Romance of the Three Kingdoms: An Annotated Edition by Military History Experts

Author: Luo Guanzhong (Ming)
Translator: Ren Zhaokun
Editorial Notes:
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-08-01
Features: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, also known as Romance of the Three Kingdoms or Romance of the Three Kingdoms, is a long historical novel that has been widely circulated and has had a great influence, familiar to the people. Romance of the Three Kingdoms is based on the history of the late Eastern Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms of Wei, Shu, and Wu. It begins with the Yellow Turban Rebellion in the middle years of Emperor Ling of the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 184) and ends with the fall of Wu in the first year of Emperor Taikang of the Jin Dynasty (AD 280), covering almost a whole century. The Jin Dynasty historian Chen Shou compiled this period of history into the historical book Records of the Three Kingdoms. During the Southern Dynasties of the Song Dynasty, Pei Songzhi wrote annotations for Records of the Three Kingdoms, extensively citing various books, with the annotations often several times longer than the original text, adding much material. The Spring and Autumn Annals of the Eastern Jin Dynasty by Xi Zaochi is also a historical book about the Three Kingdoms. At the same time, stories about the Three Kingdoms have been passed down continuously. Liu Yijing of the Southern Dynasties of the Song Dynasty's Notes on Worldly Tales focuses on recording the conversations and anecdotes of famous officials and scholars of Wei and Jin. According to Du Bao's Remnants of the Great Industry of the Great Year, during the reign of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, water-based such as "Cao Mian Beating the Crocodile in Qiao Water" and "Liu Bei Leaping over Tanxi" already existed. Li Shangyin's poem Poem of the Proud Child from the Tang Dynasty, "Sometimes mocking Zhang Fei's foolishness, sometimes laughing at Deng Ai's greed," shows that by then, Three Kingdoms figures had already been used as material for ridicule. During the Song and Yuan dynasties, Three Kingdoms figures were taken to the stage or stage by folk artists. According to Meng Yuanlao's Dream of the East Capital in the Northern Song Dynasty, in the Northern Song Dynasty, "telling the Three Kingdoms" (i.e., telling the stories of the Three Kingdoms) had become an independent subject in the art of storytelling, and famous artists specializing in "the Three Kingdoms" had appeared. The earliest storytelling of the Three Kingdoms stories we see today was published in the 31st year of the Zhiyuan era of the early Yuan Dynasty (AD 1294), Brief Account of the Three Kingdoms, which may have been the manuscript of the storytelling of the Song Dynasty. Brief Account of the Three Kingdoms is divided into three volumes, with the opening scene being Liu Xiu enjoying the spring and Sima Zhong's judgment of the case in the dark. The main text begins with the oath of brotherhood in the peach garden and ends with Zhuge Liang's death, spanning over 80,000 words. Although the narrative is simple, the beginning and end of the Three Kingdoms stories have been roughly outlined. The Jin Dynasty yuanben and Yuan Dynasty zaju often performed stories about the Three Kingdoms. There are more than forty plays preserved today, and there are one to twenty scripts. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms written at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty was created on the basis of the aforementioned historical books, notes, pianhua, and xiqu. The author was Luo Guanzhong. The saying "According to official history, collect fiction, verify the text, and understand the customs" (Gao Ru's Bai Chuan Shu Zhi) is in line with the actual writing of Luo Guanzhong's Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The life of Luo Guanzhong is not recorded in history, and the few materials available are often inconsistent. Among them, Jia Zhongming's Continuation of the Record of Ghosts is relatively credible. He said that Luo Guanzhong was a native of Taiyuan, styled Huahai Sanren, and was rarely in harmony with others. He was excellent in yuefu and yinyu, and was very fresh. He had a forget-me-not friendship with me, and we were separated by fate. We met again in the Jia Chen year of the Zhengzong era (AD 1364), and more than sixty years had passed since we parted. He finally did not know where he ended up. The Jia Chen year of the Zhengzong era was 1364 AD, and Luo Guanzhong lived during the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, approximately from 1330 to 1400. He wrote many novels, with legends of dozens of them. In addition to Romance of the Three Kingdoms, what remains are Chronicles of Sui and Tang, Romance of the Remnants of Tang and Five Dynasties, and Romance of the Three Su's Pacifying the Demon King. He was also skilled in ciqu and qu. In addition to the existing Zhao Taizu's Dragon and Tiger Wind and Cloud Meeting, he also wrote Zhong Zheng Xiao Zi