Romance of the Three Kingdoms Interpretation - Reading History to Observe the World. Interpretation of the Twenty-Five Histories

Author: Bai Yulin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: This book is based on historical facts and adopts a Q&A format. It extracts representative and valuable questions from classical texts and provides concise answers based on the content of the original sources, aiming to achieve the purpose of "using the original broth to digest the original food," giving life and warmth to the cold and lifeless data. The content covers various aspects of politics, economy, culture, and social life. In terms of language, it uses clear and readable vernacular, avoiding the dryness of general history books while also avoiding the suspicion of“.” The real stories and fascinating interpretations will take you into the long and winding river of Chinese history, allowing you to experience the cruelty and indifference of dynastic transitions, admire the strategic prowess of emperors and generals, marvel at the enduring brilliance of ancient culture, and help you understand the general outline of Chinese history, deeply appreciating the joy of reading history.
The Records of the Three Kingdoms is also highly unique in its format. Among the "Four Early Histories" in the "Twenty-Four Histories," it was written after the Records of the Grand Historian and the Book of Han but far before the Book of the Later Han. However, the Records of the Three Kingdoms did not simply copy the formats of the Records of the Grand Historian and the Book of Han. The Records of the Grand Historian is a continuous historical record in the biographical style, while the Book of Han is a biographical historical record of a specific period. Chen Shou, however, divided the Records of the Three Kingdoms into three separate books: the Book of Wei, the Book of Wu, and the Book of Shu. In the early days, these three books circulated separately and were not combined, making them unique within the category of historical records of specific periods.
Although the Records of the Three Kingdoms covers the history of the three states of Wei, Shu, and Wu, it does not objectively narrate historical events or present historical figures. Instead, it takes the state of Cao Wei as the legitimate dynasty, which is why the accounts of Wu and Shu in the book have a somewhat subjective bias.