Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Vol. 1 of 2

The Three Kingdoms (2 volumes) #1

by Luo Guanzhong, C.H. Brewitt-Taylor (Translator), Robert E. Hegel (Introduction)

This epic saga of brotherhood and rivalry, of loyalty and treachery, of victory and death forms part of the indelible core of classical Chinese culture and continues to fascinate modern-day readers.

In 220 EC, the 400-year-old rule of the mighty Han dynasty came to an end and three kingdoms contested for control of China. Liu Pei, the legitimate heir to the Han throne, elects to fight for his birthright and enlists the aid of his sworn brothers, the impulsive giant Chang Fei and the invincible knight Kuan Yu. The brave band faces a formidable array of enemies, foremost among them the treacherous and bloodthirsty Ts'ao Ts'ao. The bold struggle of the three heroes seems doomed until the reclusive wizard Chuko Liang offers his counsel, and the tide begins to turn.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms is China's oldest novel and the first of a great tradition of historical fiction. Believed to have been compiled by the play-wright Lo Kuan-chung in the late fourteenth century, it is indebted to the great San-kuo chi (Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms) completed by the historian Ch'en Shou just before his death in 297 CE. The novel first appeared in print in 1522. This edition, translated in the mid-1920s by C. H. Brewitt-Taylor, is based on a shortened and simplified version which appeared in the 1670s. An Introduction to this reprint by Robert E. Hegel, Professor of Chinese and Comparative Literature at Washington University, provides an insightful commentary on the historical background to the novel, its literary origins and its main characters.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Historical Fiction, China, Chinese Literature, Fantasy, Historical

690 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1360

About the author

Luo Ben (c. 1330–1400), better known by his style name Luo Guanzhong (罗贯中) (Mandarin pronunciation: [lwɔ kwantʂʊŋ]), was a Chinese writer who lived during the Yuan Dynasty. He was also known by his pseudonym Huhai Sanren (Chinese: 湖海散人; pinyin: Húhǎi Sǎnrén; literally "Leisure Man of Lakes and Seas"). Luo was attributed with writing Romance of the Three Kingdoms and editing Water Margin, two of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature.

Reviews

[Louise]

Well, so much for that. Quit reading about 2% in. Couldn't get over how boring the prose was. Maybe I'm reading a bad translation. Every single page went like this:

X was rebelling against Y. So they fought. And then Y retreated. And X lopped his head off.

Y wanted revenge on X and so he collected 500 men and hoofs and attacked X. And so they fought. And X lost and retreated.

Very skimpy on details.

Moral of the story: Eunuchs are very hard to kill.

[Jonfaith · Rating 2 out of 5]

So the cut finger and the blood written decree are all forgotten, eh?

Gentle Reader, I implore you -- if you desire to read the Romance of the Three Kingdoms to please avoid the budget edition offered by Amazon. Printed on demand, the edition is clumsily formatted and the type-setting is clunky. The paper is cheap. There are but a handful of notes on a text detailing events which occurred in China some 1800 years ago. How could anyone expect the text to be self-understood? Well, Amazon simply doesn't care. They lead you to a wikipedia page and thank you for your purchase.

My two stars refer to the edition not the work per se.

The opening volume of the volume is rather repetitive with forces from similar sounding names routinely routing one another. The periphery of the text harbors the monstrous. It is the instability of the Yellow Turbans which upends the tranquility of the time. What are these riotous forces? Well, such were a series of peasant rebellions. You won't know that from the text and I'm not referring to the author Luo Guanzhong. Famine is also lurking in every chapter. I am fairly livid by this cheap product and I have about 1800 pages to go.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've had this book for a couple of years. I kept meaning to read it, but it never got far enough up my TBR stack.

Until I saw Red Cliff. Admittedly, the shortened international version.

Man, that movie is great. Go see it. Now!

(Strange how my top three movies are all international and not US made).

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a Chinese medieval saga or like a Viking saga, at least if I had to compare it to works in the West. The style is very similar to all those Arthurian stories as well as the Viking sagas; however, it does appear to be more rooted in fact.

The story chronicles the fall of the Han Dynasty, and there is fight or a battle in almost every chapter. It is about honor, loyalty, and brotherhood. In short, it is like the Knights of the Round Table, without the Round Table, and the over compassing romantic triangle.

For me, the best part of the book was the section that started around Chapter 38. This is because in the movie version, I loved the character K'ung-ming (aka the Sleeping Dragon aka Chuko Liang). The actor who played him in the movie is not only good looking but made walking around with a hawk wing fan extremely sexy. K'ung-ming is a very smart man, who might be called a wizard. Regardless, the way he borrows arrows is extremely cunning and funny.

The one thing that I did find somewhat disappointing was the role of women in the book. In the movie, there are only two central female characters, yet they play important parts. There are more female characters in the book, but overall the women play minor parts. In fact, one of the women had her role greatly expanded in the film. In the book, she is non-existent. There is also a line that compares the loss of a wife to the loss of clothes. Something that can be easily replaced (yet, the man are supposed to honor their mothers).

Yeah, I know different culture and time. Yeah, yeah.



Yet, women in the book are not entirely lacking. There is Little Cicada who bravely aids the family who helped her, and her story is wonderfully told. There is the Lady Sung. Sung was given a somewhat expanded role in the film. In the book, while she is an Amazon, she is somewhat less of an Amazon; however, she aptly defends her husband.

Like most sagas, the characters are more bound by honor and type than actual living breathing people. It is a romance after all. So if you are excepting character development, there is not so much. Plenty of daring do, battles, slaughter, men swearing brotherhood, and humor. But character development, nope. But this is true of all medieval sagas.

The only problem I had with reading the book was names. I am sure this is because I am a Westerner. Each character seemed to four to six different names that would be used interchangeably. I would have liked to have had a character list or something in the book to help keep all the names straight. As it was, I had to make my own.

