There are tons of Romance of the Three Kingdoms adaptations out there, so it might be hard for newcomers to start. Help them out by suggesting your favourite ones here.
1994 Romance of Three Kingdoms, absolutely still remains the best complete adaptation bar none, but I also recommend the 1985 Zhuge Liang show (Mainland one, NOT the Hong Kong one that came out the same year) and the movie Hua Xiong and Cao Cao from 1983, which have great authentic sets & costumes.
Since I have been a gamer from young age, I first discovered ROTK from KOEI series of ROTK in playstation (strategy game), I never went and try the dynasty warriors since I was not really into hack and slash. I was very excited when creative assembly was finally making the total war version of the ROTK. Played for 160 hours already and still haven't unite all of china! And yes, I also discovered the 2010 three kingdom series in youtube and was so hooked following each episode of it.
Dynasty warriors got me into Chinese history. The Three Kingdoms is so influential, it had a lasting impact to Asian culture, literature, and world acclaim.
@@lordkent8143 the movie came out in Hong Kong first. It has mixed reviews but the trailer looks good so far. Over the top action and the video game music.
In the novel Liu Bei is the hero and Cao Cao is the villain, but in real history, Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Sun Quan, and other people like Yuan Shao and Liu Biao, they were all warlords fighting for their cause. In other words, they were the hero of their own life. And as a fan of Zhou Yu I hold complex feelings towards RoTK...
No, in real life, Liu Bei was the true hero as well, the others like Cao Cao? they are nothing more than warlords, like many others who appeared and disappeared throughout the whole chinese history, push their people as hard as they can to achieve their personal and family's glory and wealth. Liu Bei fighting for a cause, a cause to restore the already lost and the first truly unified China, the Han dynasty, to bring back its former glory, not for his personal honor and wealth, at least for the most part. throughout the history of China, there are very few leaders who have such idealism. Moreover, he has other qualities better than those of the warlords of the same period. He attaches great importance to friendship, has the way monarch and his subjects, and understands the sufferings of the people, he single handly lightened this Three Kingdoms era, It's called romance by Chinese people for a reason, without him, it would be just another era of China's great division without any interest to look at, and even the Chinese people don't know how much history they have, just like the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms periods or five wild Chinese periods.
@@dyingember8661 And why do you talk to me in a manner that you're absolutely correct? Like you just began your argument with a "no", like a denial to all my opinions and I'm really offended by your manners
@@dyingember8661 Nah, Liu Bei IRL is just as much as another war lord like other warlords. He was just less terrible than the other warlords cuz he was more relatable and benevolent to common folks. Tho his idealism is flawed to the core since his wish even after his death was to pursue more wars against the Cao Wei thus weakened his kingdom even more. Shu could have lasted longer if Zhuge Liang chose not to wage war with Wei and the Emperor at the time was more competent
I discovered Three Kingdoms 16 years ago almost by accident when I picked up Dynasty Warriors 4. Today the D&D campaign I run has a plot I based on the collapse of the Han Dynasty and rise of the warlords, though the aesthetic is more that of 12th century Europe so as to be more familiar to the players (we're all British). I reasoned that if Shakespeare could be adapted with Samurai then the same could be done to Three Kingdoms with Knights.
@@OmiTheEel Thanks for your interest! I started off the campaign with the players defending a village from a cultist uprising (similar to the yellow turbans but instead they were followers of Tiamat). After this we had a few minor quests introducing more of the kingdom's problems including the ascension of a child king, investigating corruption etc. The main recurring villain so far is Lord Drenan (Dong Zhuo's stand in) who the players met early on but haven't come face to face with since he took over the court. The party's ran a few missions on behalf of Valdos (Cao Cao) to undermine the tyrant's power in the capital and build an alliance of lords to challenge him. For the civil war quest I borrowed quite a bit from the crusades and the hundred years war for factional infighting and regional devastation, the party found themselves on the front line alongside Rhindon (Sun Jian with a heavy dose of Ned Stark). The coalition has fallen apart and the capital destroyed but the party have infiltrated the tyrant's new base. Instead of Chang An I'm setting his endgame in the ruins of a massive Roman/Byzantine style metropolis. The party are currently questing to stop him from finding treasure and controlling any monsters found in the ruins, while also trying to turn the deadly Sir Lukas (Lu Bu but a Pegasus knight) against him...
@@carlothecoffeeguy3778 its nice to know the campaign has lasted till present day, long ones are usually rare so you must be a very engaging storyteller. Props for integrating sneaky historical references and thank you for sharing. Also, as a history geek, may i suggest to check out the Sengoku Jidai (warring states period in japan) which I currently will be basing my own campaign on, like the romance of the three kingdoms this era of chaos is precisely when men of ambition arise. As the saying goes, heroes are made by the times. A wartorn world, where you can't know for sure when you might part, one must have a reason to kill for and a reason to die for. This was a period in which chronic conflict continues, festering like a wound. Quarrels arising from conflicts of interest between powerful warlords occurred in various places all over Japan. nameless average persons could achieve success coming from virtually nothing, and so, once you hace everything It could crumble just as rapidly and go up in flames. Definitely would recommend, I found it an interesting read at least.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms was the main reason I started learning Chinese. The only downside was all the hanzi I learned that I never needed afterward lol. But it is a very interesting book to reread as your skill in Chinese increases. There are a lot of subtleties and undertones that you just don't get without enough skill, so there's always something new to discover on a reread. Your video makes me want to find some of the older texts, like Luo Guanzhong's. Great video, as usual.
I find beauty in the fact so many characters don't get "happy" endings. Three kingdoms taught me that the story keeps going even when you can't keep going with it.
Another reason why the Qing Dynasty version of the story was so widely read was that it was that it was written in vernacular Chinese, not classical Chinese like previous versions, which meant that the average Chinese was able to understand it.
I used to like Liu Bei when I'm young. As I grown older, I realize he was a snake that betrayed more people than Lu Bu. I feel like the world would be so much better if China had united under Cao Cao banner. Even the best emperor from Tang praised Cao Cao. Cao Cao not only know looking out for his people, he also attracted talents general's and the brains. He even wanna get ride of corruption completely. Just like the current president Xi is doing lol. Here is a sad twisted for Wu best strategist, Zhou Yu. He resisted Cao Cao invasion instead of surrendering. He could help build a better and more peaceful China. What went wrong? I remembered reading that he received a letter from Cao Cao stating he'll steal his wife for her beauty. The question is, who really send that letter to provoked Zhou Yu before the invasion? As you guys know, Zhou Yu died pretty young from a injured after he went to save a pirate friend. All that could have prevented if Zhou Yu convinced Sun Quan to surrender. His action would save so much lives, end the civil war and make China great again. Anyway, I just wanna share this important info. It's where past government use misinformation to discredit their successor. I love this quote 33:50 ua-cam.com/video/Gg1SGA3zYx8/v-deo.html "Qin Shi Huang was a target of political propaganda created by the Han Dynasty that succeeded his. It purpose was to discredit the Qin Dynasty and by doing so justify and elevated it own existence. All of our sources for Qing Dynasty history come from the subsequent dynasty, the Han dynasty." RotK, while a decent read, basically amounts to Three Kingdoms fanfiction. It was written during the Ming Dynasty, where a revitalization of Han Dynasty ideas and concepts was happening. As such, it is hardly surprising that RotK glorifies all of the "Shu-Han" characters as heroes while denigrating those of Wu and especially Wei. Cao Cao most notably gets an extremely bad rap as he is portrayed as being a devious scheming coward that the author begrudgingly notes was competent and had good retainers. In actuality, the Sanguozhi notes Cao Cao as being "the Great Progenitor" who cared for the common people and was primarily interested in restoring order, while having a ruthless realpolitik streak to him. Liu Bei, far from being portrayed as the hero who fought against overwhelming odds and disastrous fate, is instead ascribed a behavior similar to that of Lu Bu: a brave man with grand ambitions, but was personally a bit of an idiot. And please don't get me started on the historical porn that is RotK's portray of Zhuge Liang. Zhuge Liang is associated with more fictitious stories than anyone in the novel. While Zhuge was a smart man, brilliant politician and able general, he is basically treated like an all-knowing God. For instance, his first accomplishment is setting the trap at the Battle of Bowangpo where he traps Xiahou Dun and Yu Jin in a fire. This was actually Liu Bei's idea in the actual history, Zhuge Liang wasn't even with Liu Bei at the time. Zhuge is especially deified during the Battle of Chibi. Many of the credits given to him were either fake (the arrow gathering, making the wind change obviously) or taken from Zhou Yu. Furthermore, Zhuge Liang's southern campaigns against the Nanman are all made up in order to glorify the genius of Zhuge. The only truth known from these battles is that Zhuge captured Meng Huo 7 times and defeated the southern rebellion. While there are many moments during the Northern Campaign that didn't happen, the most famous would be the Empty City strategy. Zhuge Liang was stationed in a city being marched on by Sima Yi's massive forces. Zhuge had little to no troops, so he ordered the gates open and while he himself wait at the top of the gate. Once Sima Yi saw him, he thought it was a trap and retreated. Don't get Zhuge Liang wrong though, as I said he was a brilliant general and politician. However, the novel over glorifies him. www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2jv5fp/what_do_we_actually_know_about_lu_bu yeah, i totaly agree with all your standpoints, i have the rotk books. they are great read but it's idd a fictional book. I consider CaoCao the Tru hero who wanted to reform the state and country and make it 'great' again. And yes most stories around Lui Bei are indeed heavy overdone. Lui Bei wasn't a hero. He couldn't do nothing right. His heavy loss where he ended up dying from at Yiling proves that. He had no strategist with him, just blindly attacked the Wu strongpoints and had no real strategy. His 'camping in the forrest' in summer heat proves he was a mediocre statesmen. Also in the book rotk Cao Pi took the empirial throne and forsed the emperor to abdicate, then Xian died. Wich in reality didn't happen, Xian became the Duke of Shanyang and lived a very comfortable life and died 14 years later. -Dante Kenchi And this.. Zhuge Liang was my favorite character when I first saw the show, but as I grow older, I did more reading and research. I'll share my thoughts here. Tell me what yall think. www.quora.com/The-Three-Kingdoms-Period-in-Ancient-China-Why-wasnt-Wei-Yan-listed-as-one-of-the-Five-Tiger-Generals I saw this well-written post regarding why Zhang Liang was being so cruel to Wei Yan because historically, Wei Yan was better than Zhang Liang. The novel, on the other hand, needs to make Wei Yan a scapegoat. To do this, they need a reason to tarnish his reputation and elevate Zhuge Liang by exaggerating his ability. I can confirm the exaggeration of Zhuge Liang by simply looking up the list of fictional events that happen in the novel. Take the empty fort strategy for example, it was originally deployed by Zhao Yun and the author of the novel stole the idea. The three visits never happen but it was the other way around because Zhuge Liang was a nobody that time. I also remember about borrowing arrows with a boat from Cao Cao but it was Sun Quan idea, who discover it by accident while he was on a reconnaissance mission. Wu love their water. Let's get back to Wei Yan on why the novel needs to tarnish his reputation. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Wei Yan never seems to lost a single battle as he campaigns with Zhuge Liang, from quelling the rebellion from the south to campaign against Cao Wei. Zhuge Liang on the other hand, grant Ma Su, an inexperienced bookworm to lead a large army and you probably know how it ends. And guess who send there to save the remaining Ma Su troop? Wei Yan remind me of Han Xin, where he defects from a previous lord that contribute a lot but die horribly. I don't know why, but I feel like Wei Yan death was unjust. The man never lost a battle, yet when the shu send troops to capture him for defying a command secretly order by a dead Zhuge Liang, Wei Yan never resists or kill a single person from shu. On the other hand, the state he serves and contribute his whole life never pardon his family. They just outright kill his whole family. Update: I realize now that the novel exaggerated Zhuge Liang ability. Take a look at the following and you know he's actually an incompetent individual. Take Ma Su for example, Zl assign him to lead a large army and Ma Su lost the battle badly. He suck so hard, he barely kill a single Wei soldier and all because he was being inexperienced. That must took a toll on ZL for making such careless decision. To further show proof that Zhuge Liang was incompetent, his successor Jiang Wei took down Wei Yan double gate defense. He basically letting Dang Ai to enter Shu capital without much resistance. Even in death, Wei Yan help defends Shu. Jiang Wei, on the other hand, makes it easy for the enemy. Traitor? He's not done yet, prior to Shu surrendering, Jiang Wei blunter cause Zhuge Liang only son to be violently killed. Zhuge Liang son was adored in Shu, every time he wore his father robe, he looks like his old man. I bet a lot of rotk fans never heard of ZL son or how he dies right? All they remember is his fictional feats.
