Hanshu 漢書

Hanshu 漢書 "Book of the [Former] Han" is the official dynastic history (zhengshi 正史) of the Former Han dynasty 前漢 (206 BCE-8 CE). It was written by Ban Biao 班彪 (3–54 CE) and his son Ban Gu 班固 (32–92 CE), a historian who also took part in the compilation of the political compendium Baihutong 白虎通 and the history Dongguan hanji 東觀漢記.

Ban Gu helped standardizing the style of the official dynastic histories. The pattern of Sima Qian's 司馬遷 historiographic book Shiji 史記 served as model for Ban Gu's Hanshu, although the Hanshu was (unlike the universal history Shiji) a book concentrating on one single dynasty (duandaishi 斷代史). Like Sima Qian, Ban Gu used the biographic-thematic style (jizhuanti 紀傳體) with four different types of chapters. In the Hanshu, the imperial annals-biographies are much more written in an annalistic year-by-year style and report only officially recorded events, while the Shiji, especially in its parts covering the pre-Qin era (before 221 BCE), has a quite anecdotical and narrative character.

The Hanshu is 100-juan long, 12 of which are imperial annals-biographies (benji 本紀), 8 tables (biao 表), 10 treatises (zhi 志) and 70 individual and collective biographies (liezhuan 列傳). The last chapter of these (100 Xuzhuan 敘傳) is a biography of Ban Gu himself. Several chapters in the Hanshu are divided into two parts (shang 上 and xia 下), which is rarely seen in other dynastic histories.

The compilation of the Hanshu had been begun by Ban Biao who compiled 65 chapters of a book to be called Houzhuan 後傳 "Later Biographies". It was planned as an appendix or supplement to the Shiji. After the death of his father in 54 CE Ban Gu continued this work, but he also changed the style of his father because he thought it was not detailed enough. Ban Gu died before the book was completed, and therefore Emperor He 漢和帝 (r. 88–105) ordered Gu's sister Ban Zhao 班昭 (c. 45–c. 117 CE, author of the book Nüjie 女誡) to complete the missing part of the tables. The missing treatise on astronomy was written by Ma Xuzhong 馬續踵, a disciple of Ban Gu.

Although the Shiji served as a general pattern for the Hanshu there are some differences beetween the two books. Ban Gu abbreviated the term benji for the imperial annals-biographies to ji 紀 and called the treatises zhi 志 instead of shu 書. He made no use of biographies of hereditary houses (shijia 世家) at all, a genre that had in the Shiji served as chronicles of the regional rulers of the Zhou period 周 (11th cent.-221 BCE), but also for eminent persons serving the founder of the Han dynasty. Such persons (like 31 Chen Sheng 陳勝 and Xiang Ji 項籍 [i.e. Xiang Yu 項羽], or 39 Xiao He 蕭何 and Cao Shen 曹參), as well as the empresses and consorts and their kinsmen (97-98 Waiqi zhuan 外戚傳), were in the Hanshu given a "normal" liezhuan biography.

Following the paradigm of the Shiji, Ban Gu also wrote imperial annals-biographies for the regency of Empress Dowager Lü 呂太后 (3 Gaohou ji 高后紀), but only for the time after her son's untimely death, when he was succeeded by two infant emperors, about whose identity much speculation was going around. Emperor Hui 漢惠帝 (r. 195-188) has, unlike in the Shiji, his own annals (2 Huidi ji 惠帝紀).

Ban Gu abbreviated the term liezhuan 列傳 to zhuan 傳. The biographies covering the first few decades of the Han period resemble those in the Shiji, with a focus on individuals, but from the time of Emperor Wu 漢武帝 (r. 141–87 BCE) on (where the Shiji ends), some biographies have the character of family chronicles and include sons and grandsons of eminent persons (e.g. 59 Zhang Tang 張湯 [son Zhang Anshi 張安世, grandson Zhang Yanshou 張延壽], 60 Du Zhou 杜周 [son Du Yannian 杜延年, grandsons Du Huan 杜緩 and Du Qin 杜欽], or 68 Jin Midi [sic] 金日磾 [son Jin Anshang 金安上]), a pattern that became common in later dynastic histories.

Concerning the collective biographies among the zhuan, Ban Gu abolished some personal groups that Sima Qian had described, like the "Humorists", "Assassins" or "Soothsayers", and so created a standard set of collective biographies, including the "forest of scholars" (88 Rulin zhuan 儒林傳), benevolent officials (89 Xunli zhuan 循吏傳), cruel officials (90 Kuli zhuan 酷吏傳) and "barbarians" (94 Xiongnu zhuan 匈奴傳, 95 Xinanyi liang Yue Chaoxian zhuan 西南夷兩粵朝鮮傳, 96 Xiyu zhuan 西域傳). The other collective biographies include the imperial house (35-36, 38, 44, 47, 53, 63, 80), "profiteers" (91 Huozhi zhuan 貨殖傳), "wandering knights" (92 Youxia zhuan 游俠傳), flatterers and imperial minions (93 Ningxing zhuan 佞幸傳), and imperial consorts (97-98). The latter does not include relatives of consorts (information on which can be found in the table of chapter 18), thus creating a model that would be imitated by later history books.

