Twenty-Four Histories

The Twenty-Four Histories are official Chinese dynastic histories compiled across successive regimes, covering Chinese history from antiquity through the Ming dynasty.

Shiji: A history by Sima Qian covering China from legendary antiquity to the Han dynasty of his own time. It established the biographical and annalistic model later histories in the collection adopted.
Jizhuan historiography: A historiographic format combining annals, tables, treatises, and biographies. It describes the recurring architecture of many works in the collection.
Sima Qian: A Han dynasty historian who wrote the Shiji, a foundational work of Chinese historiography. His work supplied a model for later official histories in the collection.
Dynastic cycle: A model of Chinese history in which dynasties rise, govern, decline, and are replaced. The histories’ succession narratives helped make dynastic change a central framework for Chinese history.
Hanshu: A history of the Western Han dynasty written chiefly by Ban Gu and his family. It became a template for histories devoted to a single dynasty.
Imperial annals: Chronological records centered on an emperor’s reign and major court events. They provide the chronological backbone of many dynastic histories.
Ban Gu: A Han dynasty historian who helped compose the Hanshu, a history of the Western Han. His dynastic history helped establish the form followed by later compilers.
Mandate of Heaven: The doctrine that Heaven grants rulers authority conditionally and withdraws it from unjust regimes. Dynastic histories often interpret political succession through this account of legitimate rule.
Jiu Tangshu: An official history of the Tang dynasty compiled under the Later Jin in the tenth century. It is one of the collection’s two distinct histories of the Tang.
Biographical history: Historical writing that organizes accounts around the lives of individuals. Biographies make officials, generals, rebels, and cultural figures part of dynastic narratives.

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