@@EroticOnion23 It's all part of Liu Bei scheme or act. Check this out. There's a theory that Liu Bei wasn't even remotely remorseful over Guan Yu's death The theory is that Liu Bei had always had aspiration to become the emperor However, Guan Yu was loyal to the Han dynasty - the only reason why he followed Liu Bei was because LB presented himself as a Han loyalist trying to revive the Han However, by the time near Guan Yu's death it was apparent to him that LB was merely putting up an act, and LB's ambitions became apparent to Guan Yu, and a rift started developing between them It sort of checks out It's why Guan Yu never participated in the subjugation of Shu - because to him that was LB seizing land from Liu Zhang, who was the rightful lord of Shu, previously appointed by the Han court It's also why Guan Yu embarked on his campaign with almost little to no support from the rest of Shu - Guan Yu was literally going at it alone At that point, his mindset was, "Fine if LB doesn't care about saving the Han emperor, I'll just have to do it myself" It's also why when GY requested for help, Meng Da and Liu Feng denied to help Think about it GY is supposedly the brother of the new lord of Shu LB, would any Shu subject dare to deny his request for help? Especially Liu Feng, considering he is LB's adopted son The theory is that, Liu Feng must have received instructions to leave GY be, and were later scapegoated for it To LB, GY at that point has become an obstacle for him to be emperor, yet there is no way he can remove GY, so letting GY die a heroic death in battle is the perfect solution for him And if GY's death gives him a pretext to invade Wu, that's like killing two birds with one stone, to him The theory also goes on to say that LB's other close followers, like ZGL and Zhao Yun, were aware of these tensions, to some degree It's why they vehemently opposed LB's Wu campaign, and chose to sit it out. -Val K ua-cam.com/video/RaQ4sSe-dGM/v-deo.html Wow! Thx for sharing those really eyes opening insights. A lot of us got brainwashed to think Liu Bei was the good guy since we first read the book, but as we grown older we learn new things through word of mouths via the internet discussion. I think I've lost counts on the numbers of betrayals Liu Bei back stabbed on his once allies / friends / guardians.
Also, Zhuge Liang was embellished but definitely not overrated, even in Records he managed to defeat Cao Cao at Hanzhong and fight Sima Yi to a stalemate.
The suggestion for those who wants to start reading and feeling "It's too much". After finish reading for more than 10++ times, I would say that it's the best novel of all time. This novel is nothing like other ordinary novels where you finish and just put them down. But for Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the more repetitions you do, the more fun you will have and you will simply get every single tiny details along the way which as the video describes that in each section of the novel, you will find your uses later in life sooner or later. So please start reading right away and I can guarantee you that you won't regret and it will be one of the best things in life that you spend your precious time on.
For those interested in more Three Kingdoms: Recommend checking out the *1994 Romance of the Three Kingdoms series* currently being *subbed into English by **_Gentlemen of the Hàn_* and released its first 23 episodes. The 1994 series is still considered the best, most definitive adaptation of the Three Kingdoms story and one of the best Chinese historical shows of all time, with great writing, performances and historically authentic look and feel. Without it for example, the popular (but less well-made) 2010 version would likely not exist as it does.
I started with Dynasty Warriors, that hooked me in, then Romance of The Three Kingdoms strategy games got me further down the rabbit hole. Then I got the books, I'm ready to serve my liege!
It has everything!!! Poetry, grown men weeping, officials bashing their head against pillars, candles put inside Dong Zhuo using his fat for fuel, and that’s just in the first few chapters! Definitely one of the greatest stories ever told and a personal favorite of mine.
Lol. Same. There is other TV deride where they BBQ the poor guy and ask Cao Cao eat it. Cao Cao is everyone favorite when it come to party and feast. How yall notice that? I used to like Liu Bei when I'm young. As I grown older, I realize he was a snake that betrayed more people than Lu Bu. I feel like the world would be so much better if China was united under Cao Cao banner. Even the best emperor from Tang praised Cao Cao. Cao Cao not only know for looking out for his people, he also attracted talents general's and the brains and he wanna get ride of corruption completely. Just like the current president Xi is doing lol. Here is a sad twisted for Wu best strategist, Zhou Yu. He resisted Cao Cao invasion instead of surrendering. He could help build a better and more peaceful China. What went wrong? I remembered reading that he received a letter from Cao Cao stating he'll steal his wife for her beauty. The question is, who really send that letter to provoked Zhou Yu before the invasion? As you guys know, Zhou Yu died pretty young from a injured after he went to save a pirate friend. All that could have prevented if Zhou Yu convinced Sun Quan to surrender. His action would save so much lives, end the civil war and make China great again. Anyway, I just wanna share this important info. It's where past government use misinformation to discredit their successor. I love this quote 33:50 ua-cam.com/video/Gg1SGA3zYx8/v-deo.html "Qin Shi Huang was a target of political propaganda created by the Han Dynasty that succeeded his. It purpose was to discredit the Qin Dynasty and by doing so justify and elevated it own existence. All of our sources for Qing Dynasty history come from the subsequent dynasty, the Han dynasty." RotK, while a decent read, basically amounts to Three Kingdoms fanfiction. It was written during the Ming Dynasty, where a revitalization of Han Dynasty ideas and concepts was happening. As such, it is hardly surprising that RotK glorifies all of the "Shu-Han" characters as heroes while denigrating those of Wu and especially Wei. Cao Cao most notably gets an extremely bad rap as he is portrayed as being a devious scheming coward that the author begrudgingly notes was competent and had good retainers. In actuality, the Sanguozhi notes Cao Cao as being "the Great Progenitor" who cared for the common people and was primarily interested in restoring order, while having a ruthless realpolitik streak to him. Liu Bei, far from being portrayed as the hero who fought against overwhelming odds and disastrous fate, is instead ascribed a behavior similar to that of Lu Bu: a brave man with grand ambitions, but was personally a bit of an idiot. And please don't get me started on the historical porn that is RotK's portray of Zhuge Liang. Zhuge Liang is associated with more fictitious stories than anyone in the novel. While Zhuge was a smart man, brilliant politician and able general, he is basically treated like an all-knowing God. For instance, his first accomplishment is setting the trap at the Battle of Bowangpo where he traps Xiahou Dun and Yu Jin in a fire. This was actually Liu Bei's idea in the actual history, Zhuge Liang wasn't even with Liu Bei at the time. Zhuge is especially deified during the Battle of Chibi. Many of the credits given to him were either fake (the arrow gathering, making the wind change obviously) or taken from Zhou Yu. Furthermore, Zhuge Liang's southern campaigns against the Nanman are all made up in order to glorify the genius of Zhuge. The only truth known from these battles is that Zhuge captured Meng Huo 7 times and defeated the southern rebellion. While there are many moments during the Northern Campaign that didn't happen, the most famous would be the Empty City strategy. Zhuge Liang was stationed in a city being marched on by Sima Yi's massive forces. Zhuge had little to no troops, so he ordered the gates open and while he himself wait at the top of the gate. Once Sima Yi saw him, he thought it was a trap and retreated. Don't get Zhuge Liang wrong though, as I said he was a brilliant general and politician. However, the novel over glorifies him. www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2jv5fp/what_do_we_actually_know_about_lu_bu yeah, i totaly agree with all your standpoints, i have the rotk books. they are great read but it's idd a fictional book. I consider CaoCao the Tru hero who wanted to reform the state and country and make it 'great' again. And yes most stories around Lui Bei are indeed heavy overdone. Lui Bei wasn't a hero. He couldn't do nothing right. His heavy loss where he ended up dying from at Yiling proves that. He had no strategist with him, just blindly attacked the Wu strongpoints and had no real strategy. His 'camping in the forrest' in summer heat proves he was a mediocre statesmen. Also in the book rotk Cao Pi took the empirial throne and forsed the emperor to abdicate, then Xian died. Wich in reality didn't happen, Xian became the Duke of Shanyang and lived a very comfortable life and died 14 years later. -Dante Kenchi
@@condorX2 I like Cao Cao, but don't become too overly biased in his favor at the same time as you talk about RotK's bias towards Zhuge Liang. You can't expect another ruler to surrender just to prevent your own aggression from causing more destruction. Sun Quan was not a bad ruler and Cao Cao had not made himself emperor, so the two lords could have coexisted as nominal subjects of Han. Whereas most of what Cao Cao had done up to that point was to secure his own realm, attacking Sun Quan was purely an unjustified grab for more power that ended in failure. The only thing preventing peace at that point was Cao Cao's own ambition.