Lian Hua Jian and San Ping Zhang Si Ci and other two zaju. Luo Guanzhong experienced the great social turmoil at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, got close to the lower strata of society, witnessed the reality of the struggles at that time, and had a deep understanding of the difficult living conditions of the people and their aspirations. Due to the limitations of historical conditions, he could not propose any ideas to replace the feudal landlord class. From the ideological tendencies of the novels he wrote, he admired "loyalty" and "righteousness" and advocated governing the world with "the Way of the King" and benevolent governance. Luo Guanzhong saw certain political factors in the social turmoil to some extent, but his attitude was wrong. He fundamentally denied the historical role of peasant uprisings. This political stance is not only reflected in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but also in Chronicles of Sui and Tang and Romance of the Three Su's Pacifying the Demon King. The earliest edition of Romance of the Three Kingdoms that can be seen today is the Romance of the Three Kingdoms with an inscription in the Jia Yin year of the Hongzhi era (AD 1494) and published in the Renwu year of the Jiajing era (AD 1522). The book has twenty-four volumes and two hundred forty chapters, titled "Record of the Three Kingdoms by Chen Shou of Jin, edited and arranged by Luo Ben Guanzhong." As for whether there are differences in content between this edition and Luo Guanzhong's original, there is no material available to explain it. After this, more and more editions of Romance of the Three Kingdoms were published, and there are more than twenty Ming Dynasty editions that can be seen now, indicating that it was widely circulated. Some editions, in addition to adding general comments, return comments, marginal notes, and interlinear notes, were almost the same in content. In the early Qing Dynasty, Mao Run (styled Shengshan) and Mao Zonggang (styled Xushi) father and son, pretending to use "ancient texts," revised Romance of the Three Kingdoms and commented on each chapter. In their revisions, they further emphasized Shu Han as the orthodox, clearly pointing out that it was wrong to declare Cao Wei as the orthodox and adopted Zhu Xi's view in General Mirror of the Comprehensive Annals that Shu Han was the orthodox, claiming, "I therefore compromised with the Gangmu of Ziyang and specially attached it to the Romance." (Method of Reading the Three Kingdoms) Secondly, they admired Guan Yu, believing that Guan Yu had a "firm will to repay his master" and a "heavy sense of gratitude," and was an "extraordinary person" among the famous generals of all time" (Method of Reading the Three Kingdoms). Mao Run and Mao Zonggang's revisions of Romance of the Three Kingdoms made feudal orthodox thought and feudal Confucianism more prominent. The Qing rulers attached great importance to Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and they sent people to translate it into Manchu together with the Four Books, and they also greatly praised Guan Yu, who personified "loyalty" and "righteousness," while at the same time, to promote feudal ethical concepts to maintain feudal rule, the Qing rulers also vigorously promoted feudal orthodox concepts, and they used the banner of "avenging the Ming" to build Ming tombs and took the position of the "orthodox" successor of the Ming Dynasty. The revisions of Mao's father and son were in line with the views of the ruling class of the Qing Dynasty. In addition, Mao Run and Mao Zonggang made many changes to the text and plot, as Lu Xun said in Outline of the History of Chinese Fiction, "All the revisions can be seen from the preface and examples, and the main points can be summarized as follows: one is to revise, two is to add, three is to cut, the rest of the minor points are: one is to organize the chapter titles, two is to correct the text, three is to cut out the arguments and comments, four is to add or delete trivial matters, five is to change the poems and articles." This kind of polishing and processing work changed some loose and lengthy parts of the original, making the whole book more concise and smooth, and became a widely circulated edition of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Three hundred years after the publication of the revised Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Mao Run and Mao Zonggang, there have been no major changes in content. The evolution of the writing of Romance of the Three Kingdoms has two characteristics worth noting: first, it was formed through a long process of collective creation. The authors included folk artists and feudal scholars, with different political, artistic views, and creative intentions. Over a long period of time, through oral and written artistic creation, different historical contents of different eras were collected and cast, so Romance of the Three Kingdoms shows a relatively complex ideological tendency. Second, it is a historical novel. The stories of the Three Kingdoms have long been circulated