Ban Zhao

Also known as Courtesy: HuiBan · Caodajia

Ban Zhao, courtesy name Huiban, came from Anling in Fufeng; she was the daughter of Ban Biao and younger sister of Ban Gu and Ban Chao, and was widowed young after marrying Cao Shishu. When Ban Gu died with the eight tables and the astronomy treatise of the *History of the Han* (*Hanshu*) unfinished, Emperor He ordered her to complete them in the Eastern Pavilion library. The emperor often called her to the palace to teach the empress and consorts, who addressed her as Dagu, and under the regency of Empress Dowager Deng she took part in state affairs, earning her son a marquisate. Because many readers struggled with the new *Hanshu*, the young Ma Rong studied it under her. She wrote the *Admonitions for Women* (*Nujie*) in seven sections and, while travelling with her son to Chenliu, the *Rhapsody on a Journey East* (*Dongzheng fu*); she died in her seventies. Xiao Tong later placed that rhapsody among the travel pieces of his *Selections of Refined Literature* (*Wenxuan*).