by Minh Tran

Created on: January 08, 2010   Last Updated: January 09, 2010

"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is one of the Four Great Classics of Chinese literature (the other three being "Journey to the West", "Water Margin", and "Dream of the Red Mansion"). It is credited to Luo Guanzhong, a writer living in the fourteenth century (about the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty). Following the tradition of Chinese classical novels, the work is long with 800.000 words (in Chinese characters) in 120 chapters and more than 1000 characters. Each chapter typically begins with a couplet (seven words each line) summarizin the main events and ends with a line which can be roughly translated as thus "If you want to know the fate of [a character], please read the next chapter" signifying an obligatory cliffhanger.

"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" deals with the political intrigues and military activities in the titular Three Kingdoms era (by the end of Han Dynasty from 169 to 280). As can be expected from the fact that the priod is one of the bloodiest time in Chinese history, the plot is very complex with multiple factions and characters opposing, cooperating and betraying each other. The source materials for the novel are historical records and folklores of the era. Everything begins with a technical coup d'etat overthrowing the reigning Emperor and replacing him with his prepubertal son. As a consequence, the mastermind became the de-facto ruler of China and purged anyone suspected to oppose him. Counter-scheming by his fellow courtiers naturally followed, which ended the reign of the tyrant and gradually led to the titular "three kingdoms" situation.

Those three factions are Wei in the North including the capital (led by Cao Cao who controlled the child emperor and appointed himself the Chancellor), Wu in the East (led by the Sun family, who possessed the royal seal, symbol of the Mandate of Heaven), and Shu in the South-west (led by Liu Bei, a distant relative of the emperor and thus in the line of succession). Each of the factions claimed legitimacy to a degree (one influenced the reigning Emperor, one held symbol of the Mandate of Heaven signifying the support of Heaven's Will, one had royal blood) and had different advantages: as the genius strategist Zhuge Liang summarized it, Wei had the opportunity, Wu occupied the advantegeous territory, Shu had the charisma thanks to the leader being of royal blood (not incidentally, these are the three elements of a successful leader in the Chinese school of strategy). The "tripod"

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