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前漢書

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Text ID
KR2a0007
Date
58–92
Dynasty
漢

Qián Hànshū 前漢書

The Book of the Former Han by 班固 (Bān Gù, 32–92), with the Bā biǎo 八表 and Tiānwén zhì 天文志 completed by his sister 班昭 (Bān Zhāo) and Mǎ Xù 馬續; commentary (zhù 注) by 顏師古 (Yán Shīgǔ, 581–645); Qing collation notes by 齊召南 (Qí Zhàonán, 1703–1768).

About the work

The Hànshū — also called the Qián Hànshū 前漢書 (Book of the Former Hàn) to distinguish it from the Hòu Hànshū (KR2a0009) — is the second of the Twenty-Four Histories and the first dynastic history (duàndài shǐ 斷代史) confined to a single dynasty. In 120 juǎn (originally 100 piān, redivided), comprising 12 jì 紀, 8 biǎo 表, 10 zhì 志, and 70 zhuàn 傳. Composed by Bān Gù 班固 from ca. 58 CE on the basis of his father Bān Biāo’s 班彪 (3–54) Hòu zhuàn 後傳 (a continuation of the Shǐjì); when Bān Gù died in prison in 92, the bā biǎo and the Tiānwén zhì were unfinished, and were brought to completion by his sister Bān Zhāo 班昭 (ca. 49–ca. 120) at the imperial command of Hàn Hédì 漢和帝 in the Yǒngyuán era, with technical assistance from Mǎ Xù 馬續 on the Tiānwén zhì. The standard reading commentary, by Yán Shīgǔ 顏師古 of the early Tang (presented to Tang Tàizōng 太宗 in 645), supersedes the dozens of earlier commentaries, of which Yán draws extensively. The Wényuāngé text further carries Qiánlóng-era kǎozhèng by Qí Zhàonán 齊召南.

Tiyao

By Bān Gù of the Hàn, with continuations by his sister Bān Zhāo. Particulars are given in his biography in the Hòu Hànshū. This work has been treasured and transmitted through the ages with no substantive dispute. Only the Nán shǐ 南史 biography of Liú Zhīlín 劉之遴 records that Liú Fàn, prince of Póyáng 鄱陽, obtained an “authentic ancient text” of Bān’s Hànshū, presented it to the Crown Prince, and had Liú Zhīlín, Zhāng Zuǎn, Tào Gài, Lù Xiāng and others collate variant readings; Liú Zhīlín then recorded several dozen items of variation. Examined now, all are nonsensical.

(The tíyào then proceeds, in detail, to dismantle the supposed “古本”: e.g. its claim that the entire work was submitted at Yǒngpíng 10 (67 CE), 5th month, 20th day jǐyǒu — incompatible with the fact that the Bā biǎo and Tiānwén zhì were finished only in the next reign and by Bān Zhāo; its claim that the Xùzhuàn was originally entitled Zhōngpiān 中篇 — incoherent in form and content; its claim that Bān Biāo had a separate biography in the work — false because Biāo’s career was Eastern Hàn and the Hànshū breaks at Wáng Mǎng’s destruction; its claim that the chapter ordering grouped jì and zhuàn together — refuted by Bān’s own Xùzhuàn listing 12 jì, 8 biǎo, 10 zhì, and 70 zhuàn; its claim that the present 120 juǎn (vs. Suí zhì’s 115) is a corruption — refuted by noting that subdivisions into zǐjuǎn are made for sheer bulk; its proposed reordering of Wàiqī, Yuánhòu, and the various Zhūwáng chapters — refuted by attention to Bān’s own historiographical signal that the rise of Wáng Mǎng is rooted in the Yuánhòu. The tíyào concludes that the “ancient text” obtained by the prince of Póyáng was a Liáng-era forgery, parallel to the Liáng prince of Póyáng’s spurious Hànshū zhēnběn — known to Xiāo Tǒng 蕭統 (the same Crown Prince), since the Hànshū shùzàn in the Wén xuǎn matches the present text rather than the supposed古本; Yán Shīgǔ already silently rejected it; only Lǐ Yánshòu 李延壽 in the Nán shǐ uncritically recorded it. As to the slanders that Bān Gù took bribes for his historiography (Liú Zhījī’s Shǐtōng still cites them) — refuted by Liú Xié’s Wénxīn diāolóng, Shǐzhuàn chapter, citing Zhōnglǔ Gōnglǐ 仲長公理’s defence; and that Bān Gù plagiarised his father’s work — refuted by Yán Shīgǔ’s fā lì on the Wéi Xián zhuàn preface, which shows that Bān explicitly identified each section drawn from Bān Biāo with the formula “Sītú yuán Bān Biāo yuē” 司徒掾班彪曰. Yán Shīgǔ’s commentary is exemplary in its precision; though the Tang poets often ignored his sound-glosses (as in Dù Fǔ’s use of kuíwú and piàoyáo in level rather than oblique tones, or Yáng Jùyuán’s reading of Zànhóu not as “Zàn” but as “Cuó”), this is the well-known phenomenon of “valuing the distant and slighting the near” — for sound exposition and proof Yán remains worthy of the title “loyal servant of Bān Gù”, and his work is not damaged by a few minor variant readings.

