A Biographical Dictionary of the Qin and Han (221 BC – 220AD)
This online publication includes 14,000 entries about the men and women living under China’s formative first empires, providing biographical information on the influential figures who set the literary forms and intellectual background of traditional China, and those who ruled and administered the empire. The extensive entries to the emperors provide the necessary historical context and give insight into the dynastic disputes and their far-reaching consequences.
This exhaustive reference work is based on primary historical sources as interpreted by Chinese, Japanese and Western scholars and as supplemented by archaeological finds and inscriptions. Its complexity and compactness is aided by the addition of meticulous contextual details such as archaeological finds, inscriptions, maps, genealogical tables and indexes.
Formerly published as two separate volumes (Biographical Dictionary of the Qin, Former Han and Xin Periods by Michael Loewe, Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms by Rafe de Crespigny), this publication is an indispensable online tool that provides insight into the dynasties of the Qin, Former Han and Xin Periods, and the comparatively neglected periods from the Later Han to the end of the dynasty.
It also provides convenient search and browsing functions, such as the ability to search not only Chinese characters but also to do searches by radicals and strokes in addition to Pinyin.
For more information on the two print volumes, please see:
A Biographical Dictionary of the Qin, Former Han
and Xin Periods (221 BC - AD 24) | Brill
A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the
Three Kingdoms (23-220 AD) | Brill