Ban Gu's History of Early China By Anthony E. Clark

A careful look at Ban Gu’s History of the Han reveals that an ideological view, and perhaps a great deal of personal sentiment, can, indeed, be culled from a text that has been in large part cut and pasted together. One example of this can be located in Ban Gu’s biographical chapter on the philosopher Dong Zhongshu (176–104 BC). A cursory glance at this chapter might lead one to conclude that it was not authored by Ban Gu at all. The biography begins with an excerpt from Sima Qian’s (145–86? BC) Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian) and is followed by three of Dong’s memorials submitted to the emperor, which are, again, followed by another verbatim excerpt from the same source. Ban Gu’s biography of Dong Zhongshu, then, consists of a closely exact, although not without some variations, insertion of Sima Qian’s biography of Dong, divided in two by the three memorials, presumably taken from the imperial archives.⁸ At the end of the History of the Han chapter, in his Eulogy , Ban Gu inserted two quotes by the late Western Han (206 BC–AD 9) courtiers, Liu Xiang (c. 79–c. 6 BC) and Xiang’s son, Liu Xin (c. 50 BC–AD 23). The quote by Liu Xiang is a negative assessment of Dong while Xin’s is favorable.

The final sentence of the chapter is the only one not taken mostly from Ban Gu’s original archival sources and includes only sixteen characters. In his only words of the entire chapter, Ban Gu wrote, “Liu Xiang’s great-grandson, Gong, was a gentleman of honest disquisitions indeed! And, he considered Liu Xin’s estimation of Dong Zhongshu to be correct.” .⁹ In all, Ban Gu inserted three memorials from the imperial archives within a short biography from the Records of the Grand Historian and inserted two quotations into his closing Eulogy, only writing one sentence of his own. What readers glean from this chapter, however, is Ban Gu’s approbation of Gong’s assessment of Dong Zhongshu and, hence, Gu’s acceptance of Dong’s philosophical views. The positive appearances of Dong throughout the History of the Han support the conclusion that Ban Gu favored him and his ideas. Seen in this example, Ban’s ideological bent can be apprehended from a rather lengthy chapter that includes only a single original sentence by Ban.¹⁰