@@ShinChara Well peace only can achieve through unification because even through Cao Cao and sun Quan are good buddy, the next generations may have a different idea.
This is my favorite, it was introduced to me in elementary school, and I began to seriously read it from the start to the end when I was in grade 9. Part of it was my curiosity and I am half Chinese.
This is the GREATEST piece of entertainment I have ever owned, that includes video games and toys. Have read the full version 15x. If you can follow all the characters then definitely read this.
When I was three I wanted to be Liu Bei due to his resilience and righteousness. When I was in college Red Cliffs came out, I just wanted to be Liu Bei because Zhao Wei played Sun Ren. When Total War: Three Kingdoms came out I started mainly with Gongsun Zan because, hey, White Horse. It's like the British Army's Scots Greys. Imagine the horse being part of the uniform. Then when the Eight Princes expansion came out I started out with Sima Ying because I was making chili oil and had a bowl of dandanmian when I started the game, so I thought starting the game from Chengdu was a good idea.
Totally like the anonymous quote, I hope you find the source. Also, it is very enlightening that the romance is actually growing like human from young to old age! This is why I like this story, so many cool stuff to think/reflect about!!
Don't know if it's accuarate, but I read a comment somewhere that described the irony of each kingdom's downfall, such as Shu declining due to the corrupting influence of a eunuch faction just like the Han Empire it emulated, Wu declined when the king became a tyrant and turned on his family, and Wei fell when a man employed for his talent (Sima Yi) overthrew it from within.
I guess that's how it was before the age of "nationalism" and nation-state concept. People didn't really understand about their obligation and rights within the social contract, and there was no recourse or remedy for far too commom problem like incompetent (or outright apathetic) people somehow get into position of power.
I really recommend people to give Total War: Three Kingdoms a try. The format of the Total War series helps me to understand much better the geography of China at the time and why certain factions had very strong advantages over others.
@@redhongkong I don't think 3K Total War is that bad of a 3K game, but I understand why. It's a westernized attempt on the ancient Chinese culture. For example: the succession system is a little wonky. You get a lot of weird leaders after some of the starter dies. As someone who studies some Chinese history and a fan of the setting, some of the leaders don't even make sense in the mid-late game. I also think they should implement some sort of faction fracture (Like in Crusaders King 3) when there's no obvious heir. This happens in the records when Yuan Shao died. The "balance of power" between factions within your own court is strongly emphasized in Chinese Kingship. Also, you also should be able to choose to restore the Han dynasty instead of always getting rid of Han (you can argue if Liu Bei's true intention was that or it's actually just a fake ass casus belli he had to claim to fight Cao Cao, but you should be able to do that imo)
I do highly recommend the ROTK series. I would recommend ROTK 11. I haven't played the later games but I heard it's not as good (but let me know if there is any good ones). ROTK 11 plays sort of like CIV and I feel in the ROTK series, characters are more fleshed out (they have unique portrait for every single characters).
One reason why Sangozhi is popular to this day in whole Asia isn't only about the swashbuckling adventure with Guan Yu escorting Liu Bei wives, Zhao Yun heroism of rescuing Ah Dou, Lu Bo being men among men action , or political mind games from Zhuge Liang. What made Sangozhi beloved is the novel has alot of small personal moral lesson teaching us how to act like a honorable person. Cao Cao is a moral grey character where despite being ruthless also have honor in him, Liu Bei being sly and sneaky. Personally I am more of Water Margin, where the characters are based on real historical figures but 90% fiction depicting them. ua-cam.com/video/am63eDndvZw/v-deo.html as the 1995 ROTK Main title song mentioned "Take a dip of fine wine and remember the past"
I used to like Liu Bei when I'm young. As I grown older, I realize he was a snake that betrayed more people than Lu Bu. I feel like the world would be so much better if China was united under Cao Cao banner. Even the best emperor from Tang praised Cao Cao. Cao Cao not only know for looking out for his people, he also attracted talents general's and the brains and he wanna get ride of corruption completely. Just like the current president Xi is doing lol. Here is a sad twisted for Wu best strategist, Zhou Yu. He resisted Cao Cao invasion instead of surrendering. He could help build a better and more peaceful China. What went wrong? I remembered reading that he received a letter from Cao Cao stating he'll steal his wife for her beauty. The question is, who really send that letter to provoked Zhou Yu before the invasion? As you guys know, Zhou Yu died pretty young from a injured after he went to save a pirate friend. All that could have prevented if Zhou Yu convinced Sun Quan to surrender. His action would save so much lives, end the civil war and make China great again. Anyway, I just wanna share this important info. It's where past government use misinformation to discredit their successor. I love this quote 33:50 ua-cam.com/video/Gg1SGA3zYx8/v-deo.html "Qin Shi Huang was a target of political propaganda created by the Han Dynasty that succeeded his. It purpose was to discredit the Qin Dynasty and by doing so justify and elevated it own existence. All of our sources for Qing Dynasty history come from the subsequent dynasty, the Han dynasty." RotK, while a decent read, basically amounts to Three Kingdoms fanfiction. It was written during the Ming Dynasty, where a revitalization of Han Dynasty ideas and concepts was happening. As such, it is hardly surprising that RotK glorifies all of the "Shu-Han" characters as heroes while denigrating those of Wu and especially Wei. Cao Cao most notably gets an extremely bad rap as he is portrayed as being a devious scheming coward that the author begrudgingly notes was competent and had good retainers. In actuality, the Sanguozhi notes Cao Cao as being "the Great Progenitor" who cared for the common people and was primarily interested in restoring order, while having a ruthless realpolitik streak to him. Liu Bei, far from being portrayed as the hero who fought against overwhelming odds and disastrous fate, is instead ascribed a behavior similar to that of Lu Bu: a brave man with grand ambitions, but was personally a bit of an idiot. And please don't get me started on the historical porn that is RotK's portray of Zhuge Liang. Zhuge Liang is associated with more fictitious stories than anyone in the novel. While Zhuge was a smart man, brilliant politician and able general, he is basically treated like an all-knowing God. For instance, his first accomplishment is setting the trap at the Battle of Bowangpo where he traps Xiahou Dun and Yu Jin in a fire. This was actually Liu Bei's idea in the actual history, Zhuge Liang wasn't even with Liu Bei at the time. Zhuge is especially deified during the Battle of Chibi. Many of the credits given to him were either fake (the arrow gathering, making the wind change obviously) or taken from Zhou Yu. Furthermore, Zhuge Liang's southern campaigns against the Nanman are all made up in order to glorify the genius of Zhuge. The only truth known from these battles is that Zhuge captured Meng Huo 7 times and defeated the southern rebellion. While there are many moments during the Northern Campaign that didn't happen, the most famous would be the Empty City strategy. Zhuge Liang was stationed in a city being marched on by Sima Yi's massive forces. Zhuge had little to no troops, so he ordered the gates open and while he himself wait at the top of the gate. Once Sima Yi saw him, he thought it was a trap and retreated. Don't get Zhuge Liang wrong though, as I said he was a brilliant general and politician. However, the novel over glorifies him. www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2jv5fp/what_do_we_actually_know_about_lu_bu yeah, i totaly agree with all your standpoints, i have the rotk books. they are great read but it's idd a fictional book. I consider CaoCao the Tru hero who wanted to reform the state and country and make it 'great' again. And yes most stories around Lui Bei are indeed heavy overdone. Lui Bei wasn't a hero. He couldn't do nothing right. His heavy loss where he ended up dying from at Yiling proves that. He had no strategist with him, just blindly attacked the Wu strongpoints and had no real strategy. His 'camping in the forrest' in summer heat proves he was a mediocre statesmen. Also in the book rotk Cao Pi took the empirial throne and forsed the emperor to abdicate, then Xian died. Wich in reality didn't happen, Xian became the Duke of Shanyang and lived a very comfortable life and died 14 years later. -Dante Kenchi And this.. Zhuge Liang was my favorite character when I first saw the show, but as I grow older, I did more reading and research. I'll share my thoughts here. Tell me what yall think. www.quora.com/The-Three-Kingdoms-Period-in-Ancient-China-Why-wasnt-Wei-Yan-listed-as-one-of-the-Five-Tiger-Generals I saw this well-written post regarding why Zhang Liang was being so cruel to Wei Yan because historically, Wei Yan was better than Zhang Liang. The novel, on the other hand, needs to make Wei Yan a scapegoat. To do this, they need a reason to tarnish his reputation and elevate Zhuge Liang by exaggerating his ability. I can confirm the exaggeration of Zhuge Liang by simply looking up the list of fictional events that happen in the novel. Take the empty fort strategy for example, it was originally deployed by Zhao Yun and the author of the novel stole the idea. The three visits never happen but it was the other way around because Zhuge Liang was a nobody that time. I also remember about borrowing arrows with a boat from Cao Cao but it was Sun Quan idea, who discover it by accident while he was on a reconnaissance mission. Wu love their water. Let's get back to Wei Yan on why the novel needs to tarnish his reputation. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Wei Yan never seems to lost a single battle as he campaigns with Zhuge Liang, from quelling the rebellion from the south to campaign against Cao Wei. Zhuge Liang on the other hand, grant Ma Su, an inexperienced bookworm to lead a large army and you probably know how it ends. And guess who send there to save the remaining Ma Su troop? Wei Yan remind me of Han Xin, where he defects from a previous lord that contribute a lot but die horribly. I don't know why, but I feel like Wei Yan death was unjust. The man never lost a battle, yet when the shu send troops to capture him for defying a command secretly order by a dead Zhuge Liang, Wei Yan never resists or kill a single person from shu. On the other hand, the state he serves and contribute his whole life never pardon his family. They just outright kill his whole family. Update: I realize now that the novel exaggerated Zhuge Liang ability. Take a look at the following and you know he's actually an incompetent individual. Take Ma Su for example, Zl assign him to lead a large army and Ma Su lost the battle badly. He suck so hard, he barely kill a single Wei soldier and all because he was being inexperienced. That must took a toll on ZL for making such careless decision. To further show proof that Zhuge Liang was incompetent, his successor Jiang Wei took down Wei Yan double gate defense. He basically letting Dang Ai to enter Shu capital without much resistance. Even in death, Wei Yan help defends Shu. Jiang Wei, on the other hand, makes it easy for the enemy. Traitor? He's not done yet, prior to Shu surrendering, Jiang Wei blunter cause Zhuge Liang only son to be violently killed. Zhuge Liang son was adored in Shu, every time he wore his father robe, he looks like his old man. I bet a lot of rotk fans never heard of ZL son or how he dies right? All they remember is his fictional feats.
