Ban Gu
Chinese historian and poet
32 CE to 92 CE
Ban Gu (32–92), courtesy name Mengjian, is a 1st century Chinese historian and poet best known for his part in compiling the Book of Han.
He also writes in the main poetic genre of the Han era, a kind of poetry interspersed with prose called fu.
Some are anthologized by Xiao Tong in his Selections of Refined Literature in the 6th century.
He is the compiler of the Bo hu tong, commissioned by Emperor Zhang of Han, a record of the proceedings of the so called White Tiger conference initiated by Dong Zhongshu, involving leading Confucian intellectuals of the time.
The name is derived from the White Tiger pavilion in the north of Luoyang (the capital) where the debates took place.
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The Dous suddenly fall in 92, however, as the result of a coup d'etat.
The details are unclear, but it appears that Emperor He, perhaps encouraged by his brother Prince Qing (whose mother had died at the Dous' hand and whose status as crown prince had been stripped away by their machinations) and the eunuch Zheng Zhong, were involved.
Based on the traditional historical accounts, some of the Dous' relatives (but not the Dous themselves) had considered murdering the emperor.
(The utter lack of motive, however, has led modern historians to generally discredit this assertion.)
Emperor He, fearful of being murdered, had planned along with Zheng and Liu Qing to destroy the Dous' power.
They received some help—in the form of historical accounts that would inspire them as to what to do—from another brother of the emperor, Liu Kang, the Prince of Qiancheng.
In the summer, Emperor He makes a sudden move, issuing an edict ordering the imperial guards to go on alert and to close the gates of the capital Luoyang.
The Dous' relatives who are accused of plotting to murder the emperor are executed.
An imperial messenger is sent to seize Dou Xian's seal as the commander of the armed forces.
All of the empress dowager's brothers are sent back to their marches but under close guard—the emperor wants to execute them but does not want to do so publicly.
Once they return to their marches, he orders all of them, except for the more humble Dou Gui, to commit suicide.
After the coup d'état against the Dous, Emperor He, despite being only thirteen, appears to actually have taken power, and Empress Dowager Dou loses all power, although he continues to honor her as his mother, apparently having some inkling but not knowing for sure that she is not his birth mother.
Prince Qing becomes a trusted advisor of his, as does Zheng—which begins an escalating trend of eunuchs being involved with government matters that will last for the rest of the Eastern Han Dynasty(in fact, in 102, Zheng will be created marquess, in an unprecedented action).
In the aftermath of the coup d'état, innumerable officials accused of being the Dous' associates are arrested or removed from their posts.
Chief among them is the historian Ban Gu, who had been a chief assistant of Dou Xian and who had apparently been complicit in Dou's autocracy, as well as the commander of the armed forces Song You, although Ban Gu's brother Ban Chao is not affected and continues to enjoy imperial support in his Xiyu (modern Xinjiang and former Soviet central Asia) campaigns.
The dynastic history compiled by Ban Gu, like the comprehensive history of Sima Qian of two centuries before, emphasizes personalities and various cyclical changes.
Ban Gu dies in the purges of 92.
Confucians weave dance, music, and poetry into their ceremonies.
The form and calligraphy of poetry is the basic for Chinese court music and dance.