Chinese emperors family tree (early)
Emperor Xian, the last emperor of the Han dynasty, was a descendant of the first emperor Liu Bang. Lasting for over 400 years (the first to last for more than a century), the Han Dynasty is regarded as one of the golden ages of Chinese history. The Han Dynasty was interrupted by the reign of the usurper Wang Mang, who declared the Xin dynasty (9–23 AD); on this basis, the Han Dynasty is generally divided into the Western Han (206 BC – 9 AD and 23–25 AD) and the Eastern Han (25–220 AD). The rulers of the Shu Han, one of the three successor states to the Han Dynasty during the Three Kingdoms period, were descended from the Han imperial family, and considered themselves a continuation of the Han Dynasty; they are included below.
Society and culture of the Han dynasty
The next Standard History was the "Book of Han", compiled by Ban Biao (3–54 CE), his son Ban Gu (32–92 CE), and his daughter Ban Zhao (45–116 CE). Unlike Sima's private and independent work, this history text was commissioned and sponsored by the Han court under Emperor Ming (r. 57–75 CE), who let Ban Gu use the imperial archives. This set a significant precedent for the rest of the Standard Histories, since the historian was now virtually unable to criticize his ruling patron. The "Book of Han" covered the history of China left off from Sima's work during Emperor Wu's reign up until the middle Eastern Han. Although the "Records of the Three Kingdoms" included events in late Eastern Han, no history work focused exclusively on the Eastern Han period until the "Book of Later Han" was compiled by Fan Ye (398–445 CE).