Han Shu / 《汉书》

Overview

Han Shu / 《汉书》 is currently used in the wiki as a Western Han official-history anchor, a source-critical comparator for 汉平帝’s death, and a law-and-order countervoice to 《史记》 in the reception of 郭解.

Current Profile

The current synthesis treats Han Shu as both a Western Han official-history anchor and a source-critical comparator. Hanji 591-2 introduces it as Ban Gu’s Eastern Han compilation covering Western Han history from Liu Bang’s founding era through Wang Mang’s final years. Hanji 627-1 then shows why the text matters methodologically: its Pingdi notices are presented as more illness-centered than Zizhi Tongjian’s direct pepper-wine poisoning account, with poisoning detail entering through later annotation around the Pingdi record.

Hanji 282 adds an evaluative contrast rather than a chronology dispute. In the episode’s reading, Han Shu emphasizes Guo Jie’s gatherings with powerful associates and condemns a commoner exercising private life-and-death authority, whereas Shiji gives greater weight to personal restraint and socially useful aid. The addition shows that source comparison concerns moral and institutional framing as well as competing event claims.

Key Characteristics

• Western Han official-history text placed by the episode among the front-four histories.
• Associated in Hanji 591-2 with Ban Gu, long compilation labor, and a roughly Western Han-to-Wang Mang chronological scope.
• Functions in Hanji 627-1 as a comparison point for Pingdi’s death tradition.
• Helps the wiki keep poisoning claims source-scoped instead of flattening later annotation and chronicle selection into one settled fact.
• Supplies, in Hanji 282’s reading, a state-law critique of Guo Jie’s private coercive authority.
• Shows how official-history framing can differ from Shiji even when the underlying person and broad event field are shared.

Evidence

• Official-history orientation: Hanji 591-2 introduces Han Shu as a front-four-history text compiled by Ban Gu and covering the Western Han-to-Wang Mang span.
• Pingdi death comparison: Hanji 627-1 says 《汉书·平帝纪》 records illness and death without directly recording poisoning.
• Wang Mang prayer comparison: Hanji 627-1 says 《汉书·王莽传》 records the illness and Zhougong-like prayer text.
• Annotation caution: Hanji 627-1 says poisoning details are preserved in annotation around the Pingdi record.
• Guo Jie evaluation: Hanji 282 presents Han Shu as stressing illegal association, social harm, and the illegitimacy of private life-and-death power.
• Historiographical contrast: Hanji 282 contrasts that emphasis with Shiji’s more sympathetic account of personal restraint and aid.

Qualifications

This page remains an episode-mediated profile, not a full study of Ban Gu, Ban Zhao, manuscript history, chapter structure, or Han Shu scholarship. Hanji 591-2’s dates, volume count, and word-count summary are retained as source-scoped orientation. Hanji 282 does not quote or collate the complete Guo Jie passages, so its Shiji/Han Shu contrast is a useful reading problem rather than a substitute for primary-text comparison.

What Changed

• Added Hanji 282’s law-and-order reading of Guo Jie and its contrast with Shiji’s sympathetic emphasis.
• Extended source comparison from factual divergence around Pingdi’s death to divergent moral and institutional framing.

Relationships

• 二十四史 - broader official-history corpus in which Han Shu is placed by Hanji 591-2.
• 《史记》 - front-four-history predecessor and comparison text in the episode’s map.
• 《后汉书》 - paired front-four-history successor for Eastern Han.
• 《三国志》 - another front-four-history text introduced in the same source map.
• 《资治通鉴》 - comparison text that Hanji 627-1 says adopts the poisoning account more directly.
• 汉平帝 - ruler whose death creates the source-comparison issue.
• 王莽 - regent whose prayer performance and possible poisoning are compared across texts.
• 郭解 - youxia figure through whom Hanji 282 presents Han Shu’s criticism of private punitive authority.
• 大一统下的游侠压制 - political-order framework that makes the Guo Jie evaluation consequential.