Li Guowen's New Review of Romance of the Three Kingdoms - (Volume 1, 2, 3)

Author: Luo Guanzhong (Ming Dynasty)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-11-01
Features: Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a remarkable book. It is one of the most widely circulated and profoundly influential historical novels in Chinese classical literature. Countless writers, scholars, and intellectuals have commented on it throughout history. Renowned writer Li Guowen offers a contemporary perspective on the entire work, with introductory quotes before each chapter and summaries after each chapter, providing a concise overview. He also provides in-text commentary and analyzes specific phrases and literary techniques. As a result, this book not only offers a literary and artistic perspective but also includes historical research, as well as critiques on philosophy, society, life, and reality. Reading it allows not only to rediscover the artistic essence of the classical masterpiece but also to gain historical lessons and inspiration from its rise and fall.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms is also known as Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi Yanyi) and Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It is one of the most famous and outstanding long, episodic historical novels in the history of Chinese fiction. The author of Romance of the Three Kingdoms was Luo Guanzhong, a figure from the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty. Before its completion, the "Three Kingdoms stories" had already undergone hundreds of years of development. In the Tang Dynasty, the Three Kingdoms stories were widely circulated, even familiar to children. With the development of urban literature, the storytellers () of the Song Dynasty had specialized in telling the Three Kingdoms stories, which were then called "Speaking of the Three Kingdoms." The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi Pinghua) that emerged in the Yuan Dynasty was essentially a manuscript used by storytellers. Although it was relatively brief and rough, it already had the initial scale of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Based on folk legends and the creative works of artists, Luo Guanzhong also drew upon the materials cited in Chen Shou's Records of the Three Kingdoms and Pei Songzhi's annotations (including materials from Selected Anecdotes of the Times and its annotations). Through immense creative effort, he wrote the grand masterpiece—Romance of the Three Kingdoms.