Table of Contents
List of Plates |
Acknowledgments |
Prologue |
Chapter 1: Inscribing the Past: A History of Chinese History |
The Perennial Dangers of Direct Criticism |
Praise, Blame, and the Modes of Judgment |
Chapter 2: Inscribing the Text: A History of the History of the Han |
“True Editions” and Qing Skepticism |
Structure and Sources of the History of the Han |
Accretions and Additions |
From Han to PRC: Filiations of Transmission |
Chapter 3: Inscribing the Family: A History of the Ban Clan |
Ban Gu, Sima Qian, and Rewriting the Past |
Inscribing Genealogy |
Ban Bo and the Family’s Rise to a Consort Clan |
Narrating Through the Dangers of Court |
Historicizing Advantage: Highlighting Privilege, Loyalty, and Influence |
Chapter 4: Inscribing the Self: Ban Gu’s Positioning of Text and Self |
Eclipse of the Imperial Family: Wang Mang and the Liu Eviction |