Lüshi Chunqiu
| Lüshi Chunqiu | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 呂氏春秋 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 吕氏春秋 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | "Mr. Lü's [Spring and Autumn] Annals" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Lǚshì chūnqiū |
| Gwoyeu Romatzyh | Leushyh chuenchiou |
| Wade–Giles | Lü3-shih4 ch'un1-ch'iu1 |
| IPA | [lỳʂɨ̂ ʈʂʰwə́ntɕʰjóu] |
| Wu | |
| Romanization | liu zy tshen chieu |
| Yue: Cantonese | |
| Yale Romanization | Léuih-sih chēun-chāu |
| Jyutping | Leoi5-si6 ceon1-cau1 |
| Southern Min | |
| Hokkien POJ | Lū-sī chhun-chhiu |
| Eastern Min | |
| Fuzhou BUC | Lṳ̄-sê Chŭng-chiŭ |
| Middle Chinese | |
| Middle Chinese | Ljó-d͡ʒjé tɕʰwin-tsʰjuw |
| Old Chinese | |
| Baxter-Sagart | *[r]ˤa k.dəʔ tʰun tsʰiw |
The Lüshi Chunqiu (Lü-shih Ch'un-ch'iu) is an encyclopedic Chinese classic text compiled around 239 BC under the patronage of the Qin Dynasty Chancellor Lü Buwei. In the evaluation of Michael Carson and Michael Loewe,
The Lü shih ch'un ch'iu is unique among early works in that it is well organized and comprehensive, containing extensive passages on such subjects as music and agriculture, which are unknown elsewhere. It is also one of the longest of the early texts, extending to something over 100,000 characters. (1993:324)
The Shiji (chap. 85, p. 2510) biography of Lü Buwei has the earliest information about the Lüshi Chunqiu. Lü was a successful merchant from Handan who befriended King Zhuangxiang of Qin. The king's son Zheng (政, who the Shiji suggests was actually Lü's son) eventually became the first emperor Qin Shi Huang in 221 BC. When Zhuangxiang died in 247 BC, Lü Buwei was made regent for the 13-year-old Zheng. In order to establish Qin as the intellectual center of China, Lü "recruited scholars, treating them generously so that his retainers came to number three thousand" (tr. Knoblock and Riegel 2000:13). In 239 BC, he, in the words of the Shiji
...ordered that his retainers write down all that they had learned and assemble their theses into a work consisting of eight "Examinations," six "Discourses," and twelve "Almanacs," totaling more than 200,000 words. (Knoblock and Riegel 2000:14)
Lü exhibited the completed encyclopedic text at the market gate in Xianyang, the capital of Qin, with a thousand measures of gold hung above it, supposedly offered to any traveling scholar who could "add or subtract even a single character."
The Hanshu Yiwenzhi lists the Lüshi Chunqiu as belonging to the Zajia (雜家/杂家 "Mixed School"), within the Philosophers domain (諸子略), or Hundred Schools of Thought. Although this text is frequently characterized as "syncretic," "eclectic", or "miscellaneous", it was a cohesive summary of contemporary philosophical thought, including Legalism, Confucianism, Mohism, and Daoism.
...
Wikipedia