Woman of letters, poet and scholar, Ban Zhao (around 40-45 – around 117-120) is the first known Chinese historian.
Daughter and sister of historians
Ban Zhao was born around 40-45 in Fufeng, near the city of Xianyang, capital of the Qin dynasty and located in the center of present-day China. China was then ruled for two decades by the Eastern Han or Later Han dynasty, after more than two centuries of Western Han or Earlier Han rule. The short-lived Xin Dynasty, which lasted fourteen years and had a single emperor, separates these two parts of the reign of the Han Dynasty, which are named after the location of their capitals.
Ban Zhao was born and grew up in a wealthy and educated family. His father, the civil servant and historian Ban Biao, who started an important work on the history of Western Han:The Book of Earlier Han . She has a sister and two brothers, Ban Chao and Ban Gu, who would become an effective general and a prominent historian respectively. She is also a great-niece of Ban Jieyu, Lady Ban (-48/-6), poetess and concubine of Emperor Cheng of Earlier Han.
Zhao loses her father when she is still young – between nine and fourteen years old. On the death of Biao in 54, his eldest son Gu took over his work and set about composing the Book of Earlier Han . Zhao married Cao Sishu at the age of fourteen, and became known at court as Venerable Madame Cao; they will have two sons, Cao Cheng and Cao Gu. Her husband died when she was still young, however, and the widow, who would never remarry, moved in with her older brother.
Contributor to her brother's work
When Ban Zhao moves in, Gu works at the Book of Earlier Han which, far from just evoking the history of the dynasty, also deals with geography, science, astronomy, law and literature. Zhao is herself keen on mathematics and astronomy, and her brother charges her with small contributions to the work, particularly on celestial phenomena.
Around the year 60, rumors insinuated that Gu was “secretly revisiting national history” and led to his arrest; it is the intervention of his brother Chao, general, which allows him to regain his freedom and resume his work. During Emperor Zhang's reign, he was promoted to high official, but in 92 he was suspected of rebellion by Emperor Han Hedi. Arrested, he died in prison, leaving behind him an unfinished work.
The work of Ban Zhao
Like her brother before her, Ban Zhao is working to complete the work initiated by her father, a task entrusted to her by Emperor Han Hedi himself. She writes volumes of chronology and genealogy, and supervises the writing of the treatise on astronomy. In 111, the Book of Earlier Hans is finally completed; it has one hundred volumes, covers many areas of knowledge and covers a period from -206 to 25.
Beyond the family work, Zhao also composes fu , prose poems of which only four have come down to us. She also leaves a treatise on the education of women, the Nü jie (Precepts of Women ), quickly popular at court and which spread for centuries. In accordance with Confucian thought, Zhao sets up the main principles of humility, sacrifice, obedience and respect to maintain family harmony. She also indicates that women must be well educated in order to best serve their husbands.
At court
Lady-in-waiting to Empress Dowager Deng Sui, Ban Zhao gained considerable influence with her. The empress consulted her on many subjects, including, when she became regent, on political questions of government. Officiating at the royal library, Zhao taught the ladies of the palace, the scholars of the library, and the empress herself. Recognized for her knowledge, she also had male students, including the scholar Ma Rong.
As a reward for his good service, Empress Deng Sui granted Zhao's sons official positions. As she accompanies Cao Cheng to her new post, the woman of letters composes her fu on a journey to the East , in which she poetically and eruditely describes the places she crosses, and which has come down to us. When he died around the year 120, his daughter-in-law collected his writings in the three volumes of Works of Ban Zhao , but most of us have not reached.
Dungzheng Fu (Fu on a Journey to the East)
I follow my son on his journey to the East
It is an auspicious day in the first moon of spring;
We choose this good hour and we set off
Now I get up and get in my car.
At nightfall, we will stay in Yen-shih:
Already, we are leaving the old and joining the new.
My mind is worried and my heart is sad.
Dawn is already shining, but I do not sleep;
My heart hesitates as if it would betray me.
I pour a cup of wine to ease my mind.
Silencing my feelings, I sigh and blame myself:
I won't have to lodge in nests or feed on worms.
How could I not encourage myself to move on?
And further, am I different from others?
Let me hear the commandments of heaven and follow their way.
Throughout the trip, we follow the high road.
If we are looking for shortcuts, who should we follow?
Continuing forward, we travel like this;
In abandonment, our eyes wander and our minds wander...
Secretly, I dream of the capital that I love
But clinging to one's birthplace is the act of a weak nature,
As the stories have taught us…
As I enter K'uang City, I remember distant events.
I remember the trials of Confucius
In this decadent and chaotic age which did not know the Way,
Which impressed even him, this holy man!
In reality, true virtue cannot die.
Though the body decays, the name lives on….
I know that the nature and destiny of man rests in the heavens,
But through effort, we can move forward and come closer to love.
With our heads held high, we move towards the vision….
Useful links
Ban Zhao (English)
Ban Zhao Wikipedia page in English