经传

經傳
jīngzhuàn
noun #31,222

Meanings

  1. 1 the classics and their commentaries (esp. Confucian)
  2. 2 canonical works

Examples

Tā shúdú jīngzhuàn, xuéwen shēnhòu.
He has read the classics and commentaries thoroughly; his learning is profound.
Zhè wèi xuézhě bìngfēi míng bù jiàn jīngzhuàn.
This scholar is by no means an unknown.

Tips

history
(jīng) = the canonical classics themselves (《》《》《》《》《春秋》). (zhuàn, NOT chuán here) = the authoritative commentaries that accompany them — for example 《左传》, 《》, and 《》 attached to the Spring and Autumn Annals 《春秋》. 经传 together names the entire scholarly canon.
mistakes
Read as zhuàn ("commentary; biography"), not chuán ("to transmit"). The set phrase 不见经传 ("name unrecorded in the classics" = an unknown) is where most learners first meet this word.

Stroke Order

jīng
chuán