@@condorX2 "I don't know why, but I feel like Wei Yan death was unjust. The man never lost a battle, yet when the shu send troops to capture him for defying a command secretly order by a dead Zhuge Liang, Wei Yan never resists or kill a single person from shu. On the other hand, the state he serves and contribute his whole life never pardon his family. They just outright kill his whole family." If you think Wei Yan got screwed over. Go read about how the Hongwu emperor treated his generals that fought for him for decades. Most of them were told to commit suicide... All of that because of his paranoid control tendencies was satisfied and his heirs could rule without any threat. Sima Yi greatly legitimised backstabbing and coups. After the decline of the Jin dynasty, and the various creation of northern kingdoms ruled by foreigners, both the south and the north experienced multiple coup de tats, regime changes, emperors killed by their own retainers who would start their own 'short-lived' dynasties.
@@condorX2 Every myth has some certain truth after all. There is a reason why Guan Yu to this day being the saint of loyalty. Or Zhuge Liang being remember as a genius for almost 1000 years before the novel was written in Ming period. I think Liu Bei historically might be manipulating liar but there is no denial that he started out as a humble as a shoe maker who become an Emperor. Not to mention there is something good in him that famous honorable generals and officers were loyal to him.
@@hanchiman Aye. There's a theory that Liu Bei wasn't even remotely remorseful over Guan Yu's death The theory is that Liu Bei had always had aspiration to become the emperor However, Guan Yu was loyal to the Han dynasty - the only reason why he followed Liu Bei was because LB presented himself as a Han loyalist trying to revive the Han However, by the time near Guan Yu's death it was apparent to him that LB was merely putting up an act, and LB's ambitions became apparent to Guan Yu, and a rift started developing between them It sort of checks out It's why Guan Yu never participated in the subjugation of Shu - because to him that was LB seizing land from Liu Zhang, who was the rightful lord of Shu, previously appointed by the Han court It's also why Guan Yu embarked on his campaign with almost little to no support from the rest of Shu - Guan Yu was literally going at it alone At that point, his mindset was, "Fine if LB doesn't care about saving the Han emperor, I'll just have to do it myself" It's also why when GY requested for help, Meng Da and Liu Feng denied to help Think about it GY is supposedly the brother of the new lord of Shu LB, would any Shu subject dare to deny his request for help? Especially Liu Feng, considering he is LB's adopted son The theory is that, Liu Feng must have received instructions to leave GY be, and were later scapegoated for it To LB, GY at that point has become an obstacle for him to be emperor, yet there is no way he can remove GY, so letting GY die a heroic death in battle is the perfect solution for him And if GY's death gives him a pretext to invade Wu, that's like killing two birds with one stone, to him The theory also goes on to say that LB's other close followers, like ZGL and Zhao Yun, were aware of these tensions, to some degree It's why they vehemently opposed LB's Wu campaign, and chose to sit it out. -Val K ua-cam.com/video/RaQ4sSe-dGM/v-deo.html Wow! Thx for sharing those really eyes opening insights. A lot of us got brainwashed to think Liu Bei was the good guy since we first read the book, but as we grown older we learn new things through word of mouths via the internet discussion. I think I've lost counts on the numbers of betrayals Liu Bei back stabbed on his once allies / friends / guardians.
@@condorX2 damn.. now this make alot of sense. Still Zhang Fei was pretty upset with Guan Yu death that he even suggest to attack Wu singlehandedly when Liu Bei was hesitating
I remember watching this other video essay about the book. They said that RoTK is a philosophical debate between Confucianism and Legalism. Luo Guanzhong's answer to this debate came in the form Zhuge Liang. He was loyal and pious, yet wasn't afraid to use trickery to achieve the greater good (not sure if my explanation to that essay is good enough lol). Now watching your essay about what makes this novel great makes me wonder what other surprises this novel will bring. Time to re-read RoTK. Thanks for the amazing content! Subbed!
There's also a podcast called romance of the Three kingdoms podcast where basically the reader also the narrator of the podcast will put a little bit of a modern spin into it to To digest the novel a little bit easier. Also he is doing a new podcast called The outlaws of the marsh if you're interested into another classic Chinese novel. You can find this podcast anywhere you get your podcast from like Spotify or Google podcasts.
I've been fascinated by the Romance of the Three Kingdoms ever since I first played Dynasty Warriors 4 back when I was 13. I have the 2-part complete and unabridged Moss Roberts translation sitting on my bookshelf shelf waiting for me to get at it one of these days. I've only read the first three chapters so far (back when I first got it a few years ago). I'm also looking into getting a copy of the 2010 series with the Jiang Hu fansubs.
oh yes I been waited for long time for you to talking about the romance of the three kingdoms novel and also first comment for this video,keep doing well and take care of your health and take a break. :3
I really fell in love with the romance of three kingdoms from the old MS-DOS game RoTK II. Because of that game, I also found the complete novel in my high school library and read it. Honestly, that novel made me love to read. RoTK novel is still my most favorite novel until now.
My early interest in Chinese history was definitely influenced by playing Rot3K IV in SNES in the 90s. Later, when I became a history major and had already read a couple of translations, I considered specializing in representations of three kingdom characters (and especially Guan Yu), though I don't speak any asian languages fluently, and ended up following another very different route. Over the past few months, watching your videos has really rekindled my love for Chinese history, and I find myself pulling out chinese history books from the bookshelf. I'm definitely feeling like I'll re-read Rot3K soon, especially after watching this video. Thank you for the great work!
I used to like Liu Bei when I'm young. As I grown older, I realize he was a snake that betrayed more people than Lu Bu. I feel like the world would be so much better if China was united under Cao Cao banner. Even the best emperor from Tang praised Cao Cao. Cao Cao not only know for looking out for his people, he also attracted talents general's and the brains and he wanna get ride of corruption completely. Just like the current president Xi is doing lol. Here is a sad twisted for Wu best strategist, Zhou Yu. He resisted Cao Cao invasion instead of surrendering. He could help build a better and more peaceful China. What went wrong? I remembered reading that he received a letter from Cao Cao stating he'll steal his wife for her beauty. The question is, who really send that letter to provoked Zhou Yu before the invasion? As you guys know, Zhou Yu died pretty young from a injured after he went to save a pirate friend. All that could have prevented if Zhou Yu convinced Sun Quan to surrender. His action would save so much lives, end the civil war and make China great again. Anyway, I just wanna share this important info. It's where past government use misinformation to discredit their successor. I love this quote 33:50 ua-cam.com/video/Gg1SGA3zYx8/v-deo.html "Qin Shi Huang was a target of political propaganda created by the Han Dynasty that succeeded his. It purpose was to discredit the Qin Dynasty and by doing so justify and elevated it own existence. All of our sources for Qing Dynasty history come from the subsequent dynasty, the Han dynasty." RotK, while a decent read, basically amounts to Three Kingdoms fanfiction. It was written during the Ming Dynasty, where a revitalization of Han Dynasty ideas and concepts was happening. As such, it is hardly surprising that RotK glorifies all of the "Shu-Han" characters as heroes while denigrating those of Wu and especially Wei. Cao Cao most notably gets an extremely bad rap as he is portrayed as being a devious scheming coward that the author begrudgingly notes was competent and had good retainers. In actuality, the Sanguozhi notes Cao Cao as being "the Great Progenitor" who cared for the common people and was primarily interested in restoring order, while having a ruthless realpolitik streak to him. Liu Bei, far from being portrayed as the hero who fought against overwhelming odds and disastrous fate, is instead ascribed a behavior similar to that of Lu Bu: a brave man with grand ambitions, but was personally a bit of an idiot. And please don't get me started on the historical porn that is RotK's portray of Zhuge Liang. Zhuge Liang is associated with more fictitious stories than anyone in the novel. While Zhuge was a smart man, brilliant politician and able general, he is basically treated like an all-knowing God. For instance, his first accomplishment is setting the trap at the Battle of Bowangpo where he traps Xiahou Dun and Yu Jin in a fire. This was actually Liu Bei's idea in the actual history, Zhuge Liang wasn't even with Liu Bei at the time. Zhuge is especially deified during the Battle of Chibi. Many of the credits given to him were either fake (the arrow gathering, making the wind change obviously) or taken from Zhou Yu. Furthermore, Zhuge Liang's southern campaigns against the Nanman are all made up in order to glorify the genius of Zhuge. The only truth known from these battles is that Zhuge captured Meng Huo 7 times and defeated the southern rebellion. While there are many moments during the Northern Campaign that didn't happen, the most famous would be the Empty City strategy. Zhuge Liang was stationed in a city being marched on by Sima Yi's massive forces. Zhuge had little to no troops, so he ordered the gates open and while he himself wait at the top of the gate. Once Sima Yi saw him, he thought it was a trap and retreated. Don't get Zhuge Liang wrong though, as I said he was a brilliant general and politician. However, the novel over glorifies him. www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2jv5fp/what_do_we_actually_know_about_lu_bu yeah, i totaly agree with all your standpoints, i have the rotk books. they are great read but it's idd a fictional book. I consider CaoCao the Tru hero who wanted to reform the state and country and make it 'great' again. And yes most stories around Lui Bei are indeed heavy overdone. Lui Bei wasn't a hero. He couldn't do nothing right. His heavy loss where he ended up dying from at Yiling proves that. He had no strategist with him, just blindly attacked the Wu strongpoints and had no real strategy. His 'camping in the forrest' in summer heat proves he was a mediocre statesmen. Also in the book rotk Cao Pi took the empirial throne and forsed the emperor to abdicate, then Xian died. Wich in reality didn't happen, Xian became the Duke of Shanyang and lived a very comfortable life and died 14 years later. -Dante Kenchi
@@condorX2 I somewhat agree. I was introduced via the Dynasty Warriors games, and to this day I have a soft spot for Straw Shoe Liu Bei, and his humble beginnings and perceived benevolence. Zhuge Liang does no wrong in my eyes. However, as I became a man, I respected the fact that Liu Bei was just as dirty as I thought Cao Cao was. I respect that Cao Cao actually did a lot of good for the common people. As a husband and father, I definitely sympathize with Sun Quan's "Family First" mentality. Today, I have a more balanced look at it. I still have my soft spot for the Shu good guys, but I look at Cao Cao as a source of wisdom.
