Ban Gu

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Ban Gu (32-92 A.D.) was a famous historian and writer in Eastern Han Dynasty, who wrote the first dynastic history book History of the Former Han Dynasty (Han Shu) in biographical style in China, on the basis of his father Ban Biao's work The Legend after Records of the Historian, a supplement to the great work Records of the Historian.

The History of the Former Han Dynasty recorded the history of 230 years from the first year of Gaozu's reign in Han Dynasty (206 B.C.) till the fourth year of Dihuang during the reign of Wang Mang (23 A.D.). A large quantity of Ci-Fu (a type of classical Chinese literature), prose and natural and human geographical data are embodied in the book. Ban Gu initiated the practice of keeping official historical geography records in his Geography Records of Hanshu, which was then followed by later generations. He also described a series of vivid images in euphemistic style in his biographies, bringing great influence to the prose written by late ages.

Besides his accomplishment in historiography, Ban Gu was also a master of Fu style who wrote the famous Fu of the Two Capitals and You Tong Fu, etc.