Research Of Quotations In Zuo Zhuan

Zuo Zhuan is one of the classics of Confucian, called’three commentaries on the Spring and Autumn Period’together with Gong Yang Zhuan and Gu Liang Zhuan. It is a typical representative of Pre-Qin dynasty historical essays, as well as an important historical material for the study on Spring and Autumn Period, Zuo Zhuan acts an important role in history of Confucian literature and historiography. Therefore, there have been so many Zuo Zhuan researchers from the beginning, named "study of Zuo Zhuan". As an vital part of the texts, the documents that quoted came to attracted attention and became important opening materials for the research of academic inheritance in Pre-Qin dynasty. There are three kinds of documents included——classics, conversation idioms, folk songs and proverbs, which are quoted by marquises or ordinary people. It makes an indispensable contribution to preserve the original literature.Based on the collection of the three documents mentioned above, this article aims to make comprehensive consolidation and research. The introduction part expounds academic value, research status, selection standards of the research objects and general view of the article. Chapter One analyses that why people in the Spring and Autumn Period liked quoting documents and also introduces general situation of the objects. Through these, I think that people’s sense of history and conversation, motion of the academic, domestic and foreign affairs’ demands, atmosphere of commenting contributed to this trend together.Classics are the most quoted in Zuo Zhuan, including their texts or only titles. Chapter Two makes a textual research on parts of them, for example, Through sorting these documents, we think that classics in the Spring and Autumn Period Showed the following characteristics:Historical classics were wide-spread and had a growth in the number; Archives had taken on a new appearance; Classics of military continued to develop, along with changes on the military thought; authority of The Book of Songs and Shang Shu were enhanced, receiving attention in the academic.Zuo Zhuan has various kinds of conversation idioms, some have speakers while some don’t. They embody ideological and cultural characteristics of the people in Spring and Autumn Period, which also reflect the initial stage and the development of academic and its influence. Among them, new sense of ritual and music, god and human had direct impacts on Confucius, making the pursue for essence of the ritual and people-oriented thought be the core concept of Confucianism. Nomocracy trend, views of penalty and reward, public-private values laid the foundation for the construction of theoretical system of Legalism in Warring States Period. At this time, military strategist also began to pay more attention to Utility, advocating governing the army by law and anti-war thought.Folk songs and proverbs that quoted account for the smallest proportion. Chapter Four generalizes their categories and theme, discussing the characteristics of folk documents in Spring and Autumn Period by analyzing their formal features and value orientation. At the same time, the quotation of the above documents in Zuo Zhuan had impacts on historiography creation and literary creation of later generations, and it’s of great significance in broadening the view of historiography, enhancing historical spirit, enriching historical writing techniques and so on. Zuo Zhuan is the first one who collected folk songs and proverbs consciously, and many similar works in later generations originated from it.