春秋左氏伝
Despite its prominent position throughout Chinese history as the paragon of Classical Chinese prose, little is known of the "Zuo Zhuan"′s creation and early history. Bamboo and silk manuscripts excavated from late Warring States period (c. 300) tombscombined with analyses of the "Zuo Zhuan"′s language, diction, chronological references, and philosophical viewpointssuggest that the composition of the "Zuo zhuan" was largely complete by 300. However, no pre-Han dynasty (202AD220) source indicates that the "Zuo zhuan" had to that point been organized into any coherent form, and no texts from this period directly refer to the "Zuo zhuan" as a source, though a few mention its parent text "Spring and Autumn Annals" ("Chunqiu" 春秋). The "Zuo zhuan" seems to have had no distinct title of its own during this period, but was simply called "Annals" ("Chunqiu") along with a larger group of similar texts. In the 3rd century AD, the Chinese scholar Du Yu intercalated it with the "Annals" so that each "Annals" entry was followed by the corresponding narrative from the "Zuo Zhuan", and this became the received format of the "Zuo Zhuan" that exists today. Today, most scholars believe that the "Zuo Zhuan" was originally an independent work composed during the latter half of the 4th century BCthough probably incorporating some older materialthat was later rearranged as a commentary to the "Annals".