Historical Records of the Ban Family

The stories of historian Ban Biao and his family, include their ancestors from Chu, Biao's beautiful aunt became the Zhaoyi (concubine and female officer in the imperial palace) of Liu Ao (the 12th emperor of Han Dynasty), and the work around writing Hanshu by Biao and his children Gu and Zhao, are introduced in this book. The following topics are also discussed: the political and social turmoil around the period of Western Han to Eastern Han, the evolution of Confucianism, as well as the relationship between the Han Empire and Xiongnu. With the rich cited historical materials and accurate arguments, we'd say this is an excellent biographical works.