author
Gu Ban
32–92
A leading scholar of the Eastern Han period, he is best remembered for helping create the Book of Han, one of the foundational histories of early imperial China. His work shaped how later generations understood the Western Han dynasty and the role of the historian at court.
1 Audiobook
漢書
by Gu Ban
About the author
Born in 32 CE into a distinguished literary family, Ban Gu was a Chinese historian, poet, and scholar of the Eastern Han dynasty. He continued a historical project begun by his father, Ban Biao, and became the principal compiler of the Book of Han (Hanshu), the official history of the Western Han dynasty.
Ban Gu was also known for his writing in the fu rhapsody style and for his life at the Han court, where scholarship and politics were closely connected. After his death in 92 CE, the Book of Han was completed with contributions from his sister Ban Zhao, and it went on to become one of the most influential works in Chinese historiography.
Because of that achievement, Ban Gu is remembered not just as a court writer, but as one of the key figures who helped define how dynastic history would be written in China.