Ban Zhao was born around 45 CE in Anling, Fufeng (modern Shaanxi province), into a distinguished family of scholars and historians.
Ban Zhao was born around the year 45 CE in Anling, in the Fufeng commandery, part of present-day Shaanxi province in China. She was born into one of the most intellectually distinguished families of the early Eastern Han dynasty. Her father, Ban Biao, was a noted historian and court official who had already begun compiling materials for a history of the Former Han dynasty. Her elder brother Ban Gu would go on to become one of China's most celebrated historians, and another brother, Ban Chao, became a famed military general and diplomat who extended Han influence into Central Asia.
Growing up in this household of scholars and administrators, Ban Zhao received an education that was highly unusual for a woman of her era, immersing her in the classics, history, astronomy, mathematics, and literature. This upbringing positioned her uniquely to later become the first known female historian in China, a role she would grow into following the deaths of her father and brother.
Though the exact month and day of her birth were not recorded in surviving historical texts — as was common for women of antiquity, even those of elite families — the year 45 CE is the standard date accepted by modern scholarship, including Britannica and other reference works. Her birth marks the beginning of a life that would fundamentally shape Chinese historiography and the education of women for centuries.
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