University of Virginia Library

Who wrote this chapter and the next?

Among the textual characteristics of this chapter, the outstanding
feature is the opening sentence in its eulogy (9: 13b), which indicates
plainly that at least the first paragraph of that eulogy was written by
Pan Piao, Pan Ku's father (cf. n. 13.5). Ying Shao says, in a note to
that passage, "The `Annals of Emperors Yüan' and `Ch'eng' were both
composed by Pan Ku's father, Pan Piao." The "Memoir of Pan Piao"
(HHS, Mem. 30 A: 2b) says, "Pan Piao thereupon continued to collect
from matters that had been neglected by the preceding historians, and
from other sources he added different reports, thus composing his Later
Account (Hou-chuan), in several tens of chapters." Ying Shao may have
had access to Pan Piao's work, which is lost today. Pan Ku quotes
large passages from the Historical Memoirs of Szu-ma Ch'ien without
giving any indication that he is quoting; thus if he quoted his father's
composition, he might also have given no apparent sign of doing so.
It is therefore possible that these two chapters were actually composed
by Pan Piao.

Yet the style and characteristics of these two chapters are not different
from those of the preceding and following chapters, except for this one
sentence. (Very occasionally eulogies in other chapters likewise indicate
that they are quotations from Pan Piao's work; cf. n. 13.5 ad finem.) There
is indeed nothing in the whole History of the Former Han Dynasty to
corroborate Ying Shao's statement about these two chapters. Possibly
the first sentences of the eulogy were merely one of the "different reports"
collected by Pan Piao and were simply used by Pan Ku as valuable evidence
for a judgment upon Emperor Yüan's character. Ying Shao may
not have had any further evidence than merely the present text of the
HS, and from this one sentence may have come to the conclusion, that if
Pan Piao wrote anything at all, he must have written at least an account
of the court events in his own time and those of the generation preceding
his. The fact that the HHS does not know how many chapters there
were in Pan Piao's book would seem to indicate that his book did not
circulate. It is not mentioned in the later lists of extant books. Hence

it was probably preserved in Pan Piao's household and was largely incorporated
into the HS, so that there was no reason to desire a copy of
it. The probabilities seem thus to contradict Ying Shao's statement.

The sources of this chapter thus seem to have been largely the same
as those of the preceding ones: a palace annals, the imperial collection
of memorials and edicts, and some events collected by Pan Piao.