I'm updating this review because I saw the five hour Red Cliff (ie. Parts 1 and 2). Let me just say, Mr. Woo please next time you do this, release both versions in the U.S. It was so much better than what I saw in the theater. It ROCKED! And all that plot with the princess.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whew! I finally finished it! This book has 120 chapters, more than 200 characters, and 300 place names, all in Chinese. It's like reading the Iliad, Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur, and War and Peace all rolled into one and served with a Chinese sauce.

The scope of this Chinese national epic is astonishing. By three-quarters of the way through, all but one of the main characters had died and the story followed their sons and grandsons. The story follows 113 years of Chinese history from the decline of the Han dynasty, through the formation of the three kingdoms of Wei, Shu, and Wu, to the reunification of China under the Jin dynasty.

Based on historical events and people, the novel was written by Luo Guanzhong in the 14th Century, so the comparison to Le Morte d'Arthur is apt. The fact that Luo gathered material from the popular oral material preserved by professional storytellers is apparent from the cliff-hanger endings of every chapter. The episodes from this work still provide the majority of material for traditional Beijing Opera (not to mention a number of computer and video games).

Most valuable to me were the insights into the Chinese national culture and character that I gained from this reading. I'm glad I finally did it.

[Kenny Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my god, this is THE best historical novel EVAR. Don't be deceive by the title of the novel, this is not a story about some romance and love crap, it is a story about epic battles between the three kingdoms of ancient China. Those battles are so epic to the point that it is like those three kingdom are performing a beautiful show with each other which probably explain somewhat about the title "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". One example battle was the famous Chi Bi battle (otherwise known as "Battle of the Red Cliff" as stated in one of the upcoming movie). In this battle, the tactician Zhuge Liang using cunning strategies and genius talents manage to burn over 80,000 Wei soldiers in the Chi Bi river, leading the alliance force contain only about 40,000 men to victory.

[Bobby Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my opinion, to really enjoy this book, you need to know some personality about the main characters in it. For those who played the game (like myself), you will definitely get a feeling of the potential for each person in this novel and the choices they make (e.g. Liu Bei's decision to refuse to take over dying Liu Biao's throne because he got high charisma issues or Lu Bu's unstable loyalty and patience that proves his lack of intelligence)

Nonetheless, if you don't have a clue of any of the characters in this book, this novel can be enjoyable as well. The ploys and schemes used in this novel is no different from some of the ones used today. Thus comes the saying, "You shouldn't be aquainted to a person who have read 'Romance of the Three Kingdom' thrice". The story started with the death of the emperor and a bunch of eunuchs wanted to take control over the emperor's very young son. The empress and her brother decided to go against them, so they secretly gathered loyal officers and an army to literally massacre the eunuchs and their followers. The leader of the army, also the empress' brother, died in the clash (as a result from ignoring his advisors' words, among them is the well known Cao Cao), which opens an opportunity for a tyrant to take over the capital. Then a series of battles take place from one tyrant to another. Towards the end (book 2), the kingdom was sliced into three big pieces, hence the 'Three Kingdoms' takes place.

The plots mainly tell two kinds of deeds: the heroic battles of warriors, like Guan Yu (still worshipped by people as God of War, Prudence, and Loyalty), Zhao Yun (one of my favorite), Zhang Fei and Lu Bu (or Lu Pu in the book) versus the wise ploys carried out by some of the most well known civil officers in Chinese history, like Zhuge Liang (Sleeping Dragon), Zhou Yu, Sima Yi and Pang Tong (Fledging Phoenix). However, I believe many readers that picked this novel up didn't get to finish book 2. Many just stop reading after Zhuge Liang dies because the novel drags on with no real character that stands out like the beginning and middle part. A somewhat dissappointing ending, but I guess that's what really happened to the Three Kingdom Dynasty.

[Pairash Pleanmalai · Rating 4 out of 5]

อ่านสามก๊กครั้งแรก เลือกอ่านเล่มนี้ เห็นว่าแปลตรงตามต้นฉบับ
ความรู้สึกการอ่านครั้งแรก ทำไมเจอชื่อคนเยอะขนาดนี้ ต้องจดไป อ่านไป ยังท้อเลย
ลองไปค้นหาชื่อตัวละครทั้งหมดในวิกี้ พบว่ามีกว่า 900 ชื่อ นี่ยังไม่นับชื่อเมือง
บางก็ว่า 1000 ชื่อขึ้น จนกระทั่งมีนามานุกรมสามก๊ก

ลักษณะเดินเรื่องแบบตรงๆ ไม่มีสำนวนมากนัก ไม่เหมือนอ่านนิยาย แต่เหมือนอ่านสารคดี
แต่แว้บไปอ่าน ฉบับเจ้าพระยาพระคลังหน ก็คล้ายๆกัน คงเป็นสไตล์นี้

หลังๆเริ่มปรับตัว พยายามจำตัวละครที่จะอายุยืนยาว

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried and tried, but I gave up. I can't remember that last time I gave up on a book, but this one did it. I read about 230 pages, and I couldn't take it any more. And please understand - I've read more than a few massive tomes, including "Ulysses", plenty of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, and others which I've loved to various degrees. Even the ones I didn't necessarily enjoy still offered me enough to see them through to the end. "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" couldn't.

I completely understand this novel's place in literary history. It was an absolute titan in world literature, offering a narrative history of a tumultuous and continent-altering era in what is now China. Being such an early recounting of influential events, it has stood the test of centuries and is apparently still read by millions to this very day.

But as an actual work of fiction, albeit historical fiction, I found it impossible to enjoy. About 90% of the novel is simply listing various characters (there are over 200, I've read), who they allied with, who they fought against, where they fought, and occasionally exactly how they fought. It reads something like this: "A grew upset with B, so he allied with C, D, E, and F. They went to City 1, where G, H, I, J, and K had banded together, and they all had a battle. A killed G, and C and D fled to City 2. E and H became upset with A, so they banded with H, I, and J in town 2. We will tell you what K did later." I am, of course, stripping it down, but honestly, the novel doesn't really offer a whole lot more than this semi-parody. There are no descriptions of the towns or cities. There are really no descriptions of 95% the characters, nearly all of whom die within 5 pages after they're introduced (and all but one of whom are dead within a few hundred pages). You just get their names and who they support in the massive struggle for imperial domination of the country. There was never any clear reason to feel the slightest empathy for any of the characters. Even on the rare occasions that a character is actually ascribed a noble or despicable characteristic, they often commit some act in opposition to this characteristic. What this results in is a whole mess of characters, not one of whom I cared for in the least. The only time a common person is mentioned (i.e. not a soldier) is when a peasant gets casually slaughtered by one of the "main" characters for horrifying reasons which are described with an odd and total lack of empathy.

