Introduction to a Monumental Historical Work

The Han Shu, known in English as the Book of Han, stands as one of ancient China’s most significant historical compilations, succeeding the renowned Records of the Grand Historian. This monumental text meticulously documents the 230-year history of the Western Han Dynasty, spanning from the first year of Emperor Gaozu . Celebrated for its comprehensive and detailed narrative, it offers an unparalleled window into the political, social, and cultural fabric of early imperial China. Its systematic organization and rich content have cemented its status as an indispensable resource for understanding the Western Han era.

The Author and His Scholarly Lineage

The principal architect of the Han Shu was Ban Gu, a historian born in 32 CE during the reign of Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Hailing from Anling in Fufeng , Ban Gu belonged to an illustrious family steeped in academic and official prestige. His great-grandfather Ban Kuang served as Left Cavalry Commandant, while his aunt became a consort to Emperor Cheng. The family’s intellectual credentials were further burnished by his great-uncles: Ban Bo, a Confucian scholar who rose to become Director of Waterways and Parks, and Ban You, a erudite bibliophile who collaborated with Liu Xiang in collating imperial archives. Emperor Cheng so admired Ban You’s talents that he gifted him copies of secret palace manuscripts—a treasure that would later prove invaluable for the Han Shu’s composition.

Ban Gu’s grandfather Ban Zhi served as Chancellor of Guangping during Emperor Ai’s reign, and his father Ban Biao emerged as a distinguished scholar in his own right. Serving as Magistrate of Wangdu, Ban Biao devoted himself to historical studies, particularly continuing the work of the Records of the Grand Historian. His Supplementary Biographies, comprising sixty-five chapters, provided foundational material for his son’s magnum opus. Growing up in this environment of privilege and scholarship, Ban Gu absorbed classical learning from childhood. By age nine, he could recite poetry and compose essays; between sixteen and twenty-three, he studied at the Imperial Academy in Luoyang, where he immersed himself in Confucian classics and philosophical texts. His approach to learning was characteristically broad and synthetic—he sought to grasp essential meanings rather than getting bogged down in textual minutiae. This intellectual formation, combined with his reputedly generous and包容 personality, earned him widespread respect among contemporary scholars.

The Genesis of a Historical Masterpiece

In 54 CE, following his father’s death, Ban Gu returned to his hometown to observe the mourning period. During this time, he began organizing his father’s unpublished historical materials, concluding that the existing supplements to the Records of the Grand Historian lacked comprehensiveness and failed to present a coherent historical vision. Recognizing the Eastern Han court’s need for a systematic account of the preceding dynasty’s triumphs and failures, he embarked on what would become his life’s work. Gathering additional sources and oral histories, he commenced writing the Han Shu in 58 CE.

This ambitious project nearly ended prematurely when, in 62 CE, an anonymous accuser reported Ban Gu to Emperor Ming for compiling a national history without official authorization. The historian was imprisoned in the capital, and his manuscripts confiscated. His younger brother Ban Chao—later famous as a military general and explorer—rushed to Luoyang to plead his case before the emperor. When local officials submitted the seized drafts to the throne, Emperor Ming was so impressed by Ban Gu’s scholarship that he not only pardoned him but appointed him as a Lan Court Historian, responsible for collating and editing the imperial library’s collections. In this capacity, Ban Gu collaborated with scholars like Chen Zong and Yin Min to produce the Annals of Emperor Guangwu. Promoted to Court Gentleman, he then compiled twenty-eight biographies of notable figures, which he presented to the emperor. Impressed, Emperor Ming formally commissioned him to complete the Han Shu.

For the next two decades, Ban Gu devoted himself to this task. In 89 CE, he accompanied General Dou Xian’s campaign against the Northern Xiongnu as Army Supervisor, composing the famous inscription commemorating the Han victory at Mount Yanran. However, his association with Dou Xian proved fateful: when the general was accused of treason in 92 CE and committed suicide, Ban Gu fell from favor, was dismissed from office, and eventually imprisoned by a personal enemy, Magistrate Zhong Jing. He died in captivity at age sixty-one.

Completion Through Collaborative Effort

At the time of Ban Gu’s death, the Han Shu remained unfinished, lacking eight tables and the Treatise on Astronomy. Emperor He ordered Ban Zhao—Ban Gu’s remarkably learned sister, also known as Madame Cao—to complete the work. Assisted by Ma Xu, a scholar from their hometown, she finalized the astronomical treatise and tables. Thus, the Han Shu truly represented a multi-generational effort: initiated by Ban Biao, principally written by Ban Gu, and completed by Ban Zhao and Ma Xu over nearly four decades. As the Qing scholar Zhao Yi later noted, “It passed through four hands and thirty to forty years before becoming a complete book.”

