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The Hanshu (漢書), or the “Book of Han,” covers the portion of the Former Han dynasty that is not withing the Records of the Grand Scribe. Its author, Ban Gu (孟堅), had inherited the work from his father Ban Biao (班彪), but was imprisoned and presumably executed before he could finish. His sister Ban Zhao (班昭) would go on to finish her brother’s work. Much of the text’s overlap with the Records of the Grand Scribe is taken verbatim; nonetheless, the Book of Han does expand on certain events, while still shortening others. The text was separated into four segments:

  • Benji (本紀) “The Basic Annals”: the descriptions and histories of the dynasties and their emperors.

  • Biao (表) “Tables”: the genealogical and chronological tables of dynastic reigns, families, and noteworthy events.

  • Zhi (誌) “Records”: notes on the histories and developments of Chinese culture and sciences.

  • Liezhuan (列傳) “Biographies”: descriptions and histories of notable individuals and groups.


The Book of Han and all succeeding official histories, more or less, suffer from the same issues found in the Records of the Grand Scribe; however, it should be noted that the knowledge of foreign entities, especially those in the North, becomes more accurate and expansive with each dynasty. Still, transcriptional standardization for foreign, especially Turkic terms does not begin until the Northern and Southern dynasties period.

Book of Han

漢書

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