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22-621: The Book of Han records that in 121 BCE when General Huo Qubing defeated the armies of the Xiongnu prince of Xiutu (休屠, in modern-day Gansu ), he "captured a golden (or gilded) man used by the King of Xiutu to worship Heaven". The statues were later moved to the Yunyang 雲陽 Temple, near the royal summer Ganquan palace in the capital of Xianyang : 漢武帝將其部眾討凶奴,並獲得二金(人),(各)長丈餘,刊〔列〕之於甘泉宮,帝(以)為大神,常行拜褐時 Emperor Han Wudi directed his troops to fight

44-755: A Baptist missionary and Y.W.C.A. Secretary in Jinan , Shandong ,. She returned to the United States and entered graduate study at Columbia University, but went again to China to study at North China Union Language School in Peking. In 1928 Swann joined the library at McGill University , in Montréal, then home of what would become the Gest Oriental Collection. Guion Moore Gest (1864-1948) (pronounced "Guest") had travelled often to Asia in

66-408: A chronological overview of the most important occurrences, as seen from the imperial court. Biao (表, tables), 8 volumes. Chronological tables of important people. Zhi (志, memoirs), 10 volumes. Each treatise describes an area of effort of the state. Zhuan (傳, exemplary traditions, usually translated as biographies), 70 volumes. Biographies of important people. The biographies confine themselves to

88-569: A continuation of Sima Qian 's Records of the Grand Historian , initiated by Ban Gu's father, Ban Biao , at the beginning of the Later Han dynasty. This work is usually referred to as Later Traditions (後傳), which indicates that the elder Ban's work was meant to be a continuation. Other scholars of the time, including Liu Xin and Yang Xiong also worked on continuations of Sima's history. After Ban Biao's death, his eldest son Ban Gu

110-605: A single dynasty. It is the best source, sometimes the only one, for many topics such as literature in this period. The Book of Han is also called the Book of the Former Han ( 前漢書 ; Qián Hàn shū ) to distinguish it from the Book of the Later Han ( 後漢書 ; Hòu Hàn shū ) which covers the Eastern Han period (25–220 CE), and was composed in the fifth century by Fan Ye (398–445 CE). This history developed from

132-727: Is a modern commentary. Nancy Lee Swann Nancy Lee Swann (b. 9 Feb 1881 Tyler, Texas; d. 15 May 1966 El Paso, Texas) was an American Sinologist and curator of the Gest Memorial Chinese Library at Princeton University from 1931 until her retirement in 1948. Her best known scholarly publication were Pan Chao: Foremost Woman Scholar of China , published by the American Historical Association in 1932 and Food and Money in Ancient China , an annotated scholarly translation of

154-425: Is recorded, "The people of Wo are located across the ocean from Lelang Commandery , are divided into more than one hundred tribes, and come to offer tribute from time to time." It is later recorded that in 57, the southern Wa kingdom of Na sent an emissary named Taifu to pay tribute to Emperor Guangwu and received a golden seal . The seal itself was discovered in northern Kyūshū in the 18th century. According to

176-706: Is translated to English by Cullen. Ban Gu's history set the standard for the writings of later Chinese dynasties, and today it is a reference used to study the Han period. It is regarded as one of the "Four Histories" 四史 of the Twenty-Four Histories canon, together with the Records of the Grand Historian , Records of the Three Kingdoms and History of the Later Han . Ji (紀, annal), 12 volumes. Emperors' biographies in strict annal form, which offer

198-464: The Book of Wei , the most powerful kingdom on the archipelago in the third century was called Yamatai and was ruled by the legendary Queen Himiko . The comments of both Yan Shigu (581–645) and Su Lin are included in the Palace Edition. The Hanshu Buzhu 漢書補注 by Wang Xianqian (1842–1918) contains notes by a number commentators, including Wang himself. Hanshu Kuiguan 漢書管窺 by Yang Shuda

220-586: The Western Regions contained in the 96th fascicle. The "Annals" section and the three chapters covering the reign of Wang Mang were translated into English by Homer H. Dubs . Other chapters have been rendered into English by A. F. P. Hulsewé , Clyde B. Sargent, Nancy Lee Swann , and Burton Watson . The text includes a description of the Triple Concordance Calendar System 三統曆 developed by Liu Xin in fascicle 21. This