@@koldraiynedownskayle5744 I've found interesting to share. There's a theory that Liu Bei wasn't even remotely remorseful over Guan Yu's death The theory is that Liu Bei had always had aspiration to become the emperor However, Guan Yu was loyal to the Han dynasty - the only reason why he followed Liu Bei was because LB presented himself as a Han loyalist trying to revive the Han However, by the time near Guan Yu's death it was apparent to him that LB was merely putting up an act, and LB's ambitions became apparent to Guan Yu, and a rift started developing between them It sort of checks out It's why Guan Yu never participated in the subjugation of Shu - because to him that was LB seizing land from Liu Zhang, who was the rightful lord of Shu, previously appointed by the Han court It's also why Guan Yu embarked on his campaign with almost little to no support from the rest of Shu - Guan Yu was literally going at it alone At that point, his mindset was, "Fine if LB doesn't care about saving the Han emperor, I'll just have to do it myself" It's also why when GY requested for help, Meng Da and Liu Feng denied to help Think about it GY is supposedly the brother of the new lord of Shu LB, would any Shu subject dare to deny his request for help? Especially Liu Feng, considering he is LB's adopted son The theory is that, Liu Feng must have received instructions to leave GY be, and were later scapegoated for it To LB, GY at that point has become an obstacle for him to be emperor, yet there is no way he can remove GY, so letting GY die a heroic death in battle is the perfect solution for him And if GY's death gives him a pretext to invade Wu, that's like killing two birds with one stone, to him The theory also goes on to say that LB's other close followers, like ZGL and Zhao Yun, were aware of these tensions, to some degree It's why they vehemently opposed LB's Wu campaign, and chose to sit it out. -Val K ua-cam.com/video/RaQ4sSe-dGM/v-deo.html Wow! Thx for sharing those really eyes opening insights. A lot of us got brainwashed to think Liu Bei was the good guy since we first read the book, but as we grown older we learn new things through word of mouths via the internet discussion. I think I've lost counts on the numbers of betrayals Liu Bei back stabbed on his once allies / friends / guardians.
I guess from a foreigner's point of view, I feel more in touch with Wu's dilemma. You have to remember that unlike Liu Bei who claims descent from the Imperial family and Cao Cao who has control of the heart of China, Wu had nothing. They started with nothing and built their kingdom in the backwater of China on the efforts of their clan and a few talented individuals. I mean Sun Jian's father was either a merchant or a melon farmer depending on the source. Certainly not a lineage that would inspire awe despite how much of a badass Sun Jian is. That's something I don't like about the novel actually, It completely undermines Sun Jian's accomplishments and gives it to other characters while writing him out as a greedy villain despite him never keeping the Imperial Jade Seal. The struggle to see Sun Ce climb up that chaotic ladder was beautiful to see especially considering how young he was and how few troops he could get while trying to appease an ambitious overlord who has his mother hostage. Truly a story worthy of poem and songs yet you hardly ever see anyone from China praise Wu's efforts into civilizing the lands south of the Yangtze. Its by the efforts of the Sun clan that later dynasties managed to remain intact by retreating south as they depended on the infrastructure built by Wu to survive. Sun Quan's dilemma on whether to stick to alliances that have been worthless to his kingdom or his own family is a no brainer. The Sun clan is built on familial bonds and that is something I can respect. Finally, on a different note, I thought Zhang Fei's portrayal in the novel to be extremely fictionized? He was actually a rich noble if I remember right and wasn't Guan Yu a Soybean seller before being forced to turn to banditry because of a false crime?
Played dynasty warriors 3 and loved the story, found out there was actually history behind the game so I got the books and later Romance of the three kingdom strategy game series. Gongjin or Chou Yu was always my favorite.
For anyone into Alt-History in 3K, I recommend Dynasty Warriors 8 Xtreme Legends for gamers and History of the Three States for Manhwa readers, why these two specifically? Because both have good Alt-History Lu Bu
This is genuinely the greatest UA-cam channel that teaches Chinese history (I know it does various national histories, but in terms of China, it's the best) there's several tidbits of information about countries like the Xiongnu and southern dynasties that I would not have learned if it wasn't for this channel, in fact, this channel is what taught me that Xiongnu even existed to begin with. So gg you're a channel I would definitely suggest to other people, you're very smart and trustworthy
The anonymous quote is very poignant. I too read it with similar feelings and many things stuck with me. The prose was quite moving and told all types of different human stories, caught in a futile civil war. Passages describing the deaths, "Thus the greatest warrior in all of China died[Lu Bu]" "So died the greatest physician in all of China [Hua Toa]." "And thus the smartest man in all of China died [Zhuge Liang]." You feel for the characters more than the ones on GoT. Like I get Zhuge Liang was never inclined to military affairs; killing other men. But he got dragged into all this.
14:35. Liu Bei always wanted to establish his own kingdom but he just don't know how to do it. It is very true that we need to appreciate more and learn the lesson from Jin Dynasty. But sadly it is not emphasis enough. Go watch 《三國機密之潛龍在淵》
Romance in the three kingdom is so popular, that recently, a new japanese anime called paripi kongming is currently airing. It features zhugeliang kongming, the famous strategist in shu kingdom, reincarnated to modern japan, and using his skill as strategists, helping a young aspiring singer to become super star. The anime received my attention because i enjoy romance of the three kingdom. Its a nice anime.
I recently purchased a four volume set of books containing the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. I have just begun reading it. I most appreciate this succinct and insightful synopsis. Thank you!
i really appreciate and admire the effort you put into presenting everything you've gathered and researched in such an organized and amazingly approachable manner. there's so much rich history and nuances of which i've never even considered, all packed into these easily digestible videos; i love it. will you continue to add more to the Tang dynasty series? i've always been fascinated by this golden age of chinese civilization -- even fantasized about what life would be like living in this period. and while a huge part of me dread to learn the sad truths of its decline in detail, this video made me feel like i'm now ready for closure. the empire [...] long united, must divide 😢
I've heard about this book from Kondo isami one of the leaders of the 新選組 shinsengumi. He read it alongside with the story of The 47 Ronin. Born a peasant but later became a サムライ during the bakumatsu period when the shogunal faction and the Imperial faction were fighting against each other. He always dreamed of being a samurai but the Edo cast system kept him below but he was very skilled with the sword and was more samurai than the samurai themselves. So I can imagine how this must have influenced him greatly
I've read it four times. Its one of my favorite pieces of literature. One thing that might throw people off, is that the idioms and terms they sometimes use can make some parts feel a bit fantastical and exaggerated, but thats just how they poetically described things in its time. Even the tone changes about 2/3rds as well, from great battles with mighty heroes, to scheming that would make game of thrones look like a playground spat. I second his recommendation!
@@captainmurphy4720 I know what you mean! I even gave a speech about it (search my name on youtube. It will pop right up) and I don’t think I convinced anyone who hadn’t read it. I expect CJ’s video will be more helpful than mine.
A suggestion in a Cao Cao tribute thread brought me here...such thorough scholarship...thank you... BTW, at 18:05, that was maybe an unintentional pun ( Wei-way )
I think the "Romance of the three kingdoms" is the equivalent of the Iliad and Odissey! Both are foundational tales for their respective cultures, both show wars with many characters, both have truth behind them (though 3Kiingdoms has actual written history to back it up). But the main thing is that the reason why they are such amazing story is exactly they way that they were written. Or more precisely, the lack of a single author. Whilst the Iliad &o dissey have homer supposedly making them, for a very Very long time, they were passed down orally. And 3 kingdoms had multiple revisions and dialogue that I'm certain wasn't totally made up "bastard of 3 fathers". What this allowed is an overall improvement of the tale. Basically people over time could add their favourite stories, remove the more boring ones, and change how events and people play out in the tales. And if this change was approved, the tale would be applauded and it would continue down the line. If the alteration was boring or inefective, then that version did not continue. So over time you end up with a fantastic story that was the product of succesful and interesting development, the best of the best.
It is interestingly comparable. Liu Bei and Odysseus in The Iliad have a bit in common. Considered crafty to their peers, but nowadays some of their actions might be considered underhanded. Liu Bei betraying Lu Bu for example and Odysseus killing a trojan who offered him ransom to spare his life as a similar example.
I agree about the new interest in people in the story. I'm a big Ma Chao fan. I'm starting to like Deng Ai. I feel his story is very tragic about serving the wrong lord or faction. But all the dynasties fell because all 3 original leaders worried about the now and never took time to look to the future of their kingdoms. Yuan Shao is a big example why the successor is very important.
I implore you to go into depth about the Warring States period of China, as well It's lesser known in the west However, it has a manga based on it's final years, so I came to know of it
Incredible video, well informed, and educational. I will add to the chorus of Three Kingdoms being my all-time favorite book. I even made my own video (that I will NOT encourage people to view after seeing this video) about the book, its history, and the many, modern editions. When I finish reading the book, I then either turn back to page one and start reading again, or pick up a different edition and read that. Thank you for this video.
Big kudos for accurately pointing out the dual/parallel concepts that simultaneously existed in regards to which of the three kingdoms held legitimacy. A lot of English sources tend to rely on the old/outdated narrative that it was Wei that held the legitimacy until Confucian propaganda of Song-Yuan-Ming periods culminated into Luo Guanzhong's RotTK, which reversed it to uphold Liu Bei as the hero. But the truth is, like explained in the video, there was a clear-cut split in opinion that existed almost immediately after the land was reunified under Jin. As early as the 4th century, already intellectuals and scholars were writing commentaries that rejected the Wei-Jin influenced official histories, and almost 1,000 years before Luo Guanzhong's book ever came out, Liu Bei was already the hero and Cao Cao was deemed the villain among the populace. The Song-Yuan-Ming era "propaganda" didn't necessarily change or reverse anything -- it merely strengthened that which already existed. The "Shu Han legitimacy theory" always ran parallel with the "Wei-Jin legitimacy theory" for the past 1,800 years -- even up to this day!
