Romance of the Three Kingdoms (simplified Chinese: 三国演义 ; traditional Chinese: 三國演義 ; pinyin: sānguó yǎnyì), written by Luo Guanzhong in the 14th century, is a Chinese historical novel based upon events in the turbulent years near the end of the Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms era of China, starting in 169 and ending with the reunification of the land in 280.
It is acclaimed as one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, with a grand total of 800,000 words, nearly a thousand characters, most of them historical, in 120 chapters.
Overview
Myths from the Three Kingdoms era existed as oral traditions before any written compilations. With their focus on the history of Han Chinese, the stories grew in popularity during the reign of the foreign Mongol emperors of the Yuan Dynasty. During the succeeding Ming Dynasty, an interest in plays and novels resulted in further expansions and retelling of the stories.
The earliest attempt to combine these stories into a written work was Sanguozhi Pinghua (三國誌評話，三国志评话; Sānguózhì Pínghuà), literally "Story of Sanguozhi", published sometime between 1321 and 1323. This version combined themes of legend, magic, and morality to appeal to the peasant class. Elements of reincarnation and karma were woven into this version of the story.
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is traditionally attributed to Luo Guanzhong, who lived sometime between 1315 and 1400 (late Yuan to early Ming period). Some scholars argue for an origin from around the second half of the fifteenth century (mid-Ming) based on characteristics of the text. This theory is extensively developed in Andrew Plaks' Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel . It was written in partly vernacular and partly Classical Chinese and was considered the standard text for 300 years. The author made use of available historical records, including the Records of the Three Kingdoms compiled by Chen Shou, which covered events from the Yellow Turban Rebellion in 184 up to the unification of the three kingdoms under the Jin Dynasty in AD 280. The novel also includes material from Tang Dynasty poetic works, Yuan Dynasty operas and his own personal interpretation of elements such as virtue and legitimacy. The author combined this historical knowledge with a gift for storytelling to create a rich tapestry of personalities, and initially published it in 24 volumes. It was copied by hand until first printed in 1522 as Sanguozhi tongsu yanyi In the 1660s, during Kangxi's reign in the Qing Dynasty, Mao Lun (毛綸; 毛纶) and his son Mao Zonggang (毛宗崗; 毛宗岗) significantly edited the text, fitting it into 120 chapters, and abbreviating the title to Sanguozhi yanyi . The text was reduced from 900,000 to 750,000 characters; significant editing was done for narrative flow; use of third party poems was reduced and shifted from conventional verse to finer pieces; and most passages praising Cao Cao's advisers and commanders were removed. Scholars have long debated whether Mao's viewpoint was anti-Qing (identifying Southern Ming remnants with Shu-Han) or pro-Qing. The previous version was almost completely supplanted by Mao's edition, which is considered to be the superior literary work.
This novel reflects the Confucian values that were prominent at the time it was written. According to Confucian moral standards, loyalty to one's family, friends, and superiors are important measures for distinguishing good and bad people. In the novel, characters who were not loyal to the collapsing Han Dynasty are portrayed as bad people; on the contrary, modern mainstream ideology in Communist China would say that the deeply suffering masses were trying to overthrow the ruling feudal lords.
Story
One of the greatest achievements of Romance of the Three Kingdoms is the extreme complexity of its stories and characters. The novel contains numerous secondary stories. As such, the following only serves as a summary of the central plot.
Yellow Turban Rebellion
The story begins in the final years of the Han Dynasty when incompetent eunuchs deceived the emperor and banished good officials. The government had become extremely corrupt on all levels, leading to widespread deterioration of the empire. During the reign of the penultimate Han emperor, Emperor Ling, the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out under the leadership of Zhang Jiao, who allegedly practiced Taoist wizardry. Zhang Jiao pretended to be a traveling healer curing people of sickness while secretly inciting them to revolt. In this time of turmoil, many of the major characters in the story are introduced; Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Cao Cao, Sun Jian, etc.