242-613: The 1910s and 1920s on business for the Gest Engineering Company , which he founded and headed. He developed a fascination with Chinese medicine and traditional culture, and began to amass a collection of rare or significant Chinese books. On one of his trips to Peking, Gest met Commander I.V. (Irvin Van Gorder) Gillis (1875-1948), a Naval Attaché, who became his agent. In 1931, Swann both received her Doctorate from Columbia University and became Curator of

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264-484: The Gest Collection, a position she continued to hold until her retirement in 1948. In the 1930s, Gillis continued to buy Chinese books in Peking even though Gest could not always pay for them, and Swann continued her responsibilities as curator and guide to the collection even though Gest could not always provide her salary. McGill found itself unable to continue its support or offer space on campus. The Collection

286-576: The Xiongnu and obtained two golden statues that he displayed in the Ganquan Palace and regularly worshipped. This article related to the history of China is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Book of Han The Book of Han is a history of China finished in 111 CE, covering the Western, or Former Han dynasty from the first emperor in 206 BCE to

308-468: The book in 111, 19 years after Ban Gu had died in prison. An outstanding scholar in her own right, she is thought to have written volumes 13–20 (eight chronological tables) and 26 (treatise on astronomy), the latter with the help of Ma Xu. As with the Records of the Grand Historian , Zhang Qian , a notable Chinese general who travelled to the west, was a key source for the cultural and socio-economic data on

330-535: The collection, which was housed in what she called "makeshift quarters," in the basemement of a commercial building on Nassau Street, where it got little use. At one point, she put down a pail and floor protection when a summer storm caused a leak in the roof. In January 1948, Swann was one of the fourteen scholars at the organizational meeting of the Association for Asian Studies , and the only woman. Swann also pursued an active publishing career. Her first book

352-599: The description of events that clearly show the exemplary character of the person. Two or more people are treated in one main article, as they belong to the same class of people. The last articles describe the relations between China and the various peoples at and beyond the frontiers, including the contested areas of Ba in present-day Yunnan; Nanyue in present-day Guangdong, Guangxi, and Vietnam; and Minyue in present-day Fujian. The people of Japan make their first unambiguous appearance in written history in this book ( Book of Han , Volume 28, Treatise on Geography), in which it

374-604: The economic chapters of the Han Shu , published by Princeton University Press in 1950. Swann was likely the first woman to receive a PhD in Chinese history in the United States. Swann first studied at Sam Houston State Teachers College , taught school for four years, then returned to school. to graduate in June 1906, with a Bachelor of Arts degree from University of Texas, Austin , Phi Beta Kappa , She served for seven years as

396-408: The fall of Wang Mang in 23 CE. The work was composed by Ban Gu (32–92 CE), an Eastern Han court official, with the help of his sister Ban Zhao , continuing the work of their father, Ban Biao . They modelled their work on the Records of the Grand Historian ( c.  91 BCE ), a cross-dynastic general history, but theirs was the first in this annals-biography form to cover

418-423: The periods where they overlapped, Ban Gu adopted nearly verbatim much of Sima Qian's material, though in some cases he also expanded it. He also incorporated at least some of what his father had written, though it is difficult to know how much. The completed work ran to a total of 100 fascicles 卷, and included essays on law , science , geography , and literature . Ban Gu's younger sister Ban Zhao finished writing

440-441: Was a study of the Han dynasty scholar Ban Zhao , whom she called "the foremost woman scholar of China," who composed roughly a fourth of Han Shu , traditionally credited to Ban Gu , her brother. Swann worked for many years on her annotated translation of two chapters. the economic treatise, of Han Shu . Sinologist E. Bruce Brooks calls it a "lavishly annotated" translation, and notes "perhaps no deep psychological analysis

462-631: Was bought by the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey in 1937. At the start of its responsibility for the collection, the Institute for Advanced Study did not have staff with a competence in Chinese, and the University did not have a department in Chinese studies. Because of Gest's continued financial problems, Swann went for two years without salary. She continued to build

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484-461: Was dissatisfied with what his father had completed, and he began a new history that started with the beginning of the Han dynasty. This distinguished it from Sima Qian's history, which had begun with China's earliest legendary rulers. In this way, Ban Gu initiated the Jizhuanti ( 紀傳體，纪传体 ) format for dynastic histories that was to remain the model for the official histories until modern times. For

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