| Chapter 1: | Inscribing the Past: A History of Chinese History |
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In this final judgment of Su Wu, Ban Gu extracted two of Confucius’ statements from the Analects of Confucius, 15.9 and 13.20.55 After citing Confucius, Gu simply added that “Su Wu had these qualities indeed” 
.56
In Ban Gu’s biography of Emperor Jing 
(r. 156–141 BC), he again quoted Confucius to imply his judgment.57 He wrote, “Confucius declared that, ‘such people were employed to keep straight the Way during the Three Dynasties [Xia, Shang, and Zhou],’ ” 
58 drawing from the original Analects of Confucius passage, 15.25, wherein Confucius said, “In my dealings with others, who do I upbraid and who do I commend? If I have praised him, he has already been put to the test” 
.59 After this comment, Confucius continued with the line quoted by Ban Gu regarding people who “keep straight the Way”; it is this judgment that Ban Gu presumably wished his reader to attach to Emperor Jing.
It is quite typical in Ban Gu’s History of the Han that the voice of Confucius is borrowed as a proxy for his own. In addition to the two examples I provide, Ban Gu also rendered judgments through the voice of Confucius in chapters 45, 46, 49, 66, 67, 71, 74, 77, 83, 85, 93, and 99. And of the instances where Confucius’ voice is used for historical judgment, all but a single passage from the Records of the Grand Historian are taken from the Analects of Confucius. Moreover, this list does not include other passages where Ban Gu rendered judgments on the subjects of his history in decidedly Confucian terms.