China's dynastic historiography dates back to the second century BCE. The model on which all 24 standard histories were written was that of Ssu-ma T'an (? 110 BCE) and his son Ssu-ma Ch'ien (145 or 135-87? BCE). These two chroniclers wrote the first major Chinese work, which was intended to summarize the history of the known world from its beginnings to the authors' lifetimes. The Chronicles of the Chroniclers (Shih-chi) were early hailed as a masterpiece, but at the same time Ssu-ma Ch'ien was accused of having castrated his dynasty in a bad light. Emperor Wu had the historian castrated as punishment for supporting an officer who had defected to the enemy, but perhaps also because he had criticized him too harshly - in the second century the Shih-chi was even once described as a "slanderous work". About 100 years after the death of Ssu-ma Ch’ien, Pan Piao began to work on a history of the Early Han Dynasty (206 BC-8 AD) – a work continued by his son Pan Ku (32-92 AD). The Pan based their work on the Ssu-ma's originals, but changed the texts in some cases openly and in others in a very subtle way in order to arrive at a new overall statement.

 

In 12 chapters which summarize the most important themes of the two historical works, this book traces the differences between the views of their authors. At the same time, it shows the conditions under which the genre of standard Chinese history was able to flourish.