author
Gu Ban
32–92
Best known for helping create the Book of Han, this first-century Chinese scholar shaped how later generations would write history. He was also a poet and court official, making his work influential in both literature and government recordkeeping.
1 Audiobook
漢書
by Gu Ban
About the author
Born in AD 32, Ban Gu was a Chinese historian, poet, and official of the Eastern Han dynasty. He is most closely associated with the Book of Han (Han shu), the great history of the Western Han dynasty, a work that became a model for later official dynastic histories.
He came from a learned family: his father, Ban Biao, had already begun historical writing, and Ban Gu carried that project forward. After Ban Gu's death in AD 92, his sister Ban Zhao helped complete the work, so the Book of Han is also tied to one of the most remarkable scholarly families in early Chinese history.
Beyond history, Ban Gu also wrote fu, an ornate Han literary form that blends prose and poetry. That mix of historian, man of letters, and government servant helps explain why he remains such an important figure in classical Chinese culture.