Structural Innovation and Historical Scope

The Han Shu pioneered the format of dynastic history, organizing its massive content—over 800,000 words across 100 chapters —into four sections: twelve imperial annals, eight tables, ten treatises, and seventy biographies. The imperial annals chronologically documented state affairs from Emperor Gaozu to Emperor Ping. The tables systematically cataloged nobles, officials, and historical figures. The treatises covered institutional history, economic developments, and cultural evolution from ancient times through the Han. The biographies recounted lives of some three hundred individuals, alongside accounts of border peoples and neighboring states.

For the pre-115 BCE period, Ban Gu adapted much material from the Records of the Grand Historian, but he significantly expanded and revised it. For instance, his Annals of Emperor Gaozu synthesized and reworked content from both the Basic Annals of Gaozu and Xiang Yu’s biography in the earlier work. More importantly, he incorporated numerous primary sources—imperial edicts, memorials, poems, and essays—enriching the historical record. For post-115 BCE history, he drew upon his father’s Supplementary Biographies, other continuations of the Records of the Grand Historian by scholars like Chu Shaosun and Liu Xiang, and additional available sources.

The Han Shu’s structure both inherited and innovated upon its predecessor’s model. While the Records of the Grand Historian used five categories , the Han Shu employed four: annals, tables, treatises, and biographies—merging the “hereditary houses” into biographies and renaming “treatises” from shu to zhi. Its most enduring innovation was establishing the dynastic history format, which became the standard for subsequent official histories in China’s historiographical tradition.

Philosophical Framework and Historical Vision

The Han Shu espoused a philosophy of historical unity, emphasizing the consolidation and maintenance of imperial rule. Ban Gu meticulously documented the Western Han’s achievements in territorial, administrative, and cultural unification, celebrating the dynasty’s success in creating a centralized, multi-ethnic state. As articulated in the postface, the work sought to “narrate the emperors, array the officials, establish the marquises and kings; align with heaven and earth, unite yin and yang; elucidate the supreme ultimate, pace with the three lights; divide the provinces, distinguish the territories; exhaust human principles, encompass all directions; weave through the Six Classics, connect the Dao’s net; gather the hundred schools, praise the documents; contain elegant antiquity, penetrate past and present.”

This vision reflected the Han Dynasty’s ideological synthesis, which combined Confucian moral governance with Legalist administrative techniques and cosmological theories. The work systematically presented history as a moral and political lesson for rulers, emphasizing the importance of virtuous governance, bureaucratic efficiency, and cultural integration.

Cultural and Social Impacts

The completion of the Han Shu represented a watershed in Chinese historiography, establishing new standards for historical writing and interpretation. Its comprehensive approach to documenting institutions, economics, geography, and culture alongside political events created a template that would influence Chinese historical writing for two millennia. The work’s emphasis on primary source incorporation—particularly state documents and literary works—set a precedent for evidentiary rigor.

Socially, the Han Shu helped solidify the Han Dynasty’s legacy as a golden age of Chinese civilization. Its detailed accounts of rituals, music, calendrical systems, and administrative structures provided later dynasties with models for imperial governance. The biographies section, particularly, offered moral exemplars and cautionary tales that shaped ethical discourse among the educated elite.

The text also played a crucial role in standardizing the historical narrative of the Han period. By creating an authoritative account that synthesized various sources and perspectives, it effectively defined how subsequent generations would understand the Western Han Dynasty. Its classification system for historical materials and its methodological approach to cross-verification of sources advanced the professionalization of historical scholarship.

Enduring Legacy and Modern Relevance

The Han Shu’s influence extends far beyond its immediate historical context. As the first of the Twenty-Four Histories—China’s canonical official historical records—it established the dynastic history format that would dominate Chinese historiography until the twentieth century. Its organizational structure, methodological approaches, and philosophical orientation became paradigmatic for subsequent historical works.

Modern scholars continue to value the Han Shu not only as a historical source but as a cultural artifact that reveals the intellectual world of early imperial China. Its detailed descriptions of economic practices, administrative systems, and social customs provide invaluable data for understanding Han Dynasty society. The treatises on law, geography, and literature remain particularly important for specialized research.

The work also offers insights into the development of Chinese historical consciousness and the relationship between history and state power. Ban Gu’s conception of history as both record and lesson reflects the pragmatic moralism that characterized much of traditional Chinese historiography. His efforts to create a comprehensive, systematic account of a dynasty’s entirety established new possibilities for historical writing.

Furthermore, the Han Shu represents a landmark in the professionalization of history writing. The collaborative, multi-generational nature of its production—involving specialized research, source criticism, and systematic organization—anticipates modern historical methodologies. Its integration of different types of historical materials demonstrates sophisticated understanding of historical complexity.

Today, the Han Shu remains essential reading for anyone studying early Chinese history. Its narratives continue to shape understanding of the Han Dynasty, while its methodological innovations still inform historical practice. As both a historical record and a historiographical model, it stands as one of the most influential works in the Chinese tradition—a testament to the vision of Ban Gu and his family, and their profound contribution to how history is written and understood.