Translation of Selected Stories from the Historical Chronicles of “Zuo zhuan”. Transl. by D. Merzlyuk

“Zuo zhuan” )左传) or “The Commentary of Zuo on Springs and Autumns Annals” (春秋左氏传) – historical work of Ancient China. This chronicle describes events of the period from 722 till 468 BC, from times of Lu Yin-gong’s rule to Lu Ai-gong. Traditionally, the authorship of the chronicle attributes to Zuo Qiuming, a disciple of Confucius. Zuo Qiuming was a historian of the kingdom of Lu. “Zuo zhuan” is considered to be the first detailed complete historical work in China. This chronicle gives a large amount of information about wars, relations between Chinese ancient kingdoms in the period of the Eastern Zhou dynasty; religion etc. “Zuo zhuan” depicts natural philosophy views of the Ancient Chinese people, their attitude to religious ceremonies, world view, morale principles.
The translated texts were taken from the anthology “Guwen Guanzhi” (古文观止), anthology of masterpiece essays, it was compiled in 1694 year in the period of Emperor Kangxi (1661–1723) by Wu Chucai and Wu Tiaohou. This anthology consists of 222 texts from different works from the Warring States period to the Ming dynasty. This anthology represents the most outstanding works that reflect the development and achievements of the Chinese classical literature.