春秋左氏傳
The Zuo Tradition (Zuo Zhuan)
Zuo Qiuming (traditionally attributed) 左丘明（傳） · 5th century BCE (traditional)
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Attached to the terse Spring and Autumn Annals, the Zuo Zhuan turns 722 to 468 BCE into narrative: battles told through the decisions before them, envoys trading verses, ministers arguing in a few exact lines. Its authorship and date are uncertain. For two thousand years it was how educated Chinese learned their early history and how they learned to write narrative prose.