Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Volume 1, Volume 2)

Author: Chen Shou
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-03-01
Features: This book still uses the Bona Fide Edition as the base text, incorporating comparisons with old editions such as the Wuying Palace printing of the fourth year of the Qianlong era in the Qing Dynasty, the Jinling Book Bureau movable-type printing of the sixth year of the Tongzhi era, and the Jiangnan Book Bureau printing of the thirteenth year of the Guangxu era, as well as multiple new editions represented by the Zhonghua Book Company's annotated version. For this reissue, we utilized cross-comparisons between these editions to identify differences and choose the best solutions. At the same time, we extensively incorporated the research achievements of scholars in textual criticism and editing. Our sincere hope is to provide modern readers with a readable and collectible edition of The Records of the Three Kingdoms built upon the diligent work of predecessors. However, the great river flows through the ages, and the sea of learning is endless. The work of editing and textual criticism of ancient books is also a research task that must keep pace with the times. The Records of the Three Kingdoms is ranked alongside The Records of the Grand Historian, The Book of Han, and The Book of the Later Han as the "Four Histories." Author Chen Shou, with his historical insight and narrative skills, was already praised as a "talented historian" in his time. The Records of the Three Kingdoms has its own characteristics among the Twenty-Four Histories. It is neither a continuous history like The Records of the Grand Historian, nor a dynastic history like The Book of Han. Instead, it parallelly narrates the historical facts of the three states of Wei, Shu, and Wu during the late Eastern Han Dynasty. Although titled a "Record," the book only contains chronicles and biographies, without treatises. This book is based on Pei Songzhi's annotations. From a modern perspective, Pei's annotations are not merely supplementary reading for Chen's work but can even be considered a "twin gem" alongside Chen's text in reflecting the history of the six decades of the Wei, Shu, and Wu states.