Title: The Logical Composition of the First Chinese Dynastic Histories and its Impact on their Reading
Abstract: The Historical Records (Shiji) were written at the end of the second century BCE. They are a description of the history of the world as it was known in China, from its early days to the time of its authors Sima Tan and Sima Qian. Most of this book is devoted to the first century of the Han dynasty. Ban Gu’s Hanshu (the Book of the Han), written around 80 CE, is about the history of the first two centuries of the Han dynasty until the beginning of the Christian era. The Shiji and the Hanshu pr...