(The Wényuāngé text further prefaces the work with eight imperial Yùzhì 御製 poem-and-prose pieces by the Qiánlóng emperor on his reading of the Hànshū, the Sòngbǎn Qián Hànshū in the Tiānlù línláng 天祿琳瑯, and on individual biographies — Shūsūn Tōng, Jí Àn, Sū Wǔ, Xiāo Wàngzhī, Shǐ Dān, Zhái Fāngjìn, Gōng Suì. Submitted with the Sìkù collation; submission date and chief compilers as for the other zhèngshǐ.)

Abstract

The Hànshū covers 230 years from the founding of the Western Hàn under Liú Bāng 劉邦 in 206 BCE through the xīn dynasty of Wáng Mǎng 王莽 (9–23 CE) to the latter’s destruction in 23. It is the first single-dynasty jǐzhuàntǐ 紀傳體 history and established the pattern for all subsequent zhèngshǐ. Its principal innovations relative to Sīmǎ Qiān’s Shǐjì: (1) the conversion of Sīmǎ Qiān’s shū 書 (treatise) into zhì 志 (a more comprehensive form); (2) the abolition of shìjiā 世家 in favour of placing all biographical material in the lièzhuàn; (3) ten new zhì including the magisterial Yìwén zhì 藝文志 (the first systematic Chinese bibliography), the Dìlǐ zhì 地理志 (Han administrative geography), the Wǔxíng zhì 五行志 (omen and portent), the Lǚlì zhì 律曆志 (pitch-pipes and calendar), and the Xíngfǎ zhì 刑法志 (penal law); (4) eight new biǎo including the Gǔjīn rénbiǎo 古今人表 — a controversial nine-grade ranking of all historical persons. Bān Gù’s prose style, more parallel and more deliberately archaic than Sīmǎ Qiān’s, became one of the standard models for gǔwén historiographical writing.

The composition history is well-attested. Bān Biāo 班彪 (3–54), discontent with the various Hàn continuations of the Shǐjì, compiled an unfinished Hòu zhuàn 後傳 in 65 piān. On Biāo’s death in 54 his son Bān Gù took up the project; in Yǒngpíng 5 (62) he was denounced for unauthorised composition of national history, briefly imprisoned, then by imperial commission of Mǐng Hàndì set to formal work as Lánltái lìngshǐ 蘭臺令史 in the imperial archive. The bulk of the work was completed by ca. 80 CE; Bān Gù was caught up in the political fall of Dòu Xiàn 竇憲 in 92 and died in prison. Bān Zhāo, his sister (also called Cáo dàjiā 曹大家 after her husband Cáo Shìshū 曹世叔), then completed the Bā biǎo and the Tiānwén zhì under imperial direction, with assistance from Mǎ Xù 馬續 on the astronomical material. The composition window for the work as we have it is therefore ca. 58–ca. 105 CE; the present catalog dates 58–92 reflect the principal compositional period of Bān Gù himself.

