Confucius' Spring and Autumn Annals is a political work, which contains the author's profound political thoughts, which is the unanimous view of scholars from pre-Qin Meng and Xun to Han Ma and Ban. After the Han Dynasty, Confucian classics declined, and scholars began to regard Chunqiu as a historical work, which triggered a long-term debate on the nature of Chunqiu.

Around the question of whether Chunqiu is a historical work or a political work, the following three views have been formed for thousands of years:

The view of traditional Confucian scholars is that Chunqiu is a political science work, which is held by scholars Xu, Hu Shi, etc.

The viewpoint of China ancient classic scholars and modern scholars who distinguish ancient history is that Chunqiu is a historical work, and China ancient classic scholars such as Du Yu, Qian, Gu Jiegang, Liu Jie, etc. all insist on this viewpoint.

The theory of harmony, that is, the Spring and Autumn Annals, is held by Qian Mu and others. Regarding the statement that "Classics are also history", Qian Mu thinks that "Chunqiu" is a statement that "Classics are also history", on the grounds that there is no difference between ancient classics and history, and the distinction between classics and history is a concept that only exists in later generations.

"If we insist that Chunqiu is a non-historical work, we can only see that this is the opinion of future generations, and it is not too painful to argue for ancient works on this basis." However, in a paper in 1960s, Mr. Zhong made a special analysis on the theory of "no distinction between classics and history", and expounded the viewpoint that China's ancient classics and history were different and history came before classics.