Zhou Siyuan Appreciates the Characters of the Three Kingdoms

Author: Zhou Siyuan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: "Why is Zhou [Someone] studying the Three Kingdoms characters?" This question not only surprises many people but even surprised me myself. The start was very accidental. One summer day in 2000, a friend called me and said, CCTV Channel 8 has a program that wants to comment on the TV series Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Can you comment on two episodes? The recording is scheduled for the next morning. I said, "Why don't you ask [Someone] who is an expert?" He replied, "He's not in Beijing." I asked, "Then why don't you ask [Someone] who is also an expert?" He said, "I've already asked him, but he's extremely busy lately and doesn't have time." So I said, "Let the director contact me and see what the specific requirements are." A short while later, the director called and said that the first forty episodes of Romance of the Three Kingdoms had already been commented on by the producer, screenwriter, director, and main actors multiple times. For the last forty-four episodes, they planned to comment on the beginning of every four episodes, inviting several scholars specializing in literary criticism, traditional opera research, and ancient fiction studies to participate. Each episode would feature two people discussing together, totaling eleven episodes. They wanted to ask me and another person to comment on the two episodes where Guan Yu lets Cao Cao escape at Huarong Pass and the Battle of Red Cliffs. Each pair would speak for about thirty minutes, and the edited version would be around ten minutes long. They hoped I could help. I said, "I lack research on Romance of the Three Kingdoms and need to think about it. I'll give you a reply in an hour."