Chunqiu fanlu 春秋繁露

Chunqiu fanlu 春秋繁露 "Rich dew of the Spring and Autumn Classic" is a political treatise written by the Former Han-period 前漢 (206 BCE-8 CE) philosopher Dong Zhongshu 董仲舒 (179-104 BCE), who used the Confucian Classic Chunqiu 春秋 "Spring and Autumn Annals" to develop a modern exegesis of the text with a political meaning for contemporary rulers.

The term fanlu 繁露 (also written 蕃露) denoted the decoration of the emperor's cap, a kind of small curtain of pearl strings hanging down from its front and back. The meaning of the book was thus actually "The Chunqiu's (instructions) to the emperor". Only later, during the Tang period 唐 (618-907), it was interpreted by Jia Gongyan 賈公彥 with the literal meaning of "rich dew".

While the Chunqiu fanlu was often seen as a commentary on the Chunqiu in the tradition of Gongyang Gao 公羊高 (author of the Gongyangzhuan 公羊傳), its implications are far more radical. Dong Zhongshu's interpretation of history as being subjected to cosmological cycles (the Five Agents and the Yin-Yang duality) challenges the very dynasty under which he lived and announced the coming of a new, sage ruler. With the integration of the old Yin-Yang theory, in which man and woman occupy an equally balanced position, into Confucianism, the thinking of two mutually dependent and mutually influencing forces was deconstructed to a model, in which man was superior and women were subordinated.

The received version of the Chunqiu fanlu is 82-chapters long. It was during the Qing period 清 (1644-1911) commented by Ling Shu 凌曙 (1775-1829, Chunqiu fanlu zhu 春秋繁露注) and Su Yu 蘇輿 (1874-1914, Chunqiu fanlu yizheng 春秋繁露義證). A Song-period 宋 (960-1279) version is reproduced in the encyclopaedia Yongle dadian 永樂大典. Another extant print is that of the Lanxue Studio 蘭雪堂 from the Ming period 明 (1368-1644), printed in movable type, and Lu Wenchao's 盧文弨 (1717-1795) print of the Baojing Studio 抱經堂 from the Qing period.