I will confess that I have little knowledge of ancient Chinese history. In reading many of the reviews for this book, it seems like many of the readers who enjoy this novel have either learned about this time period and the people involved from popular video games, movies, or even having taken Chinese history classes. Perhaps having a good amount of background knowledge helps, but I personally feel that a novel should stand on its own, without requiring previous research. "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has none of that. I also suppose that a handy glossary of names and alliances, along with a nice map would help to an extent, but only minimally. This particular edition, as nice as it looks, has none of those helpful supplements. It also doesn't help that this older translation has errors and some phrasing which is strange to the modern ear.

I still plan to try some of the other "classic" works of Chinese literature such as "Monkey: A Journey to the West" and others, but I sincerely hope that they differ in their styles.

[Smiley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since some two centuries ago, there has been a Thai classic translation rendered from the Chinese classic “San Kuo Chih Yen-i” [สามก๊ก in Thai first published by Dr Dan Beach Bradley's printing press in Siam in 1865 (B.E. 2408) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Bea... https://th.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B9%...)] and part of the story depicting Ts'ao Ts'ao's loss at a naval warfare (โจโฉแตกทัพเรือ in Thai) was once assigned to lower secondary school students including me to read and study for the test and examination in the late 1950’s- early 1960’s.

Later I read some stories taken from this Thai classic, entertainingly written by ยาขอบ (transliterated from ‘Jacob’), one of the famous Thai novelists, who, once in a while, gratefully mentioned the English text by Mr C.H. Brewitt-Taylor in which he read and compare the classic Thai text with the Brewitt-Taylor's with his admiration on the translator's expertise. Of course, I read his narrative with awe and respect due to his English mastery acquired and presumably learned to excel from his upper secondary school, as far as I know he had never studied literature or graduated from any university.

Reading it off and on till the end of Chapter XV, I resumed reading next chapter in June, 2013 reaching page 171. Then since June, 2015, I’ve finally made up my mind and considered this reading exploration as one of my reading enjoyments in my free time. In fact, I like its very first sentence, “Empires wax and wane; states cleave asunder and coalesce.” (p. 1) long rendered in Thai as follows "เดิมแผ่นดินเมืองจีนทั้งปวงนั้น เป็นสุขมาช้านานแล้วก็เป็นศึก ครั้นศึกสงบแล้วก็เป็นสุข" (สามก๊ก ฉบับราชบัณฑิตยสภา) since, I think, Mr Brewitt-Taylor has used those precise words being poetical in terms of his Chinese scholarship; therefore, I think Thai readers can see and feel its precise and related meaning when compared to the English line. What happens if the readers in question can read Chinese as well?

Obviously, There are also some good reasons why we should read this book, one of the great Chinese literature, 120 chapters in English but, surprisingly, for some unknown reasons, it has been transformed into merely 87 in the Thai translation. Some keen readers might not help wondering why; however, this mystery would need time and expertise to solve and exemplify in detail, that is, chapter by chapter.

[Teo · Rating 5 out of 5]

After finishing both volumes of this book and before sharing further, please keep in mind that this is a review of someone who has no direct relation to Chinese culture whatsoever, other than the fact that I lived among Chinese for quite some time now.

First of all, Romance of the Three Kingdoms is considered one of the 4 great Chinese classic novels that describes the historical period between 169-280AD at the time when there had been a great turmoil in China between many fractions that eventually lead to separation of 3 main states (WEI, SHU and WU). The book shares about all the events that happened during this period with great emphasis on strategy, diplomacy and warfare in the old China.

Now on a more personal note, I will say this right away: If you are not ready to take notes, forget about enjoying this book. This book has so many characters that it hurt my brain.

The biggest challenge for me as a Westerner reading this book is keeping track of all the characters whose names sound completely different from anything I've ever had to remember before.

The Second challenge I had with this book, which is closely related to the previous point, is the overal confusion over different Pinyin names relating to the same character/location. In a nutshell, one name has multiple ways of pronounciation in Pinyin. (One of the key characters is called TSAO TSAO while all the online sources address him as CAO CAO). This made me realize that the translator (Westerner from the end of 19. century) chose its own version of Pinyin which made it much harder for me to relate to online sources while doing my research.

The last point is the understanding of the geography of China at the time. Being very pedantic myself I was using maps and spent more time than I would like to admit simply trying to realize where each location is.

Another reason to keep notes would be that some of the characters have multiple names. the author or the translator of the book didn't really care to keep things consistent so he randomly uses different names of the same characters at different places. If you didn't pay attention or take notes, you're pretty much screwed.

There are very few female characters mentioned in this book as well so you can forget about any sort of fair gender representation. The book is disproportionately masculine and full of testosterone seeping from every page.
_____

Now even though I don't like the fact that I had to start with the negatives I have to say that if we disregard all of the challenges I mentioned earlier, the book itself is actually quite awesome!!
The narrative is fast and there is so much emphasis on strategy, confucianism, traditional philosophy, mannerism and filial piety, as well as on understanding of the politics and diplomacy of the time.

The thing with Chinese history is that a lot of the historical and literature records were lost during the cultural revolution which was the reason for a huge step backwards for the Chinese culture.
Also due to the nature of storytelling in the past, the events that actually took place might sound somewhat exaggerated to the point where the story walks the fine line between historical facts and legendary fiction. This is something I personally didn't mind at all as it accounted for a good narrative. Some of the book characters are even worshipped as Chinese heroes/gods up until today.

