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

Chapter 1:

Inscribing the Past: A History of Chinese History

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And the second source is Gu’s comments at the end of his biography of Sima Qian. Several of Biao and Gu’s historiographical opinions can be, in fact, taken from their comments on the historian Sima Qian. In addition to their comments, there is a short passage at the end of Fan Ye’s biography of Ban Gu that helps summarize their historiographical ideals.

Ban Biao’s essay on history and Ban Gu’s comments on Sima Qian insist that while literary merit is valuable to historical writing, skilled writing must also be accompanied by appropriate moral evaluation. The work of historical writing should echo the tenets of Confucius, and two examples demonstrate this point. In Ban Biao’s “General Remarks on Historiography,” he complained that Sima Qian “gave place to ‘Goods and Wealth’ (Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 129) while treating lightly benevolence and righteousness, and he expressed shame for the poor and destitute” .³⁸ His essay expresses several misgivings about Sima Qian’s slighting of classical values. Likewise, Ban Gu complained at the end of his biography of Sima Qian (History of the Han, chapter 62),

With his diligence he browsed very widely in books, threaded his way through the Classics and commentaries, and galloped up and down from the past to the present, covering a period of several thousand years. Yet his judgments stray rather often from those of The Sage.³⁹

According to the two Bans, historical writing must include Confucian tenets and evaluate the figures of history according to the Master’s teachings.

Biao and Gu’s comments contain several other remarks that disclose their historiographical bias; their praises and criticisms of Sima Qian reveal much of what they believed were good and bad strategies for writing. In Ban Biao’s essay, he commends Sima Qian’s narrative skills: