Hanshu, also known as Pre-Hanshu, is a historical work in ancient China. It was written by Ban Gu in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and it is the first biographical dynastic history of China. It follows the slightly changed style of Historical Records, changing books into records, changing biographies into biographies, changing biographies into records, and deleting "aristocratic families". The whole book includes 12 biographies, 8 tables, 10 records, 70 biographies and 100 * *, which records the history from the sixth year of Emperor Gaozu to the fourth year of Emperor Wangmang * * 230 years. The language of Hanshu is solemn and neat, commonly used in parallelism, elegant and far-reaching words and sentences, which is in sharp contrast with the plain spoken language of Shiji. Since Hanshu, China's way of recording history imitates his style and compiles the dynastic history of biographical style. Since Ban Biao, he has taken Hanshu as his responsibility. After more than 20 years' efforts, Ban Gu completed the main part of Hanshu. In the first year of Han Yongyuan (89), Ban Gu followed Dou Xian to attack the Huns and participated in a premeditated discussion. Later, because of some things in prison, Yongyuan died in prison for four years.
There are still eight tables left in Hanshu and Tianwenzhi. Emperor Wu ordered Ban Zhao (Cao Dajia) to be added to Dongguan Library, and Ma Xu assisted Ban Zhao in writing Tianwenzhi. Therefore, it took more than forty years for four people to complete Hanshu. Yan Shigu in Tang Dynasty and Wang Xianqian in Qing Dynasty annotated Hanshu. Records of criminal law, five elements, geography and art have been added to Hanshu. For the first time, the annals of criminal law systematically recorded the evolution of the legal system and some specific laws and regulations. Geographical records record the administrative divisions, historical evolution and number of households of counties and countries at that time, and the records on local products, economic development and customs are even more striking. Yiwenzhi verified the origin of various academic schools and recorded the books handed down in the world. It is the earliest existing book catalogue in China. Shihuozhi evolved from PingZhun Shu, but its content is richer. It has two volumes. The first volume talks about "grain", that is, the agricultural economy; The second volume of Commodities, namely, Commercial and Monetary Conditions, was an economic monograph at that time.