History of Chinese Literature (Volume 4)

Author: Chief Editor: Yuan Xingpei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-06-01
Features: Excerpt: Chapter "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and the Flourishing of Historical Romances "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is a long, serialized novel in Chinese, and also the pioneering work of historical romance novels. The term "historical romance" refers to the use of colloquial language to organize and elaborate historical themes such as conflicts, the rise and fall of dynasties, and the replacement of regimes into complete stories, thereby expressing certain political ideas, moral concepts, and aesthetic ideals. This unique literary style was beloved by the Chinese people, who placed great importance on historical traditions. As a result, during the Ming Dynasty, "since Luo Guanzhong's Romance of the Three Kingdoms transformed the official history into a popular romance with over a hundred chapters, it became highly esteemed by the world. Subsequently, many followed suit, leading to works such as Romance of the Xia Dynasty, Romance of the Shang Dynasty, Romance of the States, Romance of the Han Dynasty, Romance of the Tang Dynasty, Romance of the Later Tang, and Romance of the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties, which were as vast as the official histories" (as recorded in Preface to the New Romance of the States by Guan Kaidao), forming a tradition of creating historical romances. Section "The Composition, Author, and Editions of Romance of the Three Kingdoms The Long-lasting Transmission and Development of the Three Kingdoms Story Regarding the composition time of Luo Guanzhong's Romance of the Three Kingdoms The Main Editions of Romance of the Three Kingdoms The "Three Kingdoms" period in Chinese history was a time of great turmoil and dynamism. Chen Shou's Records of the Three Kingdoms and Pei Songzhi's annotations contained countless vivid stories, providing abundant material for literary creativity. In the, the stories of the Three Kingdoms continued to circulate and evolve. By the Sui Dynasty, theatrical performances already included "Three Kingdoms" programs. According to Du Bao's Remnants of the Great Year, Emperor Yang of Sui watched water-based that featured scenes such as Cao Cao fighting dragons at Qiao Water and Liu Bei crossing Tanxi River on horseback. Li Shangyin's poem The Playful Child mentions: "Sometimes they mock Zhang Fei as a barbarian, or laugh at Deng Ai's clumsiness." This shows that by the late Tang Dynasty, even children were familiar with the stories of the Three Kingdoms. During the Song Dynasty, the art of "" (storytelling) already had a specialized category called "Speaking of the Three Kingdoms" with professional performers. Su Zhe (in Chronicles of Zhi Tree) recorded: "Wang Peng once said: In the streets and alleys, the poor and wretched would gather to listen to ancient tales. When the story told of Liu Xiu's defeat, some would frown and shed tears; when it told of Cao Cao's defeat, they would sing joyfully." This indicates that the art of "speaking of the Three Kingdoms" was highly effective and already showed a clear tendency to respect Liu Bei and criticize Cao Cao. These Song Dynasty huaben (storytelling manuscripts) have not survived, but the earliest known Three Kingdoms storytelling manuscripts include Romance of the Three Kingdoms published by the Juan family in Jian'an during the Zhizhi era of the Yuan Dynasty (1321–1323) and Brief Account of the Three Kingdoms (External). Their stories already had the rough outline of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, focusing on the main line of Shu-Han, loosely based on historical accounts, and filled with folk legends. The structure was grand, the story strong, but the narrative was simplistic and the writing rough, retaining the original characteristics of "." On the stage of traditional opera, the Jin and Yuan dynasties also performed numerous Three Kingdoms plays. Tao Zongyi's Record of the South Village mentions various Jin Dynasty yuanben (court plays) such as Red Cliff: The Battle of the Red Cliffs. Qian Nanyang's Introduction to Xiqu points out plays such as Guan Yu's Solitary Journey to the Single-Blade Meeting. It is known that there were over 60 Three Kingdoms-themed zaju () plays during the Yuan Dynasty and the transitional period between the Yuan and Ming dynasties. From these plays and the existing scripts, more than half centered on Shu-Han figures, with a clear tendency to support Liu Bei and oppose Cao Cao. In terms of plot structure and language style, they had strong folk characteristics. Based on the long-standing and numerous folk legends and the creative efforts of artists, Luo Guanzhong "based his work on official histories, drew from fiction, verified the text, and aligned with the customs" (as recorded in A Hundred Rivers Catalogue of Books by Gao Ru), creating the exemplary work of historical romance, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Regarding Luo Guanzhong, little is known. According to records such as Continuation of the Record of the Ghosts by Jia Zhongming (or attributed to an anonymous author) and Preface to the Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Jiang Daqi, his name was Ben, courtesy name Guanzhong, and styled Huahai Sanren, with origins in Dongyuan (now Dongping, Shandong) and later settled in Hangzhou. Jia Zhongming described him as "a lifelong friend of mine, separated by fate and living in different places. We reunited in the Jia era of the Zhizhi period of the Yuan Dynasty. Sixty years later, I finally lost track of his whereabouts." From this, we know he lived during the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties, approximately between 1315 and 1385. Wang Qi of the Ming Dynasty, in Chronicles of the Margins, recorded a piece claiming Luo Guanzhong "aspired to be a king." Hu Yinglin of the Ming Dynasty, in Notes from the Shao Shi Mountain Studio, called him "a disciple of Shi Nai'an." Gu Lin of the Qing Dynasty, in Postscript to the Water Margin Painting, claimed he "worked for the of Zhang Shicheng," but these claims are uncertain. His Romance of the Three Kingdoms was likely completed in the early Ming Dynasty. He was also one of the compilers of Water Margin. Tian Rucheng, in Chronicles of the West Lake, said he "compiled dozens of novels," which may be an exaggeration. The Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties and Romance of the Later Tang and Five Dynasties are still.