Book of Han: Records of Biographies (Volumes 86 - 100)

Book of Han: Records of Biographies (Volumes 86 - 100)

The Book of Han, also known as the Former Book of Han, is the first dynastic history in biographical - chronological style in China and one of the Twenty - Four Histories. It is collectively referred to as the "Three Histories" together with the Records of the Grand Historian and the Eastern Han Records, and is also known as the "Four Early Histories" together with the Records of the Grand Historian, the Book of the Later Han, and the Records of the Three Kingdoms. It was compiled by Ban Gu, a historian of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and took more than twenty years to complete during the Jianchu period of the Han Dynasty. The eight tables of the Book of Han were supplemented by Ban Gu's younger sister, Ban Zhao, and the Treatise on Astronomy was completed by Ma Xu, a disciple of Ban Zhao. Yan Shigu of the Tang Dynasty annotated it. It was a regular subject in the imperial examinations of the Tang Dynasty. The Book of Han mainly records the history of the Western Han Dynasty (including the Wang Mang regime). It chronicles a total of 230 years of history from the first year of Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty (206 BC) to the fourth year of Emperor Huang of the Xin Dynasty under Wang Mang (23 AD). It consists of twelve Records of Emperors, eight tables, ten treatises, and seventy biographies, totaling one hundred chapters.