This is Volume 1 of a 2-volume set: Compiled by the scholar statesman Sima Guang of the Song dynasty, Zizhi tongjian is well recognised as one of the major histories of China. In length and extent, Later or Eastern Han was one of the great empires of east Asia, and its eventual failure led to the heroic age of the Three Kingdoms and centuries of division between north and south. Sima Guang's account of the dynasty's successes and failures provides detailed and informed information on the nature and governance of the Chinese imperial state. This translation offers a Western reader access to and an understanding of that world. Rafe de Crespigny , Ph.D. (1968) and Professor of Asian Studies at the Australian National University, His publications include A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms , Imperial Warlord , and Fire over Luoyang (Brill 2007, 2010 and 2017).