Ban Zhao

Ban Zhao (c. 45– c. 116 CE) was a Han dynasty Chinese historian, poet, and court official. She helped complete the Book of Han and wrote Lessons for Women, a work on women’s conduct and education.

Han dynasty: A Chinese imperial dynasty that ruled from 206 BCE to 220 CE, with a brief interruption by the Xin dynasty. Ban Zhao lived and worked during the Eastern Han period.
Lessons for Women: A set of moral instructions by Ban Zhao concerning women’s education, conduct, and family roles. This influential work is her best-known writing outside the Book of Han.
Empress Deng Sui: An Eastern Han empress dowager who acted as regent and exercised political authority in the early second century CE. Ban Zhao taught her and served as a trusted scholar at court.
Records of the Grand Historian: Sima Qian’s sweeping history of China from legendary antiquity through the early Han dynasty. It is the earlier monumental history against which the Book of Han is often understood.
Book of Han: A history of the Western Han dynasty compiled by members of the Ban family and completed in the first century CE. Ban Zhao helped finish this dynastic history after her brother Ban Gu died.
Eastern Han court: The imperial household and governing institutions of China’s Eastern Han dynasty. Ban Zhao served at court and taught members of the imperial household.
Ban Zhao’s family: The scholarly Ban family of the Han dynasty, including Ban Biao, Ban Gu, and Ban Zhao. Family learning and shared historical work shaped Ban Zhao’s career.
Four Books for Women: A later collection of texts used to instruct women in traditional Chinese conduct and learning. Lessons for Women became one of the works included in this later instructional canon.
Ban Gu: A Han dynasty historian and poet who began the Book of Han. Her brother’s unfinished historical project became one of her central scholarly responsibilities.
History of the Han dynasty: The study and narration of the Han dynasty’s political, social, and cultural past. Her work helped establish how the Western Han would be remembered.

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Ban ChaoRelated: Ban Chao’s sister continued the family’s influential work in court scholarship.