Hanshu, the History of the Former Han Dynasty by Ban Gu of the Eastern Han Dynasty, records the history of the Western Han Dynasty. It is the first dynastic history written in biographical style. In total it contains twelve ji (biographic sketches of emperors), eight biao (records of historical events), ten zhi (the development records of a certain subject, such as astrology, calendar, irrigation works, etc), and seventy biographies.

Ban Biao, Ban Gu's father, used to write Houzhuan (Sequel to Biographies) of 65 articles. On this basis, Ban Gu searched further historical data and wrote the History of the Former Han Dynasty, in which eight biao and the record of astrological development were completed by his younger sister Ban Zhao and Ma Xu after Ban Gu passed away.

The History of the Former Han Dynasty recorded a history of 230 years from the first year of Gaozu's reign in the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.) till the fourth year of Dihuang during the reign of Wang Mang (23 A.D.). A large quantity of cifu (a type of classical literary form, sentimental or descriptive composition, often rhymed), prose, and nature and human geographical data are collected in the book.

Ban Gu initiated the practice of keeping official historical geography records in his "Geography Records" in The History of the Former Han Dynasty, which was then followed by later generations. He also described a series of vivid images in rhythmical prose style in his biographies, exerting some influence on prose writing in later generations.