julienwen's Full Review: Kuan-Chung Lo and Guanzhong Luo - Three Kingdoms: ...
Nations lacking of heroes are effeminate nations. Civilisations lacking of epics are far from brilliant civilisations. Three Kingdoms, which is regarded as the Homeric Epics of China, has long held a remarkable role in shaping the nation's characters, their understand of heroism, of glory, of might and power, of strategy and intrigue, of fidelity and treachery, of manpower management ... etc. etc. History is like a river. Nobody can dabble the same river twice. But if we look into the water quietly and carefully, every person can find the shadow of his image in the history. In his masterpiece, Luo Guan Zhong vividly described more than 400 historical figures of kings, heroes, militarists, warriors and tacticians. Generations by generations, those figures profoundly coined the character of the nation and their view of world. Not only Chinese people, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese,... almost every nation of the far east influenced by this novel in a certain extent.
Twelve centuries after the historical period-the late Han Dynasty (184 - 280 AD)---, Luo Guan Zhong devoted his whole life in recreating the warring period of Wei, Shu, Wu kingdoms into a stunning historical romance. Combined with Magnificent composition, extensive action scenes and graceful poetry, the novel grips every reader's imagination at the very first line: "The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus is has ever been...."
The plot:
After the Huangjin(Yellow Turban) peasant uprising, Han dynasty could no longer regain it's mightiness. Several warlords took advantage from the turmoil. After decades of struggle, they eventually dethrone the Han emperor and three independent kingdoms emerged, they are Wei, Shu and Wu. Hereafter most of the famous themes and battles in the novel took place.
Wei was led by Cao Cao. Being a talented militarist and politician, Cao Cao achieved his goal by means of intrigue and conspiracy. Here's one of the example of his notorious trick: During The Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao's army was in the edge of turmoil for the shortage of food supply. Cao Cao summoned his officer who was in charge of food raising and said: "To calm my warriors, I would like to borrow something which belongs to you, may I?" The officer's head was finally cut down and the warriors were told that the reason of the food shortage is the corruption of the beheaded officer. Warriors were appeased and they finally won the battle.
Shu was led by Liu Bei. Benefited from his royal ancestry, Liu Bei summoned many great warrior like the Five Tiger Generals and Zhuge Liang, the most intelligent tactician who is also known as Sleeping Dragon , under his rule. After the Battle of Red Cliff, in which Liu Bei together with Sun Quan defeated Cao Cao's navy, the force of Li Bei became stronger. Then he established his Shu kingdom in Chengdu.
The third kingdoms was Wu, which was lead by Sun Quan. The war among those three kingdom last almost unceasingly for decades and eventually three kingdoms were unified again by the dynasty of Jin, which was the successor of Wei.
About historical romance
China is literally a country of HISTORY. The earliest chronicle can be dated as early as 500-400 B.C. Throughout the centuries , numerous volumes of chronicles had been added uninterruptedly as the record of the history of this splendid culture. But recording the history is one story, making people remember the history is another story, especially to peasants and workers who mostly were illiterate. Hence emerged the profession of storytelling. Storytellers mixed the genuine history events with legend, tales and myth, together with their talented fabrication, they transformed a tiresome historical event into a outstanding, fair-sounding symphony of history. These stories were the prototypes of the historical romance. In Chinese literature, almost every chronicle of a certain period has it's version of historical romance. Among them, Three Kingdoms undoubtedly is the most standout. According to one study, in this novel, about 70% of the evens are true and the other 30% is fiction.
Different types of heroes
Internet and modern technology are making our planet a small village. Stronger and stronger, people from different culture background feel the impact of so-called "culture shock" or "culture collision". I think many of these collisions are come from the differences of educational background. Fortunately, we can find the source of such differences by comparing their myths, legends literatures. After comparing Three Kingdoms and Iliad, reader can find it very interesting of the different views of heroes in eastern and western cultures. When Achilles, the Greek type of hero, tends to be more valued by his courage, bravery , valiancy , Three kingdoms portrays to us the eastern type of heroes. Just like Cao Cao said to Liu Bei in the famous episode of "cook wine and discuss heroes: "There're only two heroes in this country, you and me." Most of eastern heroes are commanders rather than warriors. They won the battle more by their brain than by their bravery. In a word, western heroes are more masculine. eastern heroes are more intelligent.
As important for Chinese culture as the Homeric epics have been for the West, this Ming dynasty masterpiece tells the story of the fateful last reign ...More at Buy.com
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