The Han Histories

Abstract

This chapter discusses historical texts of the Han period. It focuses on two of the earliest standard histories: Ban Gu's Hanshu [History of the Han] and Fan Ye's Hou Hanshu [History of the Later Han]. Hanshu covered only the years from the rise of the Han at the end of the third century BC to the death of the ‘usurper’ Wang Mang, and became the prototype ‘history that breaks off a single era’, or what is commonly called a ‘dynastic history’. Hou Hanshu covers the period from the death of Wang Mang, when Ban Gu's record breaks off, up to the fall of the Han dynasty two centuries later.