The standard pre-modern commentary, used at the WYG and incorporated into all subsequent texts, is by Yán Shīgǔ 顏師古 (581–645), presented to Tang Tàizōng in Zhēnguān 19 (645). Yán’s xùlì 敘例 — six prefatory rules — gives an annotated list of all 23 earlier commentators on the Hànshū (Fú Qián 服虔, Yīng Shào 應劭, Wén Yǐng 文穎, Mèng Kāng 孟康, Sū Lín 蘇林, Rú Chún 如淳, Zhāng Yàn 張晏, Zhōnglǔ Gōnglǐ 仲長統, Wéi Zhāo 韋昭, Jìn Zhuó 晉灼, Cuī Hào 崔浩, Liú Bīn 劉邠, Lǐ Qí 李奇, Zhāng Yǐ 張揖, etc., plus the anonymous Hànshū yīnyì — preserved by Yán under the unattributed citation “Zàn yuē” 瓚曰 from “Chén Zàn 臣瓚”, probably Fù Zàn 傅瓚 of the Western Jin Imperial Library); Yán’s own work supersedes them by integration. The Northern Sòng Jǐngyòu 景祐 imperial-edition (1035) is the foundation for all later printed traditions. The Wényuāngé exemplar is the Diànběn 殿本 of Qiánlóng 4 (1739), with the additional Qing kǎozhèng (54 juǎn) by Qí Zhàonán 齊召南 (1703–1768), one of the most thorough of all Sìkù kǎozhèng annexes.

Translations and research

No complete English translation. The principal partial translations are: Homer H. Dubs, The History of the Former Han Dynasty by Pan Ku, 3 vols. (Waverly, 1938–1955) — the běnjì and the table of Wáng Mǎng (juan 1–12 and zhì on Wáng Mǎng); Burton Watson, Courtier and Commoner in Ancient China: Selections from the History of the Former Han by Pan Ku (Columbia, 1974); Anthony Hulsewé and M. A. N. Loewe, China in Central Asia: The Early Stage 125 B.C.–A.D. 23 (Brill, 1979) — the Xīyù zhuàn; Hans Bielenstein, “The Restoration of the Han Dynasty” series, BMFEA 26 (1954) etc. — interspersed translations of various biǎo and zhì; Nancy Lee Swann, Food and Money in Ancient China: The Earliest Economic History of China to A.D. 25 (Princeton, 1950) — Shíhuò zhì. Major monographs in Chinese: Chén Zhí 陳直, Hànshū xīn zhèng 漢書新證 (Tianjin, 1959; rev. 1979); Wáng Xiānqiān 王先謙, Hànshū bǔ zhù 漢書補注 (1900; the standard premodern collation); Yáng Shùdá 楊樹達, Hànshū kuīguǎn 漢書窺管 (1955; rev. Shanghai Gǔjí, 1984). The standard punctuated edition is the Zhōnghuá Shūjú Hànshū (12 vols., 1962, ed. Yáng Bóqí 楊伯峻 et al.; revised Xiūdìngběn in 12 vols. forthcoming). For Yán Shīgǔ’s commentary specifically: Liú Lǔrán 劉縷然, Yán Shīgǔ Hànshū zhù yánjiū 顏師古漢書注研究 (2010).

Other points of interest

The Yìwén zhì 藝文志 (juan 30) is the foundational document of Chinese bibliography: based on Liú Xīn’s 劉歆 Qī lüè 七略 (now lost), it lists 596 titles in 13,269 piān, classed into six divisions (Liù yì 六藝, Zhūzǐ 諸子, Shīfù 詩賦, Bīngshū 兵書, Shùshù 數術, Fāngjì 方技). The Dìlǐ zhì 地理志 (juan 28) gives the administrative geography of the Western Hàn at Yuánshǐ 2 (2 CE) — the canonical demographic snapshot of Han China (about 12 million households, ca. 60 million persons). The Gǔjīn rénbiǎo 古今人表 (juan 20), Bān Gù’s nine-grade ranking of all historical persons, was widely criticised in later periods (notably by Liú Zhījī) but is the principal source for early ratings of pre-Han philosophers and statesmen.

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