and are familiar to the people, which restricts the creative activity, that is, it cannot completely ignore the original Three Kingdoms figures and stories. However, although the author could not change the original figures and plots entirely, he could decide on selection based on his worldview, consciously highlighting or cutting certain aspects, using various artistic means to promote his social and political ideas, and so on. Therefore, Romance of the Three Kingdoms is not simply a repetition of the historical figures and facts of the Three Kingdoms, but a literary work that has been artistically conceived and processed. It describes to some extent the class relations and life of the various classes in the feudal society; exposes some of the crimes of the feudal rulers; provides some material for understanding the political and military struggles of the feudal society; and creates some influential figures with distinctive artistic characteristics. However, in the feudal society, the landlord class's thought dominated. Although the feudal scholars' compiled history books were indeed for the service of maintaining the feudal system, even the folk or folk-oriented art was often infiltrated to varying degrees by the landlord class's thought. Therefore, some folk pianhua and xiqu circulating in the folk were also quite heavy with feudal consciousness, such as the Brief Account of the Three Kingdoms and the Three Kingdoms plays in the Jin and Yuan Dynasty zaju, where feudal consciousness was very obvious. The author of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, starting from the standpoint of maintaining feudal rule, not only inherited some feudal consciousness from the "official history" and pianhua and xiqu, but also strengthened some aspects according to the needs of feudal rule at that time, which should be noted. Therefore, the ideological content of Romance of the Three Kingdoms is relatively complex. It shows the historical scroll of the Three Kingdoms, describes the internal struggles of the feudal ruling class, exposes their cruel and treacherous crimes, and under the brutal rule of the feudal rulers, it is not difficult to see the suffering and misfortune of the broad masses of the people. In addition, while promoting the implementation of "the Way of the King" and benevolent governance, Romance of the Three Kingdoms praises the feudal ruling class and feudal rule; opposes peasant revolution; promotes the "hero" historical view, theocracy, and feudal superstition; and advocates feudal morality, especially loyalty and righteousness. Therefore, we must follow Comrade Mao Zedong's teaching to "remove the dross of feudalism and absorb the essence of democracy," and read Romance of the Three Kingdoms critically, taking this novel as a material for understanding the ancient history of our country. Romance of the Three Kingdoms reflects the process of the Yellow Turban Rebellion and its suppression in the third century AD, widely and specifically depicting the internal struggles of the feudal ruling groups of Wei, Shu, and Wu, and reflecting some historical situations of that time. The late Eastern Han Dynasty was a dark age of fierce land consolidation, brutal landlord exploitation, heavy official corvée, and corrupt politics. Where there is oppression, there is resistance. The brutal economic exploitation and political oppression of the landlord class against the peasants forced the peasants to resist the rule of the landlord class with armed struggle. A huge peasant uprising—the Yellow Turban Rebellion—finally broke out like a thunderclap in 184 AD. The Yellow Turban Rebellion severely struck the feudal rule at that time and shook its foundation, directly threatening the survival of the Eastern Han Dynasty. To save their doomed fate, the landlord class carried out a frenzied massacre of the Yellow Turban rebels. Although the Yellow Turban rebels were suppressed and failed under the bloody suppression, the evil Eastern Han Dynasty could no longer maintain its rule over the country under the impact of the peasant uprising. The various armed groups of the landlord class, based on the brutal suppression of the peasant uprising, developed their power and expanded their territory without regard for means. They faced a bloody struggle to seize the highest ruling power in the country. The small and large landlord armed forces that emerged and grew stronger in suppressing the Yellow Turban Rebellion carried out political struggles and frequent military conflicts to replace the Eastern Han Dynasty and seize property and power. To some extent, Romance of the Three Kingdoms reflects this situation. We can see: "Four or five hundred thousand people in all directions wrapped in yellow turbans rebelled against Zhang Jiao," with great momentum, "the official army fled at the mere sight of them," and in this critical situation, the feudal rulers on the one hand "sent out an urgent edict, ordering all places to prepare defenses" (enter), and on the other hand, mobilized troops and generals to retaliate against the Yellow Turban rebels.