Totally agree with the part that the novels grew up and aging with you as you read it in different stage of your life. Known about the period and the novel through the dynasty warriors franchise In my teenage years,Zhao Yun and Guan Yu is my favorite,loyal, honorable,strong pretty much the prototypical main hero. Now am nearly in my thirties I started to gravitate and understand the nuance and merit of Cao Cao's pragmatism,as I no longer sees him as this simple conniving villain, there's many instances of hmmm he got a point kind of moment. Same goes for Sun Quan's dilemma and sympathize more with him rather than seeing him as this wishy-washy treasonous ally. Overall,great video CJ&the team. keep up the great work 👍
As a Chinese student who has studied both "The Romance" and "Records", this is the best episodes collections of explanation these two books I've ever seen on internet. Certainly sharing to anyone interested in the Three Kingdoms!😍
@5anctuary Yesss, he was so good, until death called him too soon, bet if he had been alive, wu wouldve taken yi province. Hate to see romance otk has villainized his character n made him inferior to kong ming.
Well done, this answers a lot of the questions I had after playing the Dynasty Warriors video game. It even answered questions that I didn't even know I had.
It was very interesting that one of kings of Jin dynasty, when he realized how his ancester stole the country from Cao and founded Jin dynasty, He covered him face witb hands and cried we all deserve to die.
@@yaweizhi7966 That's Sima Rui, founder of the Eastern Jin dynasty. That was just after the five barbarian nations partitioned Northern China between them after the War of the Eight Princes.
I’ve been reading the book online for free and I’m up to chapter 97, it’s taken me so long, it’s great all the way through, also I’m trying to find more Chinese historical movies / shows, I’ve seen the infamous 2010 3k, and the red cliffs movie, legend of grand Yu and the 1994. I have just started watching the chu Han contention show of 2012 :) regardless another good video Brutha
17:37 I just love this visual obviously details are important to the experience, and I'd never want someone just to look at this instead of reading Romance of the Three Kingdoms for themselves, but WOW does this image capture the essence
I stopped watching this series to go read a translation for myself first. It’s really cool to get a sense of normal people. The stories told about them. The stories they tell about themselves. The stories they read. I even got the total war game to enjoy while reading and beyond. Thanks for introducing me.
great video, so informative! but at 7:13 there is a typo, you spelled Luo Guanzong as Lou Guanzong on the bottom, still fantastic and in the big tittle card you spelt it right!
Lol, your explanation and analysis are spot-on, and man, are they making me chuckle. "Crowd-sourced Fanfiction." This line made me lost it, and best of all, this is very true! Especially when any stories about Three Kingdoms were often used as some justification for future rulers in future dynasties! I remember a tale of a _Qing Emperor_ once witnessed an apparition of *Guan Yu,* standing and bowing respectfully before him. When he asked his ministers about it, the smartest of them congratulated the emperor, saying the emperor was none other than _Liu Bei reincarnated,_ thus explaining the apparition of Guan Yu. Bravo, my friend, bravo. "Crowd-sourced Fanfiction"-hah! We also have the same thing in the present. It's called *Warhammer 40K.* I wonder if it too, will be considered as a literary treasure for future generations 🤣🤣🤣 P.S.: Singapore's Orchard Road is still packing?!
Hhaha that just a glimpse of the peach garden oath scene. I miss Lu Yi and Yu Hewei.. 😁 Anyway i love this video, the animation and the research you did. I just knew that the novel evolve or changes through different dynasty For Liu Bei. It is how he face so many failure that really impressed me,.he never yield. He came from almost nothing except that he is a Liu and then become one of the established lord. But every characters also had their own charm for me :)
I knew very little about ROTTK, but I got hooked when I watched the goofy, kinda parallel adaptation/inspired series called "K.O.3an Guo". I know that the story is hugely different, but I just loved the characters. And now, I'm just starting to read ROTTK novel. :)
Waiting for my novel to come, I’m very exited . My mom played dynasty warriors with me as a child , I been into Chinese history ever since. I rly can’t wait to get my hand on the novel🥰
The waves of the mighty river flowing eastward Have swept away the brilliant figures of a thousand generations. West of the old fortress, So people say, is Lord Zhou's Red Cliff in the time of the Three Kingdoms. The tumbling rocks thrust into the air; The roaring surges dash upon the shore, Rolling into a thousand drifts of snow. The River and the mountains make a vivid picture- What a host of heroes once were! And I recall the young Lord then, Newly married to the fair younger Qiao, His valorous features shown forth; With a feather fan and a silken cap Amid talking and laughing he put his enemy's ships to ashes and smoke. While my thoughts wander in the country of old, Romantic persons might smile at my early grey hair. Ah, life is but like a dream; With a cup of wine, let me yet pour a libation to the moon on the river.
My brothers played the strategy games on ps1 and ps2 and bought the book which got me into it which led me wanting to learn history in general. The 90s show and 2010 are good things to watch if people don't want to read though. The 2010 one is on UA-cam with good subtitles also there is a good anime which leaves out most bs anime has and stays true to the story on UA-cam as well but only goes up to red cliff battle and then stops. But there are so many ways for people to see it if they don't want to read but I would still recceomend they read it.
Never had the patience to read the book, but watched the two version of China produced TV series - 1980s and 2010. Both equally good. There is no good or bad guys, only people who gave their best to their objectives and ideals. The 2010 version did more justice to Cao Cao.
三国演义 stirs something deep inside. I want to go back in time and dutifully restore the Han. If there are past lives, I would give anything to know what my previous self did during this period.
I had read this book. I did it till the end of the story. During the reading I lost interest to continue when Zhuge Liang dead. I continued reading anyway with heavy heart. ☺
When I was younger I liked wu for not choosing a side in the conflict but helping when necessary or when it benefitted them, when I got out of high school I started to like Liu bei and shu for being more of a populist and understanding the value and support of people not just land or even wealth, as an adult I think I favor cao coa and Wei because they knew in order to make positive changes to the country they have to remove corruption and value ambition and talent instead of a forked tongue or a deceiver. Didn't like his approach but cao cao got shit done, And I can respect that, I loved the dynasty warriors games but I did sit down and watch the 2010 three kingdoms series and I liked it alot.
One interesting bit too is that even prior to the Jurchen Jin dynasty there was already some evidence of common people gravitating towards Shu-Han, such as what was famously recorded in Su Shi's 东坡志林, where children gathered to listen to oral storytelling of Three Kingdoms & cheered for Liu Bei but boo'd at Cao Cao
Someone reply my question with the same answer like you, in another video. I just asked about why Zhuge Liang is so famous to the point thats many shrine and temple build to commemorate him today. I wonder if its just because the novel or because the real man in history
@@echabigail very much the latter, as even in Records of Three Kingdoms there were already written instances of common people in Shu-Han building their own small shrines for Zhuge Liang or even inciting rebellions when the Jin took over in Zhuge Liang's name. The famous Tang era poets Li Bai and Du Fu are also noted fans of Zhuge Liang.
That in fact started in Eastern Jin dynasty as well as the Southern dynasties that followed. After the fall of Western Jin dynasty in 317 to Liu Yuan, a branch of the imperial family re-established themselves in Nanjing, known as the Eastern Jin. This branch was shrouded in rumours of illigitimate birth. So, to compete with Liu Yuan's claim, they started to advocate Shu claim to the throne, which just like their founder, is a distant relative to the Imperial house. Books such as Han Jin Chun Qiu which advocates Shu ligitimacy were published. By the way, the author of Han Jin Chun Qiu is one Xi Zuo Chi, same surname as the current Chinese President.
18:35 AYYY was not expecting the Webtoon to be there Really good webtoon, I am biased so my favorite part is Sun Ce and Zhou Yu's shenanigans, until... of course.
I’m a descendant of the TANG DYNASTY ERA…my ancient ancestors came from there…proud to be Chinese even though I wasn’t born there.but my blood flows through thick and true…
LuoGuanZhong actually server under warlord during the war establish Ming. So he got a lot of really war experience. Also that's why all the advisor role in the novel is so important(and character whom didnot listen to their advisor would failed, anyone whom listen didn't) because himself was one. That make the books are real good education material for people want to learn strategy. In fact during the raise of QIn, their generals was hand this book as a learning material for real.
Koei did it decades ago. Although of Chinese ethics grp , I only came to know the 3 kingdoms 20+ yrs ago,when I played Koei ROTK. And I was hooked since them and bought the novels to read. Before that, I have heard of certain characters like Guan Yu and Zhuge Liang , but not in details. The TW game was late in the game.
I'm half way through the "Three Kingdoms" 2010. Cao Cao in the beginning really messed up and made it a little difficult to "get in" the story but I'm glad I stuck with it. What I get from this story and other Chinese historical dramas is the fight to unite all of China and how this is like the world today, certain people or nations trying to unite the world under their idea of a perfect union.
I learned of ROTK with Dynasty Warriors 3 back in the day. Then I got into the strategy games when I bought ROTK 3 for the SNES, being sold at a local market. As a teenager, I actually had to request the book from my local library. Reading it was an odd experience since the translation was different than KOEI's translation. Cao Cao for example was spelled Tsao Tsao in the translation I had. Still a megafan to this day (actually bought Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires this very night). Speaking of Three Kingdoms media, I think Romance of the Three Kingdoms 8 is my favorite Three Kingdoms games. Too bad my emulated ISO of the PS2 version looks weird. I own a legit copy for my PS2, but I wanna play on the PC, and KOEI doesn't have an english version for sale on STEAM. Well, that's about all my meandering. One final note. My mom has a pet dog I named Lu Bu.
There are tons of Romance of the Three Kingdoms adaptations out there, so it might be hard for newcomers to start. Help them out by suggesting your favourite ones here.
