Traditionally credited to
公羊高, a disciple of
子夏, it was handed down orally and written down in the early Han. With
左传 and
谷梁传 it is one of the three commentaries on the
春秋. It looks for the hidden judgments behind each terse entry, the
微言大义, and was the core text of
董仲舒 and the Han New Text scholars.