The rebellion was barely suppressed by imperial troops under the command of He Jin, Emperor Ling’s brother-in-law and the Supreme Commander of the armies of the Central Government. Fearing his growing power, the eunuchs under Zhang Rang lured He Jin alone into the palace following Emperor Ling's death and murder that was orchestrated by his rivals. His stunned guards, led by Yuan Shao, responded by charging into the palace, which turned into an indiscriminate slaughter. In the ensuing confusion, the child Emperor Shao and the Prince of Chenliu (later Emperor Xian) disappeared from the palace.
Dong Zhuo's tyrannical rule
Soon, the Emperor and the Prince were discovered by soldiers belonging to the warlord Dong Zhuo from Western Liang, who proceeded to seize control of the capital under the pretext of protecting the emperor. Dǒng later had Emperor Shao deposed and replaced with the Prince of Chenliu, who became Emperor Xian. Under Dong Zhuo’s violent rule, the people suffered greatly. There were assassination attempts on him by both the court physician Wu Fu and Cao Cao but both attempts failed.
Cao Cao managed to escape and issued an edict in the emperor's name to all governors, calling them to remove Dong Zhuo from power. Under general Yuan Shao, 18 governors and nobles joined forces in a campaign against Dong Zhuo, but undermined by poor leadership and conflict of interest, they only managed to drive him from the capital Luoyang to Chang'an. However, Dong Zhuo was later betrayed and murdered by his own foster son Lü Bu, from a dispute over the beautiful Diaochan, in a scheme orchestrated by minister Wang Yun.
Conflict among the various warlords and nobles
In the meantime, however, the empire was already disintegrating into civil war. Sun Jian, governor of Changsha, found the Imperial Seal at the bottom of a well in the ruins of Luoyang but secretly kept it for his own purposes, further weakening royal authority. Without a strong central government, warlords began to rise up and fight each other for land and power. In the north, Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan were at war, and in the south, Sun Jian and Liu Biao. Many others, even those without title or land, such as Cao Cao and Liu Bei, were also starting to build up power.
Cao Cao took Emperor Xian from Dong Zhuo’s former subordinates Li Jue and Guo Si and established the new court in Xuchang. Even more powerful now with the emperor in his control, Cao Cao quickly subdued his rivals such as Lü Bu, Yuan Shu and Zhang Xiu, culminating in his greatest military victory, over Yuan Shao in the famous Battle of Guandu despite being outnumbered 10-to-1. Cao Cao pursued the defeated Yuan clan and finally united northern China, which later served as the foundation for the Kingdom of Wei.
Sun Ce builds a dynasty in Jiangdong
Meanwhile, an ambush had violently concluded Sun Jian's life in a war with Liu Biao, fulfilling his own rash oath to heaven. His eldest son Sun Ce then delivered the Imperial Seal as tribute to rising royal pretender Yuan Shu of Huainan, in exchange for much needed reinforcements. Now, like the proverbial tiger that has been given claws, he soon secured himself a state in the rich riverlands of Jiangdong, on which the Kingdom of Wu would eventually be founded. Tragically, Sun Ce also died at the height of his career from illness under stress of his terrifying encounter with the ghost of Yu Ji, a venerable magician whom he had falsely accused and executed in jealousy. However, his successor and younger brother Sun Quan, led by skilled advisors Zhou Yu and Zhang Zhao, proved to be a masterful and charismatic ruler, inspiring hidden talents from across the land such as Lu Su to join his service, while raising a strong military which would truly receive a trial by fire in Cao Cao’s great southern campaign.
Liu Bei's unrealized ambition
Liu Bei, along with his sworn brothers Guan Yu and Zhang Fei had sworn allegiance to the Han Dynasty (in the famous Oath of the Peach Garden) and pledged to do their best to serve the emperor and the common people. However, their goals and ambitions had not been realized until the later part of the novel. Liu Bei, ever since he had successfully quelled the Yellow Turban Rebellion, was not recognized for his efforts and was made only the magistrate of a small county. Later, Liu Bei joined Gongsun Zan and participated in the war against Dong Zhuo. Cao Cao invaded Xuzhou as a revenge against Tao Qian, the governor of Xuzhou who unknowingly allowed his subordinate to kill Cao Cao’s father. Liu Bei led his troops from Pingyuan to help Tao Qian and Tao pass
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