1. The Yanzi chunqiu 晏子春秋 ( The Spring and Autumn Annals of Master Yan ) is abbreviated throughout as YZCQ.
2. The translation follows the incorporated text, in simplified Chinese,of the ICS Ancient Chinese Text Concordance Series : A Concordance to the Yanzichunqiu , edited by D. C. Lau and Chen Fong Ching, (Commercial Press, Hong Kong, 1993). The digital version text of this concordance, in traditional Chinese, is searchable and browsable online at CHANT Database汉达文库, http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/ics/rccat/en/database.html (2016).
3. The incorporated ICS text version is adapted from the Sibu congkan 四部丛刊 edition (hereafter — SBCK ) which is based on a movable type edition produced during the Ming dynasty (仁和丁松生八千卷楼藏明活字本). This text was emended by the editors of the ICS Concordance Series in accordance with many parallel texts that appear either in different editions of the YZCQ or in other traditional texts, commentaries, and encyclopedias.Parentheses — ( ) — in the ICS Concordance Series signify deletions while square brackets — [ ] — signify additions. An emendation of character‘X’ to character ‘Y’ is therefore indicated by (X) [Y]. Deviations from the incorporated ICS Concordance Series version in the present translation are specified throughout the footnotes, and their sources are referred to in brackets.
4. Emendations from the footnotes of the printed edition of the ICS Ancient Chinese Text Concordance Series : A Concordance to the Yanzichunqiu (1993) are abbreviated throughout the translation footnotes as YZCQ - ICS followed by page and note number in the form: “ YZCQ - ICS , 9, n.2.”
5. Wu Zeyu’s 吴则虞 monumental collection of textual variants and commentaries on the YZCQ : Yanzi chunqiu jishi 晏子春秋集释, 2 vols.(Beijing: Zhonghua, 1962), is abbreviated throughout as — JS — followed by page and note number in the form: “ JS , 100/8.” The revised and enlarged edition of the JS , (增订本) 晏子春秋集释, Beijing: (2011), is not abbreviated.
6. Unless otherwise noted, references to all early texts are always to the concordances in the ICS Ancient Chinese Text Concordance Series , edited by D. C. Lau and Chen Fong Ching (The Commercial Press, Hong Kong,1992- ). The form of reference is to the text title followed by the chapter,page, and line number, in the form: “ Mozi 墨子, 8.3/54/25.”
7. References to the standard histories are according to the pagination of the Zhonghua shuju 中华书局 edition (Beijing: 1959-1974).
8. References to websites which are contained in the endnotes specify the URL in full, followed by date of posting, as follows: http://ctext.org/library.pl?if=en&file=10374&page=3 (2006-2015).
9. A “Rightwards Arrow” (→) is used to indicate a textual emendation in the form: 飾 → 飭, followed by the YZCQ-ICS page and note number.
10. “Left Right Arrow” (↔) is used to indicate parallelism, similarities,or affiliations between the YZCQ -item under consideration and other texts,as follows: “Item 1.15 [15] ↔ Shuoyuan , 18.11/153/16.”