Virtual and Real Three Kingdoms

Author: Hu Bin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features:
Introduction: The history and stories of the Three Kingdoms have always been able to spark the imagination and interest of many people. Let alone the well-known stories and vivid characters from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, even the so-called "excellent history" Records of the Three Kingdoms is full of twists and turns, fascinating, and often leaves readers unable to put it down. Because the Three Kingdoms period itself was an era of heroes, with rival factions vying for power, wielding great influence, maneuvering, and engaging in both wit and bravery, pouring out blood and talent on the historical stage. The events and figures of the Three Kingdoms are inherently interesting and passionate. Moreover, when Chen Shou wrote Records of the Three Kingdoms and Pei Songzhi added annotations to it, he drew on many materials from miscellaneous books, revealing the "private lives" of many heroes, making this era an excellent subject for folk legends and literary adaptations. As early as the Tang Dynasty, people began telling stories of the Three Kingdoms. By the Song Dynasty, the custom of storytelling (shuohua) had become even more developed. Meng Yuanlao's Dream of Splendid Splendor records the storytelling in the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty in the late Northern Song period, which included many categories, among which "telling the Three Kingdoms" (i.e., storytelling about the Three Kingdoms) was an independent category, not belonging to the category of "telling history," and had become a specialized field. During the Southern Song and Jin-Yuan periods, southern pinghua (narrative tales) and northern yuanben (dramatic tales) both included many historical stories of the Three Kingdoms. By the Yuan and Ming dynasties, Luo Guanzhong collected folk stories of the Three Kingdoms, added to them, and compiled Romance of the Three Kingdoms, systematizing the stories of the Three Kingdoms. Later storytellers of the Three Kingdoms often used this as their foundation, and the stories of the Three Kingdoms in Romance of the Three Kingdoms gradually replaced the historical events of the Three Kingdoms recorded in Records of the Three Kingdoms, becoming the basic framework and material for constructing people's knowledge of the Three Kingdoms. To be fair, the Three Kingdoms story system centered around Romance of the Three Kingdoms is based on the historical events of the Three Kingdoms recorded in Chen Shou's Records of the Three Kingdoms. It is generally believed that the events narrated in Romance of the Three Kingdoms are seven parts real and three parts fictional. But because there are more real elements than fictional ones, people are often led to believe the fictional parts as real. Since Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a work of fiction, to shape characters and enrich the plot, its authors inevitably gave full play to their imagination, striving to make the story as realistic as possible. However, as the plot became more specific and appeared more "real," it gradually moved farther away from historical facts. In the Three Kingdoms stories, the good characters are portrayed as having no flaws, while the bad characters are depicted as having no redeeming qualities. This stereotypical approach of simplifying complex and diverse historical figures into "good" or "bad" has also contributed to more fictional elements. However, among the fictional elements of the Three Kingdoms stories, there are also many real ones. In fact, not everything recorded in Records of the Three Kingdoms is necessarily "real." Pei Songzhi's annotations to Records of the Three Kingdoms revealed many inaccuracies in Chen Shou's work. Romance of the Three Kingdoms, based on the books cited in Pei Songzhi's annotations and its own deductions, may be closer to historical facts in some places than Records of the Three Kingdoms. Therefore, one cannot conclude that because Records of the Three Kingdoms is a historical work, its records must be "real," nor can one conclude that because Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a novel, its discrepancies with Records of the Three Kingdoms must be "fictional." As a result, the Three Kingdoms stories and the historical events of the Three Kingdoms present a situation where the real and the fictional intermingle, the real contains the fictional, the fictional contains the real, and the real and fictional are indistinguishable.
When modern scholars discuss the Three Kingdoms, apart from specialized historians, most rely on the Three Kingdoms stories as their primary source material. While there are certainly many real elements in these stories, there are also many fictional ones. Which parts are closer to historical facts, and which are fictional? How far do the characters in the stories deviate from their true selves? Why such discrepancies exist? These are precisely the questions this book attempts to address. However, the real and fictional elements of the Three Kingdoms stories are difficult to distinguish, and the layers and categories are numerous, making a comprehensive examination impossible. This book does not focus on textual research but, based on previous studies, takes important figures of the Three Kingdoms as its framework, connecting related events, and focusing on analyzing the real and fictional aspects of character portrayals in the Three Kingdoms stories. The figures discussed in this book are limited to those whose portrayals in the stories differ greatly from their historical counterparts. Those whose portrayals are not significantly different will not be discussed.