Chronological history is a historical book or style that records the history of a certain period or a certain dynasty. It is relative to "general history". A history book that describes politics, economy and culture based on dynasties or times. During the Han Dynasty, Ban Gu wrote Hanshu, which was the first example. Since then, biographical, chronological and chronological history books are mostly historical books of the nature of dynastic history.

Ban Gu (AD 32 ~ 92) was the son of Ban Biao, the historian of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the brother of Ban Chao, and a native of Fufeng Anling. Hanshu is the first biographical history book in China, which is divided into 12 biographies, 8 tables, 10 chronicle, 70 biographies, * * * 100 biographies, with 800,000 words. The twenty-four histories from Shiji to Shi Ming, except Shiji, are all dynastic histories.

The writing style of Hanshu;

The records in Hanshu are mainly about the Western Han Dynasty, with a history of ***230 years from the first year of Emperor Gaozu to the end of Emperor Wangmang's four years. The style of Hanshu was completely inherited from Shiji, but the book was changed to annals, and the aristocratic families were incorporated into the biography.

In the Tang Dynasty, Yan Shigu thought that Hanshu was voluminous, so he divided the longer volumes into upper and lower volumes or upper, middle and lower volumes, which became the current Hanshu 120 volume.

The historical materials in Hanshu are very rich and informative, and the times recorded in the book overlap with those recorded in historical books. Both books record the history of the Western Han Dynasty before the middle period of Emperor Wudi. This part of Hanshu mostly adopts the old version of Historical Records, but there are some additions and deletions when it is used due to the differences in the author's thoughts and the selection criteria.

The historical events after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty not only absorbed Ban Gu's suicide note and the data of more than a dozen historical records at that time, but also adopted a large number of letters, memorials, poems and fu, which were similar to the records of masterpieces, astronomical almanac and the "hearing" of Ban and his son. Many original historical materials are written in full, so they are more valuable than historical records.