公扈子说：「国君一定要学习《春秋》。一般而言，天生尊贵的人性格骄傲，天生富有的人性格傲慢。天生既富有又尊贵、没有考查古今成败作借鉴、处理事务得当而能够保全自己的人实在罕见。《春秋》可以作为治理国家的借鉴。在春秋时代中，有三十六位国君被杀害，有五十二个国家灭亡，诸侯逃亡不能保有国家者很多。他们没有一个不是预先看见别人失败的事迹而最后自己却重蹈覆辙者。」

Gong Hu Zi said, “It’s necessary for any ruler to study Spring and Autumn Annals.” Generally speaking, one who is honorable by birth is characteristic of being arrogant, while one who is wealthy by birth is characteristic of being haughty. It is a rare thing that any one who is wealthy and honorable by birth doesn’t probe into the successes or failures of ancient or modern times to draw lessons from them and doesn’t handle affairs in a proper way, but can save himself from damage. Spring and Autumn Annals can be used as a good lesson of ruling a state. During the Spring and Autumn Period, thirty-six rulers were killed, fifty-two states were ruined and many dukes escaping from their states couldn’t preserve them. All of them were the rulers who had foreseen the facts of other rulers’failures but fell into the same rut eventually.”