Ban Zhao, courtesy name Huiban, was a Chinese historian, philosopher, and politician.
15 Facts About Ban Zhao
2.
Ban Zhao was the first known female Chinese historian and, along with Pamphile of Epidaurus, one of the first known female historians.
3.
Ban Zhao completed her brother Ban Gu's work on the history of the Western Han, the Book of Han.
4.
Ban Zhao wrote Lessons for Women, an influential work on women's conduct.
5.
Ban Zhao had great interest in astronomy and mathematics and wrote poems, commemorative writings, argumentations, commentaries, essays and several longer works, not all of which survive.
6.
Ban Zhao is depicted in the Wu Shuang Pu by Jin Guliang.
7.
Ban Zhao was born in Anling, near modern Xianyang, Shaanxi province.
8.
Ban Zhao never remarried, instead devoting her life to scholarship.
9.
Ban Zhao was the daughter of the famous historian Ban Biao and younger sister of the general Ban Chao and of historian Ban Gu.
10.
Ban Zhao was the grandniece of the notable scholar and poet Consort Ban.
11.
Ban Zhao contributed greatly to the completion and transmission of Hanshu, the official dynastic history of the Western Han.
12.
Ban Zhao added the genealogy of the mother of the emperor, providing much information which was not usually kept.
13.
Ban Zhao taught Empress Deng Sui and members of the court in the royal library, which gained her political influence.
14.
Ban Zhao was a librarian at court, supervising the editorial labors of a staff of assistants and training other scholars in her work.
15.
Ban Zhao is one of the polymaths profiled in Waqas Ahmed's 2018 book The Polymath.