Ban Gu (班固, Wade-Giles Pan Ku) was a 1st century Chinese historian. He was born into a scholarly family, and his father, Ban Biao, was a prominent historian. Ban Gu took over from his father responsibility for writing a history of the Former Han Dynasty, a book known in modern times as the Han Shu (漢書, or "Book of Han"). However, Ban Gu's work on the Han Shu was interrupted by political problems - his association with the family of Empress Dowager Dou led to his imprisonment. His book, however, was completed by his sister, Ban Zhao, and became a model for many other works about later dynasties.