The position of the collective biography of consorts at the end of the book is unique. Another feature of the dynastic histories introduced in the Hanshu is the custom to separate "traitors", rebels and usurpers from other persons and presenting their biographies at the end of the book. This is the case for the usurper Wang Mang 王莽 (r. 8–23 CE; ch. 99) and his aunt, Grand Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun 王政君, the consort of Emperor Yuan 漢元帝 (r. 49-33 BCE; 98 Yuan Hou zhuan 元后傳).

The last biography (100 Xuzhuan 敘傳) is a combination of a story of Ban Gu's family and a postface to the Hanshu. It imitates Sima Qian's postface in the Shiji (ch. 130).

Among the tables two are especially worth mentioning, namely the table of important persons of past and present (20 Gujin ren biao 古今人表), and the table of occupants of high state offices (19 Baiguan gongqing biao 百官公卿表). The first is unique among the dynastic histories. It ranks each person mentioned into one of nine moral categories. The latter is important to know more about the process of official appointment in early imperial China.

The other tables include information on kings not relative to the imperial house (yixing wang 異姓王) made regional rulers after the downfall of the Qin and in the early decades of the Han period (13 Yixing zhuhou wang biao 異姓諸侯王表), imperial princes (14 Zhuhou wang biao 諸侯王表), imperial marquesses (15 Wangzi hou biao 王子侯表), ennobled relatives of empresses (18 Waiqi enze hou biao 外戚恩澤侯表), and ennobled commoners (16-17 Gongchen biao 功臣表).

The treatises attracted the interest of scholars of all times because they provide abundant information about the administration of the Han state. They include the topics musical tuning and calendar (21 Lüli zhi 律曆志), rituals and ritual music (22 Liyue zhi 禮樂志), penal law (23 Xingfa zhi 刑法志), food and commodities (24 Shihuo zhi 食貨志), suburban sacrifices (25 郊祀志), astronomy (26 Tianwen zhi 天文志), the Five Agents (27 Wuxing zhi 五行志), administrative geography (28 Dili zhi 地理志), canals and river conservancy (29 Gouxu zhi 溝洫志), and the earliest imperial bibliography (30 Yiwen zhi 藝文志).

A supplementary treatise on military (Bu Han bingzhi 補漢兵志) was compiled by Qian Wenzi 錢文子 (1148-1220), to be found in the collection Ershiwushi bubian 二十五史補編.

Although the Shiji already covered the first century of the Han dynasty, Ban Gu did not only use the material provided in the Shiji but added other sources or even rearranged the material in a new mode, often in a very different style than Sima Qian. This is especially true for events from the time of Emperor Wu. In many biographies from that period of time Ban Gu added a lot of source materials, like memorials submitted to the throne. This thoroughly changed the picture of Emperor Wu, towards whom Sima Qian had been somewhat more critical than Ban Gu.

The Hanshu received the attention of contemporaries, but it was not easy to read and to understand because it used a lot of outdated characters and styles of personal names. Numerous commentaries to the Hanshu therefore were already compiled at the end of the Later Han period 後漢 (25-220 CE), by Xun Yue 荀悅, Fu Qian 服虔, Ying Shao 應劭, Fu Yan 伏儼, Liu De 劉德, Master Zheng 鄭氏, Li Pei 李斐, and Li Qi 李奇. They were followed by a numerous commentators from the periods of the Three Empires 三國 (220~280 CE) and the Jin dynasty 晉 (265-420): Deng Zhan 鄧展, Wen Ying 文穎, Zhang Yi 張揖, Su Lin 蘇林, Zhang Yan 張晏, Ru Chun 如淳, Meng Kang 孟康, Xiang Zhao 項昭, Wei Zhao 韋昭, Jin Zhuo 晉灼, Liu Bao 劉寶, Master Zang 臣瓚, Guo Pu 郭璞, Cai Mo 蔡謨, and Cui Hao 崔浩.

During the Tang period 唐 (618-907) Yan Shigu 顔師古 (581-645) collected and revised all commentaries and created an actualized commentary of the Hanshu. Wang Xianqian 王先謙 (1842-1918) undertook a similar work during the Qing period 清 (1644-1911) and published it under the title of Hanshu buzhu 漢書補注.

In 1962 the Zhonghua Book Company 中華書局 published the modern standard edition of the Hanshu, including the commentary of Yan Shigu, with a text-critical work comparing the versions of Wang Xianqian, a print from the Song period 宋 (960-1279), that of Mao Jin's 毛晉 (1599-1659) edition in the series Jiguge congshu 汲古閣叢書, the edition of the Imperial Library of the Hall of Military Glory (Wuyingdian 武英殿) and the print from the Jinling shuju press 金陵書局 from the mid-19th century.

Partial translations of the Hanshu were made by Homer Dubs, The History of the Former Han Dynasty (Baltimore: Waverly, 1938 ff.), and Burton Watson, Courtier and Commoner in Ancient China (New York: Columbia University Press, 1974).