Lüshi Chunqiu
An Edo period (1603–1868) edition | |
| Author | Lü Buwei |
|---|---|
| Original title | 呂氏春秋 |
| Language | Chinese |
| Genre | Chinese classics |
| Publication place | China |
| Lüshi chunqiu | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 呂氏春秋 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 吕氏春秋 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | "Mr. Lü's Spring and Autumn [Annals]" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Lüshi Chunqiu (simplified Chinese: 吕氏春秋; traditional Chinese: 呂氏春秋; lit. 'Lü's Spring and Autumn'), also known in English as Master Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals, is an encyclopedic Chinese classic text compiled around 239 BC under the patronage of late pre-imperial Qin Chancellor Lü Buwei. In the evaluation of 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, unknown elsewhere." One of the longest early texts, it extends to over 100,000 words.
Combining ideas from many different 'schools', the work is traditionally classified as 'Syncretist', though there was no school that called itself Syncretist.