If you truly wish to take this book on and you happen to come from a non-chinese culture, feel free to reach out to me and I can share with you my notes and maps for better navigation through the book.

Alternatively, you can always get the recent PC game 'total war - three kingdoms' which is completely based on this book. Obviously those two are still incomparable.

[Moushine Zahr · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a different and much shorter version of the above edition of this Chinese Classic Novel. I suggest readers not to read this book as your first Chinese novel. I recommend readers to be first familiar with Chinese literature and history fiction novels before reading this book. It is not the first Chinese novel I've read, but it is by far the most difficult book to read.

It has several layers of reading:
- the first layer is about the wars, conflicts, and fights between the Three Chinese Kingdoms 2000 years ago and now composing China. The book describes in details the wars between the 3 kingdoms officiated by differents emperors, kings, generals, and armies. For most readers like, these descriptions are repetitive, tedious, and quickly boring to read. Only readers interested in war stories will be delighted to read this part.
- the second layer is about understanding general lessons that these wars against each other and sometimes within the kingdom leads to nothing, but loss as they can go on for years, decades, and centuries and be passed on from one generation to the next and to the next. Regardless of how strong, smart, and powerful, conflicts never end.
- another layer comes at the end of the novel when the three kingdoms are finally united after generations of wars under one ruler and peace finally comes. United there is peace and divided there is war. Therefore, my most important understanding behind all these numerous wars is that UNITY AND PEACE are the ultime objectives.

To understand China today one need to learn about China's History and this book is about a very important part of their History and reveals the great lessons China has learned from their past.

[Lin K · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't read all the books in the world, but I'd still argue that this is probably the best novel ever written. What it is, is a dramatisation of a relatively brief era in early Chinese dynastic history.

Since it is rooted in real-life events and people, and also because of its epic scope, it definitely contains universal themes that are appreciable by everyone, regardless of age, culture, or time. However, in order to appreciate it to its fullest extent, I think some background knowledge of Chinese culture is necessary.

The literary excellence of this novel is far too extensive to be discussed here, so I will just touch on the translation: I like CH Brewitt-Taylor's treatment, who uses a somewhat old-fashioned literary style (in the same way a person might prefer the King James Version of the Bible) that actually works to give the book more flavour. His "translation" of the poems is also ingenious. I did struggle a bit at first with the Wade-Giles romanisation of the names (since I was trained in the "pinyin" system) but it was not hard to adapt to.

A revised edition of this book may actually be found online (I thought it was very good, until it began to be--with increasing input from online readers--over-revised, in my opinion.)

I won't recommend this book to everyone (most will probably be put off by the sheer length of it), but to those whom I do recommend it to, I surely can't recommend it enough. I have read it countless of times, and hope to read it in its original Chinese one day.

[Kike Mtz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know where to start. This has been one of the most insufferable books I've read in years. It is not bad, though. I just think it's overrated. I can understand its cultural significance and all that, but that doesn't exempt it from literary criticism.
The book is really long. There are so many characters you forget you had read about them in previous pages. In my opinion, one of the main problems for us Westerners is remembering the names. Even though they are Romanized, it is really hard to remember them. All of the books I've read are in either English or Spanish, but it's not that hard to remember the names. Even Russian or French names are easy to remember when reading a translated version. But aside from that (I understand Asian languages are quite peculiar and different from ours), I don't see any beauty in the writing style. It just seems like a list of facts. Short sentences, simple prose...you would expect a 10-year old to write like that. I don't know if it's because of the translation, but it's for sure one of the things that most annoyed me.
I don't know if all versions are the same, but the one I read has the notes at the end of the book. I would prefer to have footnotes instead of reading a page and then going to the back part of the book to read the special notes.
I'm really glad I bought the 4-volume set at a garage sale; I would've been mad if I'd spent a lot on something I did not really enjoy. I just finished reading the first volume and I'm not sure I'll read the other three.

[Donovan Murphy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Knew about this story going in thinking I could get a lot more out of it from reading the original, but not gonna continue with part 2. Super slow and not paced very well. Translations also made reading it pretty tedious.

[Joshua Betcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best translation and there were a few formatting issues that made it difficult to read

[Wayne Ng · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won't make any friends among lovers of Chinese classics, but I couldn't get through this. I acknowledge an incomplete read and a poor translation diminishes the cred of my review, but a good novel must have basic elements and readable prose, neither of which were present here.
The characters were shallow, uni-dimensional and card-board. They're either very good or very bad, sometimes they switch. But there's little texture to them. The plot repetitive, monotonous and tedious. It came across as a bad action movie about honour, duty, and responsibility but it just hopped from one battle and conflict to another, so the pace was uniform. I had hoped to learn more about that period, but the everyday lives of people, the world they inhabited, the little as well as the big things they pondered (not just honour duty and killing) and fretted over---were rarely dealt with. Hence the shallowness of the characters.
I kept waiting and hoping the pace would vary, that we'd have in-depth,substantive scenes, nuances in the plot----but either they never came (at least not in the first third I read) or it was lost in translation or I'm an imbecile. Maybe all of the above.

[Kaiyuli · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would have to say that this is one of the greatest historical fiction books that I have ever read. It not only focuses on amazing battles with honorable heroes but also on domestic issues such as court corruption and politics. Although this is one of the few sources we have about China during the Three Kingdoms era, it is so descriptive and detailed that it provides so much detail. I remember going to school everyday in China and listening not to music, but instead to a radio broadcaster reading chapters of the book. Its awe and brilliance can be admired by people of all ages, from the young to the most experienced reader. However, I actually felt like the translation was not very well done. The book had a feeling of being very formal and cryptic, but in Chinese the book is very flowing. For example, in Chinese, the battle scenes go into great depth, describing every blow. But in the translated version, all you get is "they fought for 50 bouts without either party making any progress".

