The Historian's Judgement and the Peers' Judgement in the “Biographical Chapter on the Proscribed Party” of the Hou Hanshu

Abstract

In the array of biographical chapters in the Hou Hanshu, the “Danggu liezhuan” 黨錮列傳 (Biographical Chapter on the Proscribed Party) presents the specificity to be organized not around the destiny of one person, or of a group of persons gathered for thematic reasons, but around a political event, the proscription of a party of reformist literati and officials. The historian’s way of intertwining the biographies of eminent literati who were engaged in the political activity of “understanding men,” that is of judging the qualities of their peers, sheds light not only on the events themselves but also on the importance of the peers’ judgement as a politico-social phenomenon during this specific historical moment. I will inquire the manifold relationships between this type of judgement on contemporary peers, and the historian’s judgement, which is confronted with the catastrophic consequences of this political activity.