《梦溪笔谈·补笔谈卷一》
班固论司马迁撰写《史记》，认为 其是非标准颇与儒家圣人的观念相抵触，所以在讨论天地自然的大道理时便首先注重黄老之学而然后才及于儒家经典，在叙述游侠的事迹时便排斥有志节的隐士而专为一些奸雄人物立传，在记录工商业经济状况和相关人物的活动时便崇尚发财致富的势利而以贫贱为耻辱，这些都是司马迁观念上的囿蔽和局限性所在 。我查考《后汉书》记载王允说： 汉武帝不杀司马迁，使得他作出了一部诽谤的书，贻害于后世。 被班固所批评的司马迁的观念，就是所谓 谤 了。
古人引《诗》，多举《诗》之断章。断音段，读如断截之断，谓如一诗之中，只断取一章或一二句取义，不取全篇之义，故谓之断章。今之人多读为断章，断音锻，谓诗之断句，殊误也。《诗》之末句，古人只谓之 卒章， 近世方谓 断句 。
Ban Gu commented on Sima Qian's writing of "Historical Records", believing that his standards of right and wrong were quite different from the Confucian saints' ideas, so when discussing the great principles of heaven and earth, he first paid attention to the studies of Huang and Lao, and then to the Confucian classics. When describing the deeds of wandering knights, he excluded hermits with aspirations and dedicated himself to writing biographies of some treacherous villains. When recording the economic conditions of industry and commerce and the activities of relevant figures, he admired the trend of getting rich and being ashamed of poverty. These are all Sima Qian's ideas. What is constrained and limited. I checked the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty" and recorded Wang Yun saying: "Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty did not kill Sima Qian, so that he made a book of slander, which was harmful to future generations." The concept of Sima Qian criticized by Ban Gu is the so-called "slander".