Family scholarship and an inherited project
Ban Gu, whose courtesy name was Mengjian, lived from 32 to 92 CEunder the Eastern Han. He was the son of Ban Biao and brother of Ban Chao and Ban Zhao. His biography describes early literary ability and wide reading rather than allegiance to a single teacher. The family had already undertaken a historical project: Ban Biao collected material extending beyond the Shiji and criticized aspects of earlier historical arrangement and judgment.
After his father's death, Ban Gu continued working on the inherited material. An accusation that he was privately rewriting the national history brought imprisonment and the seizure of family writings. Ban Chao went to court to explain the project. Emperor Ming approved the material and brought Ban Gu into the imperial book office. A family undertaking thereby acquired access to official employment and collections.
Court records and the structure of the Hanshu
As a clerk in the imperial library, Ban Gu worked with Chen Zong, Yin Min and Meng Yi on annals of Emperor Guangwu. He also compiled accounts of officials and forces involved in the founding of Eastern Han. These court projects accompanied the history of the preceding Han period. Editing imperial collections placed historical work within an organization that assigned tasks and controlled access to records.
The Hanshu arranged its material in annals, tables, treatises and biographies. Rulers and individuals appeared alongside institutions, geography and economic matters. Ban Gu's concluding postface described the subjects and purposes of its chapters. The work adapted forms used by the Shiji while concentrating on one dynastic history, supplying an influential model for later histories organized around successive dynasties.
Literature, political service and completion
Ban Gu's literary writing included the Two Capitals Rhapsody, which used descriptions of the western and eastern capitals to discuss imperial order and ceremonial life. He later served in Dou Xian's staff. When Dou Xian fell from power, Ban Gu became implicated and died in prison. Literary reputation and historical scholarship remained entangled with court appointments and political vulnerability.
Parts of the Hanshu, including material in its tables and treatises, remained unfinished at his death. Ban Zhao was ordered to continue the work in the Dongguan collection, and Ma Xu also participated in its completion. The resulting history preserves Ban Gu's central contribution together with a sequence of work by relatives and court scholars, rather than a manuscript finished wholly by one author at one moment.