«Prince Jizha meets the music [of Zhou]»: translators’ foreword

The article serves as a foreword to the publication of a fragment from Chun Qiu Zuo Zhuan translated into russian. The fragment is dedicated to the judgments about Zhou music that Prince Jizha of Wu expressed during his stay in the state of Lu in 544 BC. This fragment should be considered significant not only in the general historical context, but also in the light of the history of Shijing and early Confucianism. The article, which precedes the translation, examines the details of Jizha’s biography, characterizes the historical background of his trip, analyzes its possible reasons, and also addresses the issue of dating of the text.