The Research on the Relations between Zuo Qiu-ming, Zuo Zhuan and Guo Yu

Whether the author of Zuo Zhuan was Zuo Qiu-ming or not is still debatable till now. The main reason for the debate is that Zuo Qiu-ming lived in the same period of time with Confucius and Zuo Zhuan was written after 403 BC. This paper argues that Zuo Qiu-ming is the original author of Zuo Zhuan and the contents of the book were inherited by his students who made some amendments and supplements to the prediction and some other contents of the book according to both their witness and Zuo Qiuming's thinking logic. The last author of the book who finished the final writing lived at least to 403 BC. Such kind of analysis is based upon the concerned historical data. About the relations between Zuo Qiu-ming and Guo Yu, this paper thinks through the logical reference of the writing process of the book that editing Guo Yu is the necessary step of writing Zuo Zhuan, but the Guo Yu composed by Zuo Qiu-ming has not been handed down.