For a Java class to be usable as a Java bean, its setter- and getter-method names need to be as per the JavaBean guidelines (also called design patterns) for properties. If such a Java class is instantiable & manageable by the Spring IoC container, it is a Spring bean. To achieve this, the programmer wires the class as a bean definition of a suitable scope by using XML config files or annotations or a mix of both. The programmer can create new Spring beans out of existing Spring beans by wiring further by passing the latter to constructor-arguments of the former either as string-names as <idref> elements or by dependency injection (it can be recursive).

这个答案可以与我的这个SO答案一起阅读，以获得更多的背景信息。

For Spring, all objects are beans! The fundamental step in the Spring Framework is to define your objects as beans. Beans are nothing but object instances that would be created by the spring framework by looking at their class definitions. These definitions basically form the configuration metadata. The framework then creates a plan for which objects need to be instantiated, which dependencies need to be set and injected, the scope of the newly created instance, etc., based on this configuration metadata. The metadata can be supplied in a simple XML file, just like in the first chapter. Alternatively, one could provide the metadata as Annotation or Java Configuration.

书:Just Spring

在Spring中，那些构成应用程序主干并由Spring IoC管理的对象 容器被称为bean。bean只是一个实例化、组装等的对象 由Spring IoC容器管理;

就Spring引导应用程序而言，bean只是一个Java对象，它是在应用程序启动时由Spring框架创建的。

对象的用途可以是任何东西——配置、服务、数据库连接工厂等等——Spring并不关心这些。

大多数bean依赖于其他bean才能工作，例如实体管理器可能需要一个数据库连接。Spring框架能够找出如何将bean自动连接在一起。从应用程序开发人员的角度来看，您只需声明所需的bean，它们就会“神奇地”出现在您的应用程序中，随时可以使用。

Spring的XML配置由bean组成，而bean基本上是类。它们只是我们在ApplicationContext中使用的pojo。定义bean可以看作是替换关键字new。所以无论你在应用程序中使用关键字new，比如:

MyRepository myRepository =new MyRepository ();

当你使用关键字new时你可以删除配置并将其放入XML文件中。 所以我们将像这样编码:

<bean name="myRepository " 
      class="com.demo.repository.MyRepository " />

现在我们可以简单地使用Setter注入/构造函数注入。我正在使用Setter注入。

public class MyServiceImpl implements MyService {
    private MyRepository myRepository;
    public void setMyRepository(MyRepository myRepository)
        {
    this.myRepository = myRepository ;
        }
public List<Customer> findAll() {
        return myRepository.findAll();
    }
}

Spring核心技术参考文档描述了bean是什么。

根据Spring IoC容器和bean的介绍部分(其中“IoC”表示“控制反转”):

在Spring中，构成应用程序主干并由Spring IoC容器管理的对象称为bean。bean是由Spring IoC容器实例化、组装和管理的对象。否则，bean只是应用程序中的众多对象之一。bean以及它们之间的依赖关系反映在容器使用的配置元数据中。

Bean和作用域在Bean作用域部分中描述:

When you create a bean definition, you create a recipe for creating actual instances of the class defined by that bean definition. The idea that a bean definition is a recipe is important, because it means that, as with a class, you can create many object instances from a single recipe. You can control not only the various dependencies and configuration values that are to be plugged into an object that is created from a particular bean definition but also control the scope of the objects created from a particular bean definition. This approach is powerful and flexible, because you can choose the scope of the objects you create through configuration instead of having to bake in the scope of an object at the Java class level. Beans can be defined to be deployed in one of a number of scopes.