fu wrote the Spring and Autumn Annals, Ming San Wang Zhidao, who knew the discipline of personnel, did not doubt right and wrong, distinguished right from wrong, never hesitated, was good and evil, was virtuous but not corrupt, preserved the country, inherited the peerless world, made up the waste, and became king. "... so in the Spring and Autumn Period, etiquette and righteousness are enormous. The husband's ceremony is not forbidden, and the law is behind; It is easy for users to see what the law does, but it is difficult to know what the ceremony does.
Academic circles have doubts about the historical value of Chunqiu. Hu Shi believes: "The book Spring and Autumn Annals can only be read as a reference book of orthodoxy, but not as a model history book. Later historians regarded Chunqiu as a model of history, which was a big mistake. Why? Because the purpose of history is to' tell the truth and remember the facts'. The purpose of Chunqiu is not to record facts, but to write personal judgments on facts. " Mr. Xu also said: "It can be concluded that the motivation and purpose of Confucius' compilation of Chunqiu is not the so-called' historiography' today, but the solemn mission of giving full play to the good history of ancient times and replacing the judgment of God with the judgment of history. It can be said that this is a mission above historiography, so it is a classic rather than history. "