PAN CHAO

born AD 45, An-ling, Ku-fang [now Hsien-yang, Shensi province], China died c. 115, China Pinyin Ban Zhao renowned Chinese scholar and historian of the Eastern Han dynasty. Daughter of a prominent family, Pan Chao married at the age of 14, but her husband died while she was still young. She never remarried, devoting herself instead to literature and the education of her son. Her father, Pan Piao (AD 354), apparently had begun a history of the Former Han dynasty (206 BCAD 8). After his death, Pan Chao's brother Pan Ku (AD 32?92) was given a post by the emperor as official historian and was ordered to complete the work. The resulting Han shu (Book of Han) is one of the best-known histories ever written and the model for all future dynastic histories in China. Pan Chao, who assisted her brother with the work during his lifetime, was commissioned by the emperor to complete it after Pan Ku's death. Because of her reputation as a scholar and an exemplary widow, Pan Chao also was made a lady in waiting to the empress. She wrote many beautiful poems and essays, the most famous of which is N shih (106; Lessons for Women).