[Folksyspice · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tough going. Two stars for the ability to write an epic and translate it. Lost stars for too many charecters (where did you come from? have you appeared before? I'll try to remember you. ...o dear you've been killed off? What other name do you have? doesn't someone have same name as you? ) and no who's who or map to help the reader. Some touching interesting moments but lost in the monotonous battle after battle. Who were these people I had been so excited to read about and get lost in their epic? An epic to translate I imagine but using some archaic language in a wooden structure began to grate. Was fun at first but I just wikied it. Sorry part 2 will stay on shelf dust gathering.

[Jacques Coulardeau · Rating 5 out of 5]

FEUDALISM NEARLY DESTROYED THE CHINESE EMPIRE

This book is enormous. Two volumes with around 1,400 pages. It is a long saga, an epic some say, in a way a picaresque epic across the whole of China during the Han dynasty of the empire, when that empire was at risk because of internal strife and the incapability of the emperor to keep things under control, by his own fault (the own fault of several emperors one after another) and inability of building some kind of government that could be reliable, transparent and non-corrupted.

And that is where the book is amazingly revealing.

This empire is quite obviously a feudal empire. Power is in the hands of governors appointed by the emperor in each district. The governors are appointed for what these people did for the empire, particularly what they did militarily, and there the difference between serving the empire and serving themselves is not always clear. Ambitious people can climb to the top in no time and then impose their power.

The decomposition of this empire started when the various feudal lords or lordlings started considering the eunuchs, organized in a very close community and clan, who were provided by the emperor with the full control of the government because the emperor is lazy in many ways and looks for an easy way to control such a big empire, and because the emperor is incompetent technically (ignorance of a lot of things necessary for government) and psychologically (unfit to exercise such an enormous power). He then relied on the eunuchs of the empire, a clan of men – and their relatives – who had been castrated for any reason whatsoever, among others to become the top officers of the empire. The most famous eunuch along that line was Admiral Zheng He who had been castrated at an early age because he was a Muslim and he became the top man of the Chinese fleet before it was dismantled by the Confucian Mandarins when they took over around 1430.

These corrupted eunuchs encourage all kinds of outlaws to go around in the country and raid cities and farming areas to their own profit and to the shared profit with local supporters of the eunuchs. A rebellion came from the various local or regional lords who had the power and the means to raise armies. They united and finally succeeded in getting all the eunuchs eliminated and executed, but the main military force was in the hands of an ally of the local and regional lords, an ex-outlaw who shifted from raiding cities and farming communities to raiding the central government by taking control of it. The empire is then at stake because it explodes into rivaling cities and provinces and the central brigand controlling the empire spreads and increases his power by taking control of rebellious provinces.

This is typically feudal. Power is in the hands of the stronger person, of the stronger clan, and stronger means military force and nothing else. Then this power is only a way for those in power to loot the country by levying armed forces and taxes for their own profit. Then the emperor can even be chosen, within the Han line, but for how long? That’s the beginning of the saga but that explains the whole saga: feudalism was the real social and political architecture of the Chinese empire.

The main originality is that there was no spiritual or religious authority of any sort that could set some criteria and norms for everyone and keep the whole empire unified by some kind of spiritual allegiance, unity. That’s the main difference with European feudalism that was entirely controlled and governed by the Catholic church, hence by the Pope and his bishops and cardinals. Nothing like that in the Chinese Empire. So no Peace of God, becoming then Peace of the King in the various kingdoms, a movement that outlawed the use of military force within the limits of each kingdom and also within the limits of Christendom. That explained in part the crusades that started in the 11th century but it also explained the Teutonic crusade against the non-Christian Slavonic people in Poland, Ukraine and what they called Lithuania. War was directed to outside areas, officially non-Christian and to be Christianized. That started quite early after the fall of the Roman Empire and later on the fall of Charlemagne’s empire who only fought against the various Asian tribes or military forces trying to penetrate Europe from the East and against the mostly Muslim Saracens trying to do the same from Spain.

And the emergence of such a spiritual force took a lot of time. The book was written after the takeover of the empire by the Confucian Mandarins and we could wonder if it is not a reflection of this evolution in the 15th century that inspired the author to show how bad it could have been before when the empire’s unity was endangered by internal strife and its unity was rebuilt later on by the leaders of the three kingdoms. We have to think of the other great saga of Chinese literature, “Journey to the West” by Wu Cheng’en, a saga whose earliest extant copy is traced to 1592 and is the story of a Monkey that travels to the west to discover the famous Buddhist scriptures that found the Taoist approach of life that developed in China as the spiritual guideline of the empire and can be considered as the basis of the Confucian Mandarin takeover in the 15th century.

That is rather amazing to see this empire evolving from a purely feudal state with a marginal Taoist presence seen more like some witchcraft than anything else, though they carry the Chinese medical tradition and the ethical code of Taoism, the Chinese version of Buddhism in the making. Their final victory will destroy the Chinese fleet, the most impressive one in the whole world at the time, vastly centered on the China seas and the entire Indian Ocean and that would have been capable to defend the empire against the European invasion that was still to come when Admiral Zheng He died. The result was a total closing up of the empire onto itself, which enabled the Europeans to come and take control of the whole of the Indian Ocean and then of the China Seas. Closing up on itself made the Chinese Empire weak, particularly the tool of its power was destroyed: the various commercial routes known as the Silk Roads.

You will find all that in these books and it will make clear that the present commercial policy of China to reopen and redevelop the various Silk Roads is the only way for China to develop and recapture its past greatness. Will this policy re-establish some feudal state? Hardly conceivable. Will it establish some hierarchical centralized and unified system in the whole country and beyond? That’s also a dubious unrealistic view. China has to open itself to the world but that will not lead to the looting the English, the French and later on the Japanese tried to impose to China, but it may turn Chinas as the beating heart of the global economy, or at least one of the beating hearts of the global world using its commercial power rather than military force. That should bring you to wondering if the use of military force is not a feudal way of looking at the world and trying to dominate it. You may come to wondering if president Trump’s approach of the world is not a feudal way of looking at the problem in total opposition to and contradiction with the Chinese commercial approach of president Xi.

