Detailed Explanation of the Three Kingdoms

Author: Li Dongfang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-10-01
Features: This book consists of thirty-eight chapters. The first chapter, titled "The Long Union Must Divide," serves as the outline, briefly describing the situation in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. From the second to the thirty-seventh chapters, many are headed with names, introducing events through characters and interweaving propositions related to the events, which still return to the characters. The thirty-eighth chapter, "The Division Must Reunite," concludes by describing the downfall of Shu, Wei, and Wu, ending with Liu Yuxi's poem "Lament for the Past": "Wang Jun's warships descend upon Yizhou, the Jiangnan spirit fades. Iron chains a thousand feet sink to the riverbed, a single surrender signal flies from the stone city. How many times has the world sighed at the past, the mountains still rest by the cold current. From now on, the four seas will be one's home, the old ramparts stand desolate in the autumn reeds." After the war, the world follows its cycles, lamenting the past and reflecting on the present, a sense of vigor fills the air. The topic then shifts to the aspects of the Three Kingdoms era that were not covered in the chapters—its institutions, scholarship, literature, art, and science—are summarized in general terms as a conclusion.