The 2010 series and the 1997 series that can be found in UA-cam
The Ravages of Time
Three Kingdoms (2010)
Red Cliff
Advisers Alliance
1994 Romance of Three Kingdoms, absolutely still remains the best complete adaptation bar none, but I also recommend the 1985 Zhuge Liang show (Mainland one, NOT the Hong Kong one that came out the same year) and the movie Hua Xiong and Cao Cao from 1983, which have great authentic sets & costumes.
@@zhongjiang7083 do you know where can i watch the 1994 version? I just saw clips on youtube
Since I have been a gamer from young age, I first discovered ROTK from KOEI series of ROTK in playstation (strategy game), I never went and try the dynasty warriors since I was not really into hack and slash. I was very excited when creative assembly was finally making the total war version of the ROTK. Played for 160 hours already and still haven't unite all of china!
And yes, I also discovered the 2010 three kingdom series in youtube and was so hooked following each episode of it.
Dynasty warriors got me into Chinese history. The Three Kingdoms is so influential, it had a lasting impact to Asian culture, literature, and world acclaim.
Do you have Netflix? Dynasty Warriors movie is releasing on Netflix July 1
@@ziljin bro you just made my day! I've been recently wondering when the movie industry would ever make a Dynasty Warriors Game movie and they did!!!
@@lordkent8143 the movie came out in Hong Kong first. It has mixed reviews but the trailer looks good so far. Over the top action and the video game music.
@@ziljin thanks for the notification though. I saw the trailer just now. Definitely watching it. I shouldn't expect much but hey it's about time.
@@lordkent8143 your welcome
In the novel Liu Bei is the hero and Cao Cao is the villain, but in real history, Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Sun Quan, and other people like Yuan Shao and Liu Biao, they were all warlords fighting for their cause. In other words, they were the hero of their own life.
And as a fan of Zhou Yu I hold complex feelings towards RoTK...
No, in real life, Liu Bei was the true hero as well, the others like Cao Cao? they are nothing more than warlords, like many others who appeared and disappeared throughout the whole chinese history, push their people as hard as they can to achieve their personal and family's glory and wealth.
Liu Bei fighting for a cause, a cause to restore the already lost and the first truly unified China, the Han dynasty, to bring back its former glory, not for his personal honor and wealth, at least for the most part. throughout the history of China, there are very few leaders who have such idealism. Moreover, he has other qualities better than those of the warlords of the same period. He attaches great importance to friendship, has the way monarch and his subjects, and understands the sufferings of the people, he single handly lightened this Three Kingdoms era, It's called romance by Chinese people for a reason, without him, it would be just another era of China's great division without any interest to look at, and even the Chinese people don't know how much history they have, just like the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms periods or five wild Chinese periods.
@@dyingember8661 Firstly, by "hero" I mean the main lead of their lives...
@@dyingember8661 And why do you talk to me in a manner that you're absolutely correct? Like you just began your argument with a "no", like a denial to all my opinions and I'm really offended by your manners
@@dyingember8661 Nah, Liu Bei IRL is just as much as another war lord like other warlords. He was just less terrible than the other warlords cuz he was more relatable and benevolent to common folks. Tho his idealism is flawed to the core since his wish even after his death was to pursue more wars against the Cao Wei thus weakened his kingdom even more. Shu could have lasted longer if Zhuge Liang chose not to wage war with Wei and the Emperor at the time was more competent
@@dyingember8661 We don't know that, we weren't there.
It could be that Liu Bei simply had better Public Relations
I discovered Three Kingdoms 16 years ago almost by accident when I picked up Dynasty Warriors 4. Today the D&D campaign I run has a plot I based on the collapse of the Han Dynasty and rise of the warlords, though the aesthetic is more that of 12th century Europe so as to be more familiar to the players (we're all British). I reasoned that if Shakespeare could be adapted with Samurai then the same could be done to Three Kingdoms with Knights.
Dynasty Warriors 4 is still the best warriors game. Great luck getting into the series with that title.
I'm interested in on how you managed your campaign and how it went, can you elaborate a bit more please?
@@OmiTheEel Thanks for your interest! I started off the campaign with the players defending a village from a cultist uprising (similar to the yellow turbans but instead they were followers of Tiamat). After this we had a few minor quests introducing more of the kingdom's problems including the ascension of a child king, investigating corruption etc. The main recurring villain so far is Lord Drenan (Dong Zhuo's stand in) who the players met early on but haven't come face to face with since he took over the court. The party's ran a few missions on behalf of Valdos (Cao Cao) to undermine the tyrant's power in the capital and build an alliance of lords to challenge him. For the civil war quest I borrowed quite a bit from the crusades and the hundred years war for factional infighting and regional devastation, the party found themselves on the front line alongside Rhindon (Sun Jian with a heavy dose of Ned Stark). The coalition has fallen apart and the capital destroyed but the party have infiltrated the tyrant's new base. Instead of Chang An I'm setting his endgame in the ruins of a massive Roman/Byzantine style metropolis. The party are currently questing to stop him from finding treasure and controlling any monsters found in the ruins, while also trying to turn the deadly Sir Lukas (Lu Bu but a Pegasus knight) against him...
@@carlothecoffeeguy3778 its nice to know the campaign has lasted till present day, long ones are usually rare so you must be a very engaging storyteller. Props for integrating sneaky historical references and thank you for sharing. Also, as a history geek, may i suggest to check out the Sengoku Jidai (warring states period in japan) which I currently will be basing my own campaign on, like the romance of the three kingdoms this era of chaos is precisely when men of ambition arise. As the saying goes, heroes are made by the times.
A wartorn world, where you can't know for sure when you might part, one must have a reason to kill for and a reason to die for.
This was a period in which chronic conflict continues, festering like a wound. Quarrels arising from conflicts of interest between powerful warlords occurred in various places all over Japan. nameless average persons could achieve success coming from virtually nothing, and so, once you hace everything It could crumble just as rapidly and go up in flames. Definitely would recommend, I found it an interesting read at least.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms was the main reason I started learning Chinese. The only downside was all the hanzi I learned that I never needed afterward lol. But it is a very interesting book to reread as your skill in Chinese increases. There are a lot of subtleties and undertones that you just don't get without enough skill, so there's always something new to discover on a reread. Your video makes me want to find some of the older texts, like Luo Guanzhong's. Great video, as usual.
I find beauty in the fact so many characters don't get "happy" endings. Three kingdoms taught me that the story keeps going even when you can't keep going with it.
That's how life is, people die but the stories go on
The ending scene of dynasty warriors 7 messed with me for that exact reason
Another reason why the Qing Dynasty version of the story was so widely read was that it was that it was written in vernacular Chinese, not classical Chinese like previous versions, which meant that the average Chinese was able to understand it.
I used to like Liu Bei when I'm young. As I grown older, I realize he was a snake that betrayed more people than Lu Bu.
I feel like the world would be so much better if China had united under Cao Cao banner.
Even the best emperor from Tang praised Cao Cao.
Cao Cao not only know looking out for his people, he also attracted talents general's and the brains. He even wanna get ride of corruption completely. Just like the current president Xi is doing lol.
Here is a sad twisted for Wu best strategist, Zhou Yu.
He resisted Cao Cao invasion instead of surrendering. He could help build a better and more peaceful China.
What went wrong? I remembered reading that he received a letter from Cao Cao stating he'll steal his wife for her beauty.
The question is, who really send that letter to provoked Zhou Yu before the invasion?
As you guys know, Zhou Yu died pretty young from a injured after he went to save a pirate friend.
All that could have prevented if Zhou Yu convinced Sun Quan to surrender.
His action would save so much lives, end the civil war and make China great again.
Anyway, I just wanna share this important info. It's where past government use misinformation to discredit their successor.
I love this quote 33:50
ua-cam.com/video/Gg1SGA3zYx8/v-deo.html
"Qin Shi Huang was a target of political propaganda created by the Han Dynasty that succeeded his.
It purpose was to discredit the Qin Dynasty and by doing so justify and elevated it own existence.
All of our sources for Qing Dynasty history come from the subsequent dynasty, the Han dynasty."
RotK, while a decent read, basically amounts to Three Kingdoms fanfiction. It was written during the Ming Dynasty, where a revitalization of Han Dynasty ideas and concepts was happening. As such, it is hardly surprising that RotK glorifies all of the "Shu-Han" characters as heroes while denigrating those of Wu and especially Wei. Cao Cao most notably gets an extremely bad rap as he is portrayed as being a devious scheming coward that the author begrudgingly notes was competent and had good retainers. In actuality, the Sanguozhi notes Cao Cao as being "the Great Progenitor" who cared for the common people and was primarily interested in restoring order, while having a ruthless realpolitik streak to him. Liu Bei, far from being portrayed as the hero who fought against overwhelming odds and disastrous fate, is instead ascribed a behavior similar to that of Lu Bu: a brave man with grand ambitions, but was personally a bit of an idiot. And please don't get me started on the historical porn that is RotK's portray of Zhuge Liang.
Zhuge Liang is associated with more fictitious stories than anyone in the novel. While Zhuge was a smart man, brilliant politician and able general, he is basically treated like an all-knowing God. For instance, his first accomplishment is setting the trap at the Battle of Bowangpo where he traps Xiahou Dun and Yu Jin in a fire. This was actually Liu Bei's idea in the actual history, Zhuge Liang wasn't even with Liu Bei at the time.
Zhuge is especially deified during the Battle of Chibi. Many of the credits given to him were either fake (the arrow gathering, making the wind change obviously) or taken from Zhou Yu.
Furthermore, Zhuge Liang's southern campaigns against the Nanman are all made up in order to glorify the genius of Zhuge. The only truth known from these battles is that Zhuge captured Meng Huo 7 times and defeated the southern rebellion.
While there are many moments during the Northern Campaign that didn't happen, the most famous would be the Empty City strategy. Zhuge Liang was stationed in a city being marched on by Sima Yi's massive forces. Zhuge had little to no troops, so he ordered the gates open and while he himself wait at the top of the gate. Once Sima Yi saw him, he thought it was a trap and retreated.
Don't get Zhuge Liang wrong though, as I said he was a brilliant general and politician. However, the novel over glorifies him.
www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2jv5fp/what_do_we_actually_know_about_lu_bu
yeah, i totaly agree with all your standpoints, i have the rotk books. they are great read but it's idd a fictional book. I consider CaoCao the Tru hero who wanted to reform the state and country and make it 'great' again. And yes most stories around Lui Bei are indeed heavy overdone.