To conclude I will say that Chinese literature, old or more recent like Lao She’s books and plays, is always centered on this problematic of the whole world in development and the choice between three possibilities:
1- pure military force and a feudal system;
2- pure spiritual closing up onto themselves and their protected own resources: some Confucian hierarchical architecture;
3- a general commercial vision that brings economic development to the world: modern sharing resources via some global free but regulated marketplace.

Just get into this saga and enjoy the action and the treacherous ways of most of these feudal lords.

Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU

[Jaden Secrest · Rating 4 out of 5]

"An empire long united must divide, Long divided must unite; this is how its always been" And so does this quote set the stage for the actions within the book "Romance of the three kingdoms". This book contains a large selection of characters and memorable moments that cant be found in any , featuring a Mix of horrific morals and quick action scenes.

The genre of the book is usually classified as a historical fiction novel under the pretext of it being based on the real life 3 kingdoms era in China. This does not demonstrate the real history with the fact that the book is a romanticization of the period rather than fact itself. This book can be made for either of the intended audiences of historical readers or those who would want a challenge within reading a long series of books (alike to lord of the rings but there's 6 and its more confusing). The main purpose this book is to show the struggles and hardships of the heros of China in their long standing war of reuniting the once great empire. This purpose can be inferred from the very similar situation of the 15th century where a mongol invasion led to China being under a mongol emperor.

This story is known for having a notoriously large amount of characters, with most characters being side characters that serve the main characters. The principle characters are divided into the 3 kingdoms: the first is Liu Bei and his sworn brothers Zhang Fei and Guan Yu, the next is Cao Cao the prime minister of China, and the generations of sun’s being Sun Jian, Sun Ce, and Sun Quan. These characters change the entire political spectrum of China with the many battles they fight to unite the empire or to simply expand their influence. These characters can be hard to emphasize with due to the nearly inhuman qualities they sometimes possess (usually an unmatched strength or tactical genius) yet remain sympathetic due to the fact that the story makes it clear that they can lose, with these losses resulting in either a crushing territorial defeat or the death of a major character.

There are several common themes that come up within the book in regards to the culture it’s set in and the era it takes place within. One of the themes that comes up often is present good in Virtue,loyalty, and courage often told within tales of ancient times. This can also be subverted with the novels antagonist Cao Cao, who often uses brutal tactics and often manipulation within his battles yet also shows himself to be a military genius and a patron to many of the scholars in China. This can also be applied within how the characters protagonist Liu Bei , often being the absolute pillar of moral virtue and benevolence, makes many mistakes and suffers many defeats within these traits due to him either being too trustworthy or too stubborn to use the more morally questionable tactics of his enemy. These mixing and uses of such traits provides a large difference from other tales of honor and chivalry by portraying those who often pursue these traits to be defeated in the onset of malice and skulduggery of their enemies.

In conclusion this book may have a somewhat repetitive structure when it comes to the battles in the book and has some of the most backwards morals you would ever see in an old text, the book still serves as a well written saga of Chinese heroism and war. With that said, I can truly recommend this book to anyone interested in long series of books and fans of books from China.

[Ciel · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to give commentary on a work deemed as classic and yet literary style quite foreign from western canon. I wasn't a fan of the prose.

Any reader familiar of historical fiction will find the same things with this book; it's difficult to judge its uniqueness for this literary piece is of age. However, like all classics, this book welcomed me into Ancient Chinese culture, society and history despite its fictitious genre. The human drama was nothing short of realistic and intriguing. But to be able to appreciate this work, one must seek of these, and most importantly, to have patience. It is rather difficult to love, but the rewards are pleasant.

Difficulties readers might encounter are of names, places and the multitude of characters (speaking from experience here) -- it's best to read this in a slow, relaxed, leisurely pace; no pressure. It's a thousand pages of a read.

[Connor Rickard · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very compact book for breadth of history. It was a fascinating read of a period of history I was only familiar with. Hundreds of characters and their lives are shared, sometimes as briefly as a line. It’s an excellent read for the history buffs or for people who don’t know much about that period of time and China. It’s a great starter to learn which can be used to really learn more about Chinas history.

My sole gripe with the book is the writing style does use the same “hooks” for almost every chapter. I didn’t detract from the rating because it could be something that was added by penguin classics instead of the source material.

[Kunlonewolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

ขนลุกตั้งเเต่คำนำอะคิดเอา
รวมคารมคมคาย สุดยอดเเง่คิด คติสอนใจ มันดีมากฉบับใหม่คุณวรรณไว ปล. ผมอ่านฉบันนี้เป็นครั้งเเรกของสามก๊ก

ช่วงหลังๆตั้งเเต่สิ้นยุคตั๋งโต๊ะ เริ่มมันขึ้น อ่านง่ายขึ้น เเละสนุกมากขึ้น ทำให้อ่านได้เรื่อยๆ

อ่านวันละ 1-2 บทเพราะตัวละครเยอะจัด

[Cole D. Ott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic. Fiction done perfectly 👌

[Barack Liu · Rating 5 out of 5]

068-Romance of the Three Kingdoms-Luo Guanzhong-History-1368
Barack

--"Changing the Yangtze River to the east, the waves are sweeping away the heroes. The success or failure is turning around. The green hills are still there, and the sunset is red a few times. The white-haired fishermen on the River are accustomed to seeing the autumn and spring breezes. We talk about history in a smile. "

"The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was written in the history of Hongwu (1368-1398) at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. It is the historical novel of the first ministerial chapter of Chinese history. It lays a history of nearly one hundred years from the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty (184-220 years) to the beginning of the Western Jin Dynasty (266 years).

Luo Guanzhong was born in Taiyuan, Binzhou, Shanxi, around 1330, and died around 1400. He was a guest in the shogunate of Zhang Shicheng, a peasant uprising army. After Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, Luo Guanzhong had to give up his official life. Representative works: "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Ping Yao" and so on.

Many military operations in history were forced to proceed or fail in advance. It was because someone inside was telling the story. How to avoid this kind of problem?

The description of Liu Bei can roughly grind the expectations of ancient Chinese people for a leader. He has a broad mind. To be able to control their emotions. Be ambitious. Have more friends. Look rich. His lineage should be pure.

