《左傳》記載楚莊王的諸多事跡。其中,問鼎一事反映出楚人重視政治權力的合法性,而其論"武德"則體現了楚人認同華夏文化,這可能與楚貴族逐漸接受華夏教育有關。《左傳》中所載莊王的事跡,表明當時楚人認識到華夏認同對其爭奪霸權意義重大,在認同華夏時重視政治、文化而非血緣的作用。結合《左傳》中其他記載,可看到春秋時期所謂的"蠻夷"已經受到華夏觀念的影響,并逐漸認同華夏。

There are some records of King Zhuang of Chu in ZUOZHUAN. The story that he asked about the weight of nine tripods illustrated that Chu paid attention to the legitimacy of power. The record that King Zhuang talked about the military virtue showed Chu’s cultural identity with Huaxia,which may be related to their Huaxia education. These records show that the Chu realized that their Huaxia identity was necessary for taking hegemony,and they stressed cultural and political other than consanguine identity with Huaxia. Considering such other records in ZUOZHUAN,it is obvious that the barbarians were affected by Huaxia and formed the Huaxia identity in Spring and Autumn Period.