FULL History of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms - Part 1

The once historical characters of the Chinese Three Kingdom period have been catapulted into the realm of demi-god status by modern Chinese culture, regularly revivifying their status' as a staple in Chinese pop culture in the form of new movies, TV shows, manga and video games. These immortalized legends aren't going away anytime soon; so what's made them such legends?

Well of course there's the history aspect for one. The Han dynasty 2000 years ago of which Han people, Han language and Han culture originate from have their true root in this time period, so all events attaining to this time period are of special significance - especially in regard to the time of it's disintegration. So what separates the the tragic end of the Han from the collapse of other major civilisations? Perhaps not much. But one thing we can say about the time is the scale of the destruction wrought on by the collapse. From the period of the Yellow Turban Rebellion (184ad) to re-unifcation of China under the Jin Dynasty (280ad), up to 40 million people died at a time when the global population was only 205 million.

Ok so what else? There have been many depopulation events throughout history, what makes this special? This is where the story comes in...

Imagine there was an event in your history so traumatising that it echoed on in the form of folk tales passed from generation to generation. These folk stories spread throughout the villages and evolved in complexity over time, combining with the lore passed down in other villages and would further be buttressed by the actual scholarly accounts. After approximately 1200 years from the actual event, all these legends would coalesce in one meta narrative - the Romance of the Three Kingdoms written by Luo Guangzhong in 14th century Ming China.

Although the official account was written in the 3rd century ad, this 'meta narrative' would be the story that imprints itself on the DNA of Chinese culture. So what is it about the story that's so great?

Like any truly great story, the characters in the book are relatable and provide the reader an ideal to live up to. These ideals are based on the Confucian tradition and the characters journeys revolve essentially around their ability or inability to live up to these ideals.

Although not immediately obvious to a foreign audience upon first reading, the narrative explores many deep subjects through the formulation of its plot. One of them is free-will verse predetermination (or as it's called in the book, heavens will). Another is pragmatism verse idealism. The book isn't the kind that openly preaches what the authors ideas about the world are-- it's actually really just a story. But the story is rooted in the history and you could say the story has been made up to make sense of this traumatic period of history. Questions pertaining as to why fellow men would go out into the battle field to slaughter each other are pertinent to ask. It's important to know their motives and the psychology behind their actions, so this is where the story has it's place.

So if you've made it this far, I'm writing this post to gee you up on learning about the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. I have spent the past 6 months deeply immersed in the study of this book and as of yesterday completed the final part of a video series about the subject. I would like you watch this series. If your interested in China, I can't highly recommend enough that you watch my series as this book is such an important staple in Chinese culture and is imperative for furthering your understanding about it.