Cross-cultural Exegesis of the Canonic Meanings in Legge’s Commentaries on The Spring and Autumn Annals

The commentaries of The Spring and Autumn Annals have interpreted the “subtle phrasing” of the classic to construct the “canonic meanings”, which, as the local knowledge of traditional Chinese studies, has been well presented in Legge’s cross-cultural commentary in his English translation of The Spring and Autumn Annals. Legge explained the purpose of the historical writing to construct righteousness, introduced the multi-fugue meaning construction by the commentaries, discussed the profound influence of the canonic meaning and discourse paradigm on Chinese culture, and, in his translation and annotation of the chapters, presented the canonic meaning through exegesis of phrases and quotations of traditional commentaries.