Whether it is starting a soldier or starting a business. The core team is usually 2 ~ 3 people. These three people must trust each other and complement each other. One of them must be the main one, and the other two are supplementary. In such a combination. The power that these three people can exert is far greater than they are scattered from each other and fight each other.

Later historians and novelists can only reverse the process based on historical facts. In other words, it doesn’t matter so much what the process is like. History is only real at the moment it occurs. Later, it can only be reflected in the memories of others. So as long as the result is good. The process may not be that important.

Why did Guan Yu and Zhang Fei respect Liu Bei consistently? Because of his Han Wei bloodline on Weibo? I don't think it is the reason.

What kind of characteristics is that, so Liu Bei won the support of the two? I also don't think that they can be recognized by kindness. At this time, Liu Bei can be said to have no power.

Although the emperor of the Han Dynasty and the Han emperor was admonished, they demanded to kill Shi Chang Shi. But Emperor Han Ling never blamed Shi Chang Shi, and he was so close to these close attendants. The most difficult thing for people in high positions is not that they fail to hear faithful words. It is not even possible to distinguish between loyalty and traitor. They attack each other. If the leader cannot distinguish right from wrong, he must be blinded.

And fake scammers often pay more attention to the cheers of those in power. Honest people are reluctant to welcome themselves. People who are connected to themselves have a good impression. Disgusted against those who opposed themselves. This is human nature. Leaders who can overcome the inherent weaknesses of human nature and distinguish right from wrong are great.

A leader should be open. He has his judgment on a thing and has made up his mind. But it should still not block the way and prevent the replacement of those who disagree.

On the contrary, even when your plan has been set, you should quote the opponent’s suggestions. Even if you still insist on your own opinions in the end, you can use these opposition voices to keep yourself alert, and you can use the stones of other mountains to attack jade.

After making the wrong bet, you can change the bet object. It is also an ability.

Yuan Shao's bad idea here led to Dong Zhuo 's chaos in the future.

Although at this time he has not reached the power of the future peak. But it already reflects the shortcomings of his insufficient strategy. It is not necessary to wait for a person to be in a high position to determine whether he is successful. When he was in the grass and mustard, he could make a basic judgment in every word and deed.

But it won't last long. Not even last forever. It can even lead to a more dangerous situation. If you are in a high position without talent. During a peaceful period, it may even barely paint the corpse meal. But if you are in turmoil, uncoordinated will bury hidden dangers in the future.

Throughout the history of the Three Kingdoms. There are very few people who kill the old lord and vote for the new lord. Didn’t they think about the new Lord and fear that he would kill himself in the future? When Xu Huang moved to Cao Cao, he did not want to use the old master's first rank as a step in his body.

Unless you choose the wrong person, the best way is to leave on time. Although it is possible to gain benefits in a short time by damaging the old one to the new one, in the long run, it will inevitably lead to disaster.

For leaders, to become a confidant, first look at the essential talent. Still loyal. No matter how high a person is, he is suspected of rebellion. How can it be reused?

Only Yuan Shao has the capital to disagree with Dong Zhuo in public. If you change to an official with no background to refute Dong Zhuo, it is estimated that he will die immediately.

Cao Cao was bold and careful. If such a person does not die from an accident, he can achieve something.

You can't speak carelessly. Chen Gong wanted to do something with Cao Cao, but he left because of Cao Cao 's words. Leaders must always pay attention to words and deeds. Slightly improper, followers may throw me away.

But later Chen Gong assisted Lu Bu all the way. With his talents, he will see that Lu Bu is not a person who can succeed. And Lu Bu's volatility is not a matter of high morality. Why did he choose Lu Bu?

Cao Cao was funded by Wei Hong. When Chen Liu recruited troops, there were Yuejin, Li Dian, Xiahou Dun, Cao Ren, Cao Hong, and others. These people later became the backbone of Cao Cao's forces. It is only possible to join the team at an early stage and become more likely to become a core layer in the future.

There are too many capable people in this world. Many people dare to take risks. But the former is often reluctant to take risks, so they can only join an immature team. Although they dare to act, they lack sufficient planning and the success rate is too low. There are only two combinations, and at the same time there is enough luck to avoid dying on the way. Later, it was possible to achieve a great cause.

Cao Cao said good things to them many times and secretly offered condolences. If it were not for Liu Bei ’s ambitions, he might also be paid by Cao Cao. To be able to discern people and build your team, you need to be free from prejudice.

Generally speaking, the fighting between the generals of the two armies is one-on-one. It is not common for three fights like this. Why did no one in the Lu Bu come out to stop Guan Yu and Liu Bei? Secondly, from one person to three, all of them are tied. This kind of development is very strange.

For the sake of excellence, authors of historical novels often narrate from a less objective perspective, which reflects a strong severity. Like future generations, we all know the result of the incident. Therefore, it is easy to have an illusion, as if A listens to B's advice, he can get a good result, or avoid a worse result.

But the fact is that unless A originally adopted B's proposal. It may not necessarily be a good result. After all, nothing has happened, we can always think of it well or badly. So, whether it is to read the correct history or to read the reader, it is necessary to always be prevented from being affected by the author's emotional orientation and God's perspective.

Because the written things have been artificially focused and purified, the reader cannot see the noise in the actual situation, so it seems that people who make wrong decisions or do not listen to the correct opinions seem like a fool. It seems that people who make correct suggestions but are not adopted are wise men. However, the actual situation is that if we live in different places, I am afraid that we will not be able to find gold in the sand under the circumstances at that time.

Everyone has more than one side. Although Yuan Shao is not necessarily a good commander overall, he showed bravery in a crisis. It is a major advantage.

It is not the first time that Zhuge Liang used the grass boat to borrow arrows, but future generations remember that Zhuge Liang borrowed many arrows from the grass boat and Sun Jian borrowed few arrows.

Times are different, and it is naturally impossible for us to give wives to others today. But it can be compared with other people's things. If you want to get the loyalty of your subordinates, don't worry about the material. Not to mention competing with his men for flying profits.

