The Book of Han is written
Ban Gu, taking up the work of his father Ban Biao, wrote the Book of Han, a history of the Western Han from its founding to the fall of Wang Mang; completed by his sister Ban Zhao, it became the model for China’s official dynastic histories.
- Date
- c. 54 – 111start: year known, approximate; end: year known · duration: ≈ 57 years
- Place
- Luoyangtoday: Han–Wei city site east of modern Luoyang, Henan, China · East Asia
- Participants
- Ban Gu, Ban Zhao, Ban Chao, Emperor Ming of Han, Han dynasty
- Threads
- East Asia in the 1st–5th centuries
- Also known as
- Hanshu; Han shu; History of the Former Han; Ханьшу; История Ранней Хань
Ban Biao had begun a sequel to Sima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historian. After his father’s death in 54, Ban Gu took up the work but, dissatisfied with it, began a new history devoted to a single dynasty. Accused of privately revising the national history, he was arrested; his brother Ban Chao, the future conqueror of the Western Regions, pleaded his case, and Emperor Ming, impressed by the manuscript, gave him a post in the imperial library and let him continue. Ban Gu worked on the book for more than twenty years (the Russian article gives 62–82) and had largely completed it by the early 80s; in 92, after the fall of his patron, the general Dou Xian, he died in prison.
His sister Ban Zhao, the first known woman historian of China, completed the chronological tables and, with the scholar Ma Xu, the treatise on astronomy; the book was finished in 111. Its 100 fascicles — annals, tables, treatises on law, science, geography and literature, and biographies — cover the Western Han from 206 BC to the fall of Wang Mang in 23. It was the first history in the annals-and-biographies form to cover a single dynasty, and that form remained the model for China’s official histories until modern times.
Connections
Related events
- Wang Mang proclaims the Xin dynasty10 January 9 · East AsiaThe Book of Han ends with the fall of Wang Mang and is the main source on his reign
- Battle of Ikh Bayan and the Yanran inscription89 · Central and Northern AsiaBan Gu, author of the Book of Han, composed the Mount Yanran inscription
Same participants
- Buddhism reaches China: the court of Liu Ying at Pengcheng65 · East Asiavia Emperor Ming of Han
- Ban Chao’s campaigns in the Tarim Basin73–102 · Central and Northern Asiavia Ban Chao
Same place
- Liu Xiu restores the Han: the Eastern Han25 · East Asia
- Cai Lun presents papermaking to the Han court105 · East Asia
- Zhang Heng presents the first seismoscope132 · East Asia
- An Shigao begins translating Buddhist texts in Luoyang148 · East Asia
- Envoys from Da Qin (Rome) at the Han court166 · East Asia
- Partisan Prohibitions: purges of scholar-officials166–184 · East Asia
- Lokaksema translates the first Mahayana sutras into Chinese179 · East Asia
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Inauguration of the Colosseum80
- Eruption of Vesuviusbetween 24 August and 1 November 79
- Pliny the Elder’s Natural History77
- Martyrdom of Peter and Paul in Romebetween 64 and 68
- Nero crowns Tiridates I in Rome66
+ 3 events
Eastern Europe
- Plautius Silvanus lifts the Scythian siege of Chersonesusbetween 61 and 66
- The Alans appear on the Don and in the North Caucasusbetween 50 and 72
- Zarubintsy culturec. 200 BC – c. 200
Balkans and Anatolia
- Domitian’s Dacian Warbetween 85 and 86 – 89
- Trajan’s Dacian Wars101–106
- Dioscorides’ De materia medicabetween 50 and 70
- Plutarch’s Parallel Livesc. 96 – c. 120
- Missionary journeys of Paulc. 46 – between 57 and 58
Middle East and Egypt
- Hero of Alexandria’s aeolipilebetween 50 and 100
- Siege of JerusalemApril 70 – 8 September 70
- First Jewish–Roman War66 – between 73 and 74
- Reign of Vologases I51–78
- Roman–Parthian War of 58–6358–63
+ 2 events
Africa
- Nero’s expedition to the sources of the Nilebetween 61 and 62
- Adulis and Aksum in the Periplus40s … 70s
- Temple of Apedemak at Naqabetween 1 BC and AD 70
Central and Northern Asia
- Ban Chao’s campaigns in the Tarim Basin73–102
- Battle of Ikh Bayan and the Yanran inscription89
- Ban Chao repels a Kushan army90
- Gan Ying’s mission to Da Qin (Rome)97
- The burials of Tillya Tepe (the Bactrian Gold)between 16 and 100
+ 1 event
South Asia
- Gautamiputra Satakarni defeats Nahapanabetween 71 and 130
- Kushans conquer Gandhara and Taxilabetween 50 and 70
- Heyday of Indo-Roman trade: Muziris and Arikameduc. 30 BC – c. 250
- Apostle Thomas in India (tradition)52 (?)
- Gandharan art: the first images of the Buddhabetween 30 BC and AD 100
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Founding of Funan: Kaundinya and Queen Liuyebetween 1 and 100
- Óc Eo, the port of Funanbetween 1 and 100 – between 601 and 700
- Sa Huỳnh culturec. 1000 BC – c. 200
North America
- Hopewell traditionbetween 200 and 100 BC – c. 500
- Late Basketmaker II erac. 50 – c. 500
Latin America
- Emergence of the Moche culturec. 100
- Monte Albán II: the Zapotec state expandsc. 100 BC – c. 200
- Rise of Teotihuacanc. 1 – c. 250
- Preclassic Maya collapse: El Mirador is abandonedc. 100 – c. 250
- Nazca culture and the Nazca Linesbetween 200 and 100 BC – between 500 and 800
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Book of Han
- Wikipedia (English): Ban Gu
- Wikipedia (English): Ban Zhao
- Wikipedia (English): Ban Chao
- Wikipedia (Russian): Ханьшу
- Wikipedia (Russian): Бань Гу
- Wikipedia (Russian): Бань Чжао
- Twitchett D., Loewe M. (eds.) The Cambridge History of China. Vol. 1: The Ch’in and Han Empires, 221 B.C. – A.D. 220. — Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
- Wikidata: Q846905