The Twenty-Four Histories is the general name for the twenty-four official histories written by various dynasties in ancient China, all compiled in a biographical style. It dates from the legendary Yellow Emperor period (about 2550 BC) to the 17th year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty (1644). Covers various aspects of ancient Chinese politics, economy, military, thought, culture, astronomy, geography, etc. A total of 3213 volumes, about 40 million words. The reason why the Twenty-Four Histories are called official histories is not only related to the status of these historical books in the Chinese history books, but also closely related to the orthodox ideas promoted by successive dynasties.
