Book of Han

*Book of Han*
Book of Han
Traditional Chinese	漢書
Simplified Chinese	汉书
Hanyu Pinyin	Hàn shū
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Hàn shū
Wade–Giles	Han4 shu1
IPA	[xân ʂú]
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization	Hon syū
Jyutping	Hon3 syu1
Southern Min
Tâi-lô	Hàn-tsu (col.); Hàn-su (lit.)
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese	xàn sho
Old Chinese
Baxter–Sagart (2014)	*n̥ˤar-s s-ta

The Book of Han is a history of China finished in 111 CE, covering the Western, or Former Han dynasty from the first emperor in 206 BCE to the fall of Wang Mang in 23 CE.^[1] The work was composed by Ban Gu (32–92 CE), an Eastern Han court official, with the help of his sister Ban Zhao, continuing the work of their father, Ban Biao. They modelled their work on the Records of the Grand Historian (c. 91 BCE),^[2] a cross-dynastic general history, but theirs was the first in this annals-biography form to cover a single dynasty. It is the best source, sometimes the only one, for many topics such as literature in this period. The Book of Han is also called the Book of the Former Han (前漢書; Qián Hàn shū) to distinguish it from the Book of the Later Han (後漢書; Hòu Hàn shū) which covers the Eastern Han period (25–220 CE), and was composed in the fifth century by Fan Ye (398–445 CE).^[3]

^ Notable Women of China. M. E. Sharpe. ISBN 978-0-765-61929-7.
^ Bary, Wm. Theodore de; Bloom, Irene (1999). Sources of Chinese Tradition: From Earliest Times to 1600. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-51798-0.
^ Wilkinson (2012), pp. 711–712.

[1] Notable Women of China. M. E. Sharpe. ISBN 978-0-765-61929-7.

[2] Bary, Wm. Theodore de; Bloom, Irene (1999). Sources of Chinese Tradition: From Earliest Times to 1600. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-51798-0.

[FOOTNOTEWilkinson2012711–712-3] Wilkinson (2012), pp. 711–712.

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