A Woman Historian and Product of Her Time Ban Zhao, the first
known Chinese woman historian, lived during the Eastern Han
Dynasty (AD25 - 200), and is best known for her contribution to
the completion of the Han Shu (History of the Han Dynasty),
which covers the entire Western Han period (206BC - AD24). As
China's first book on dynastic history, it constitutes the
second volume in the Twenty-Four Histories, and sets the style
of writing for the rest of the dynastic annals. The Han Shu
consists of 120 volumes divided into four parts: Biographies of
the 12 Western Han emperors and major events during the reign of
each emperor; the Eight Tables listing the names of princes, the
emperor's in-laws and the leading officials in chronological
order; the Ten Registries dealing with rules and laws; and
Biographies of 70 outstanding personalities. Of the four parts,
the Eight Tables was compiled by Ban Zhao. Ban Zhao, also known
as Ban Ji or Ban Huiban, was born around AD49 in Fufeng, Anling
(east of present-day Xianyan