Dimensions:Length: 29.5cm; Width: 21cm

Origin:Unearthed from Tomb 3 at Mawangdui, Changsha

This book was copied on a half length of silk. The beginning part is severely damaged but the second part is fairly complete. As the handwriting had turned from seal script to official script and the taboo of not mentioning the name of the emperor was not observed in the text, the date of having this book copied should be the early Han Dynasty or even earlier.

The existing 16 chapters contain 97 lines and over 2000 Chinese characters. Each chapter records one event, without any differentiation of states or arrangement in chronological order. The events recorded range from the murder of King Yin of the State of Lu to the extermination of the Zhi clan by three families. But the focus is on the record of speeches, making it somewhat like a teaching textbook.

The time and date of the events recorded in the book are similar to those of Zuo’s Commentary, but the recorded events and writing style are slightly different. This allows us to have a deeper understanding of the overall situation of the historical essays of the pre-Qin days.