Calling to convene a thief was originally a chore. If you do not do well, you risk losing your life. However, if you do well, you can take advantage of the opportunity to recruit troops and expand your influence.

Internet companies are now vigorously encouraging employees to make inferences in recruitment, which is quite similar to Cao Cao's civil servants and military attaches who recommend people he knows. Among them, there must be a lot of people, but there are occasionally people with real talents.

After a little screening, you can choose the best ones for your use. The basic logic of this approach is that an excellent person must also be able to meet other excellent people. Of course, to attract black people first, and secondly to gain their loyalty and support.

After Cao Cao saw Dian Wei, Cao Cao shows his politeness for the talents.

The commander's force value is not easy to be too high, and too high is easy to underestimate the enemy. On the contrary, they cannot accept the old-fashioned advice.

It is estimated that no one can resist their martial arts, but this must have led them to disdain to adopt strategies.

Things that happen between such electro-optical fires are probably countless. After all, no one is recording the real situation at this time.

But even if this little detail is fake, we have to admit that there will be many accidents on the road to success. In such a sudden and critical situation, whether it is possible to turn danger into danger may not have much to do with personal ingenuity, but it will inevitably be surprisingly uncertain. So, luck is also one of the necessary conditions for success. It's a pity that we can't master it, and we haven't even understood what luck is.

If it is not fundamental, fortune can be powerful even if it comes, but if fortune is not, then success is not a hammer trade or even a protracted battle. Well, the first thing to do is not to compete in the Central Plains, but to operate the base like an iron bucket. There is only a solid step by step. To survive in times of bad luck. We will be soaring in the fortune.

Everyone laughed when they were in a situation, but there were very few people who were able to calmly experience the disaster of life and death. If you encounter failure, you will blame others, lose your temper, and take responsibility for spare parts. Then it will artificially cause secondary losses. The effect of the consequences of failure that has already occurred is exacerbated.

Conversely, if you can respond positively and optimistically, don't anger others, you may be able to make up for the losses you have incurred.

People like Lu Bu who crushed the current heroes by force also got their deaths because of two minds. Not to mention ordinary people? If the road cannot be chosen carefully, it will not be replaced at will after the road is chosen. Won't it also lead to failure?

Cao Cao was able to produce a heart of love until he faced the enemies of his enemies. Although there will be cases of fraud, in general, this tolerant mind still makes him more and more capable people.

The subordinates made a mistake and trapped their family members. If they were replaced by ordinary people, it would be impossible for them to kill Zhang Fei. And Liu Bei can still achieve this level, no wonder he can be supported by Guan Yu and Zhang Fei.

When you have no chance to exercise your ambitions, you should quietly accumulate strength instead of impetuous worries.

In the chaotic world, talented and unscrupulous people may also be proud for a while, but eventually they are gradually swallowed up. The last few that are left are the bones that are hard to eat.

16/04/29
20/05/26

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Again, the trouble with British translators is that they use Cantonese spelling for everything, which really threw me off when I was trying to figure out what cities they were conquering or attacking and my mental map of China was totally thrown of kilter. But with the help of google and a bit of translating (-king=jing, etc.), I was able to somewhat decipher the locations. That aside, this was a better translation than Dream of the Red Chamber; it flowed nicely and it was much more enjoyable to read. The subject content, however, did not interest me as much as Hong Lou Meng; reading about what general was wearing what armor on what horse during whichever battle doesn't grab my attention as much as the happenings in the Jia household or the scandal between the affair of this wife and that unmarried man. However, I did enjoy reading about the ruses and clever techniques used by the men of this novel to thwart their enemy and gain land or a city (sending women to cause disorder on sites [Diaochan!], the "empty city" tactic, etc.) And again, I had to use some sparknote/cliffnote sites to really understand what was going on in certain parts, but this book did not have as much babble as Hong Lou Meng. I also like reading firsthand the source of some of those well-known Chinese proverbs (说曹操，曹操就到，"speak of Cao Cao and he will come", similar to the English phrase "speak of the devil". I think I will take a break and read something else before starting volume two, this was a pretty heavy read.

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have heard this story from my parents countless times over the years and I have just realize that I have been playing a game called Dynasty Warriors, which is based off of this book "Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Vol.1" I have looked around the internet and found out that this book is ancient! There may be some fiction throughout this book, but it contains historical events that are somewhat real, just with a little drama in the book. The book is very long, but enjoyable. Things that I didn't like about the book was the name spellings, like T'sao T'sao (spelled in Mandarin) was supposed to be Cao Cao (in English), the emperor of the Wei. Since this is a long book, I am still in the process of reading, so my comments are pretty biased because I compared the book with a game.

[Benjamin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The version I read is the Brewitt translation from 1920, which is better than the classical Chinese in that it purports to be English.

However, there's a lot of too-literally translated terminology for arms and armor, and basically untranslated and unfootnoted terms for Chinese ranks of nobility, making reading this book a tough slog.

Book 1 is the book if you want to read about the Three Brothers, who are supposedly the main characters of the Romance, although they are all dead by the middle of Book 2 (the story spans roughly 60-75 years).

It is chock full of all the beheadings, warring, and occasional cannibalism one would expect, so I give it three stars.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Certainly the greatest historical fiction I've ever read, and with the most lessons about character, effort, psychology, and leadership. This first half is dynamite, beginning to end, with an extremely large cast of characters juggled efficiently between half a dozen locations. I'd strongly recommend reading this to anybody who is interested in history, and particularly particularly if one wants to get a handle on the semi-peculiar Chinese national character, as it were.

It is often said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, which makes me think the CCP would also do well to reread and absorb the lessons of this book.

[Fon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I believe that everyone who can finish this book can at least analyse surrounding people more easily 'cos this book gives us not only enjoyment and great illusion of historian Chinese worriors but also knowledge and some skill to read people's mind from their action. No matter how each character's actions are analysed or interpreted, they are all benefits for readers. So, I think the more we can read it, the better for ourselves. (Don't be afraid if you can read it more than three times!)