Yanzi chunqiu

The Yanzi chunqiu ("Yanzi Annals" or "Annals of Master Yan") is an ancient Chinese text dating to the Warring States period (475–221 BC) that contains a collection of stories, speeches, and remonstrations attributed to Yan Ying, a famous official from the State of Qi who served Duke Jing of Qi (r. 547–489 BC). It comprises 215 stories arranged into eight chapters. The first six chapters contain accounts of Yan Ying's remonstrations with the rulers he served. The seventh chapter contains variants on stories from the first six chapters, and the eighth chapter has anti-Confucian episodes that the Han dynasty imperial librarian Liu Xiang—who compiled the received version of the Yanzi chunqiu in the late 1st century BC—considered to be inconsistent with the Chinese Classics.

The Yanzi chunqiu incorporates themes from both Confucianism and Mohism and does not fit into any single Chinese philosophical tradition.

History

The first mention of the Yanzi chunqiu in a received work appears in the 62nd chapter of the ancient historian Sima Qian's late 2nd century BC work Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji 史記), the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. Sima states that many scholars of his generation had copies of the text, but does not mention any author for it. Contemporary sources indicate that, like many Chinese texts, the Yanzi chunqiu circulated in a variety of different versions and collections. In the late 1st century BC, the Han dynasty imperial librarian Liu Xiang edited 30 total Yanzi chunqiu chapters down to the eight chapters that compose the modern received text.