《春秋》本指先秦时代各国的编年体史书，但后世不传，现在通常指唯一留存至今的鲁国的《春秋》。鲁春秋可能是孔子的作品或该国史官的集体创作，流传至汉朝被尊为五经之一，在四库全书中属于经部（十三经之一）。

此书记载了从鲁隐公元年（前722年）到鲁哀公十四年（前481年）间鲁国与众诸侯国的大事，也是中国现存最早的编年体史书。《春秋》一书的体例宛若各年月的新闻标题汇编，意不在史而在“义”。辜鸿铭之《中国人的精神》（The Spirit of the Chinese People）所陈即此；但《宋史》也记载北宋王安石因此批评《春秋》为“断烂朝报”（朝廷公报的断简残篇），不过王安石是否真有此说亦有争议。。

The Spring and Autumn Annals (Chinese:春秋; pinyin:Chūnqiū) is an ancient Chinese chronicle that has been one of the core Chinese classics since ancient times. The Annals is the official chronicle of the State of Lu, and covers a 241-year period from 722 to 481 BC. It is the earliest surviving Chinese historical text to be arranged in annals form. Because it was traditionally regarded as having been compiled by Confucius (after a claim to this effect by Mencius), it was included as one of the Five Classics of Chinese literature.