漢書

The book, also called History of the Former Han Dynasty compiled by Ban Gu, the historian in Eastern Han Dynasty, is a dynastic and biographical history and one of the Twenty-Four Histories. It is another important historical book in ancient time after the Records of the Grand Historian, together with Records of the Grand Historian, The Book of the Later Han and Three Kingdoms called Early Four Historiographies. It records 230 years of history from the first year of Emperor Gaozu in Han dynasty(206 B.C.) to the 4th year of Emperor Wang Mang in Xinchao dynasty(23 A.D.) with 12 biographies, 8 tables, 10 annals, 70 pieces of records, 100 pieces and 800,000 words in total, classified into 12 chapters by the descendants.