Han Shu / 《汉书》
Updated · 1 episodes · 1 show · 1 source notes
Overview
Han Shu / 《汉书》 enters the wiki through Hanji 627-1 as the comparison text for 汉平帝’s death and 王莽’s prayer performance.
Current Profile
The page is intentionally narrow. Hanji 627-1 uses 《汉书》 to show that the Pingdi death tradition is not textually flat: the episode says 《汉书·平帝纪》 records the emperor’s illness and death without directly narrating poisoning, while 《汉书·王莽传》 describes illness and Wang Mang’s Zhougong-like prayer performance. The poisoning details enter through later annotation rather than the episode’s account of the base annalistic notice.
That makes 《汉书》 useful here as a source-criticism node. It contrasts with 《资治通鉴》, which the episode says adopts the pepper-wine poisoning account more directly.
Key Characteristics
- Historical text used in the episode as a comparison point for Pingdi’s death.
- Preserves illness-centered notices in the episode’s account.
- Contains Wang Mang’s Zhougong-like prayer performance in the source comparison.
- Functions as a historiographical caution against flattening the poisoning claim.
Evidence
- 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.
Qualifications
This page is not a full profile of Ban Gu, the Book of Han’s compilation, or its textual tradition. It records only the source-scoped role supplied by Hanji 627-1.
What Changed
- Created the page from Hanji 627-1 to anchor the Pingdi death source-comparison branch.
Relationships
- 《资治通鉴》 - comparison text that the episode 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.
- 班固 - historian whose commentary is discussed in the episode’s account of Wang Mang’s period.