Lui Bei wasn't a hero. He couldn't do nothing right. His heavy loss where he ended up dying from at Yiling proves that. He had no strategist with him, just blindly attacked the Wu strongpoints and had no real strategy. His 'camping in the forrest' in summer heat proves he was a mediocre statesmen.
Also in the book rotk Cao Pi took the empirial throne and forsed the emperor to abdicate, then Xian died. Wich in reality didn't happen, Xian became the Duke of Shanyang and lived a very comfortable life and died 14 years later.
-Dante Kenchi
And this..
Zhuge Liang was my favorite character when I first saw the show, but as I grow older, I did more reading and research. I'll share my thoughts here. Tell me what yall think.
www.quora.com/The-Three-Kingdoms-Period-in-Ancient-China-Why-wasnt-Wei-Yan-listed-as-one-of-the-Five-Tiger-Generals
I saw this well-written post regarding why Zhang Liang was being so cruel to Wei Yan because historically, Wei Yan was better than Zhang Liang. The novel, on the other hand, needs to make Wei Yan a scapegoat. To do this, they need a reason to tarnish his reputation and elevate Zhuge Liang by exaggerating his ability.
I can confirm the exaggeration of Zhuge Liang by simply looking up the list of fictional events that happen in the novel. Take the empty fort strategy for example, it was originally deployed by Zhao Yun and the author of the novel stole the idea. The three visits never happen but it was the other way around because Zhuge Liang was a nobody that time. I also remember about borrowing arrows with a boat from Cao Cao but it was Sun Quan idea, who discover it by accident while he was on a reconnaissance mission. Wu love their water.
Let's get back to Wei Yan on why the novel needs to tarnish his reputation.
Please correct me if I'm wrong. Wei Yan never seems to lost a single battle as he campaigns with Zhuge Liang, from quelling the rebellion from the south to campaign against Cao Wei.
Zhuge Liang on the other hand, grant Ma Su, an inexperienced bookworm to lead a large army and you probably know how it ends. And guess who send there to save the remaining Ma Su troop?
Wei Yan remind me of Han Xin, where he defects from a previous lord that contribute a lot but die horribly.
I don't know why, but I feel like Wei Yan death was unjust. The man never lost a battle, yet when the shu send troops to capture him for defying a command secretly order by a dead Zhuge Liang, Wei Yan never resists or kill a single person from shu. On the other hand, the state he serves and contribute his whole life never pardon his family. They just outright kill his whole family.
Update: I realize now that the novel exaggerated Zhuge Liang ability. Take a look at the following and you know he's actually an incompetent individual. Take Ma Su for example, Zl assign him to lead a large army and Ma Su lost the battle badly. He suck so hard, he barely kill a single Wei soldier and all because he was being inexperienced. That must took a toll on ZL for making such careless decision.
To further show proof that Zhuge Liang was incompetent, his successor Jiang Wei took down Wei Yan double gate defense. He basically letting Dang Ai to enter Shu capital without much resistance. Even in death, Wei Yan help defends Shu.
Jiang Wei, on the other hand, makes it easy for the enemy. Traitor? He's not done yet, prior to Shu surrendering, Jiang Wei blunter cause Zhuge Liang only son to be violently killed.
Zhuge Liang son was adored in Shu, every time he wore his father robe, he looks like his old man.
I bet a lot of rotk fans never heard of ZL son or how he dies right? All they remember is his fictional feats.
@@CamadaGovr 白话文运动是用白话取代书面语（文言文）的运动，并不是新造一种语言
@@condorX2 Liu Bei must have some redeeming qualities if he was able to attract so many talented individuals no? 0.o
@@EroticOnion23 It's all part of Liu Bei scheme or act. Check this out.
There's a theory that Liu Bei wasn't even remotely remorseful over Guan Yu's death
The theory is that Liu Bei had always had aspiration to become the emperor
However, Guan Yu was loyal to the Han dynasty - the only reason why he followed Liu Bei was because LB presented himself as a Han loyalist trying to revive the Han
However, by the time near Guan Yu's death it was apparent to him that LB was merely putting up an act, and LB's ambitions became apparent to Guan Yu, and a rift started developing between them
It sort of checks out
It's why Guan Yu never participated in the subjugation of Shu - because to him that was LB seizing land from Liu Zhang, who was the rightful lord of Shu, previously appointed by the Han court
It's also why Guan Yu embarked on his campaign with almost little to no support from the rest of Shu - Guan Yu was literally going at it alone
At that point, his mindset was, "Fine if LB doesn't care about saving the Han emperor, I'll just have to do it myself"
It's also why when GY requested for help, Meng Da and Liu Feng denied to help
Think about it
GY is supposedly the brother of the new lord of Shu LB, would any Shu subject dare to deny his request for help?
Especially Liu Feng, considering he is LB's adopted son
The theory is that, Liu Feng must have received instructions to leave GY be, and were later scapegoated for it
To LB, GY at that point has become an obstacle for him to be emperor, yet there is no way he can remove GY, so letting GY die a heroic death in battle is the perfect solution for him
And if GY's death gives him a pretext to invade Wu, that's like killing two birds with one stone, to him
The theory also goes on to say that LB's other close followers, like ZGL and Zhao Yun, were aware of these tensions, to some degree
It's why they vehemently opposed LB's Wu campaign, and chose to sit it out.
-Val K
ua-cam.com/video/RaQ4sSe-dGM/v-deo.html
Wow! Thx for sharing those really eyes opening insights.
A lot of us got brainwashed to think Liu Bei was the good guy since we first read the book, but as we grown older we learn new things through word of mouths via the internet discussion.
I think I've lost counts on the numbers of betrayals Liu Bei back stabbed on his once allies / friends / guardians.
Also, Zhuge Liang was embellished but definitely not overrated, even in Records he managed to defeat Cao Cao at Hanzhong and fight Sima Yi to a stalemate.
The suggestion for those who wants to start reading and feeling "It's too much". After finish reading for more than 10++ times, I would say that it's the best novel of all time. This novel is nothing like other ordinary novels where you finish and just put them down. But for Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the more repetitions you do, the more fun you will have and you will simply get every single tiny details along the way which as the video describes that in each section of the novel, you will find your uses later in life sooner or later. So please start reading right away and I can guarantee you that you won't regret and it will be one of the best things in life that you spend your precious time on.
For those interested in more Three Kingdoms: Recommend checking out the *1994 Romance of the Three Kingdoms series* currently being *subbed into English by **_Gentlemen of the Hàn_* and released its first 23 episodes. The 1994 series is still considered the best, most definitive adaptation of the Three Kingdoms story and one of the best Chinese historical shows of all time, with great writing, performances and historically authentic look and feel.
Without it for example, the popular (but less well-made) 2010 version would likely not exist as it does.
I started with Dynasty Warriors, that hooked me in, then Romance of The Three Kingdoms strategy games got me further down the rabbit hole. Then I got the books, I'm ready to serve my liege!
It has everything!!! Poetry, grown men weeping, officials bashing their head against pillars, candles put inside Dong Zhuo using his fat for fuel, and that’s just in the first few chapters! Definitely one of the greatest stories ever told and a personal favorite of mine.
Lol.
Same. There is other TV deride where they BBQ the poor guy and ask Cao Cao eat it.
Cao Cao is everyone favorite when it come to party and feast. How yall notice that?
I used to like Liu Bei when I'm young. As I grown older, I realize he was a snake that betrayed more people than Lu Bu.
I feel like the world would be so much better if China was united under Cao Cao banner.
Even the best emperor from Tang praised Cao Cao.
Cao Cao not only know for looking out for his people, he also attracted talents general's and the brains and he wanna get ride of corruption completely. Just like the current president Xi is doing lol.
Here is a sad twisted for Wu best strategist, Zhou Yu.
He resisted Cao Cao invasion instead of surrendering. He could help build a better and more peaceful China.
What went wrong? I remembered reading that he received a letter from Cao Cao stating he'll steal his wife for her beauty.
The question is, who really send that letter to provoked Zhou Yu before the invasion?
As you guys know, Zhou Yu died pretty young from a injured after he went to save a pirate friend.
All that could have prevented if Zhou Yu convinced Sun Quan to surrender.
His action would save so much lives, end the civil war and make China great again.
Anyway, I just wanna share this important info. It's where past government use misinformation to discredit their successor.
I love this quote 33:50
ua-cam.com/video/Gg1SGA3zYx8/v-deo.html
"Qin Shi Huang was a target of political propaganda created by the Han Dynasty that succeeded his.
It purpose was to discredit the Qin Dynasty and by doing so justify and elevated it own existence.
All of our sources for Qing Dynasty history come from the subsequent dynasty, the Han dynasty."
RotK, while a decent read, basically amounts to Three Kingdoms fanfiction. It was written during the Ming Dynasty, where a revitalization of Han Dynasty ideas and concepts was happening. As such, it is hardly surprising that RotK glorifies all of the "Shu-Han" characters as heroes while denigrating those of Wu and especially Wei. Cao Cao most notably gets an extremely bad rap as he is portrayed as being a devious scheming coward that the author begrudgingly notes was competent and had good retainers. In actuality, the Sanguozhi notes Cao Cao as being "the Great Progenitor" who cared for the common people and was primarily interested in restoring order, while having a ruthless realpolitik streak to him. Liu Bei, far from being portrayed as the hero who fought against overwhelming odds and disastrous fate, is instead ascribed a behavior similar to that of Lu Bu: a brave man with grand ambitions, but was personally a bit of an idiot. And please don't get me started on the historical porn that is RotK's portray of Zhuge Liang.
Zhuge Liang is associated with more fictitious stories than anyone in the novel. While Zhuge was a smart man, brilliant politician and able general, he is basically treated like an all-knowing God. For instance, his first accomplishment is setting the trap at the Battle of Bowangpo where he traps Xiahou Dun and Yu Jin in a fire. This was actually Liu Bei's idea in the actual history, Zhuge Liang wasn't even with Liu Bei at the time.
Zhuge is especially deified during the Battle of Chibi. Many of the credits given to him were either fake (the arrow gathering, making the wind change obviously) or taken from Zhou Yu.
Furthermore, Zhuge Liang's southern campaigns against the Nanman are all made up in order to glorify the genius of Zhuge. The only truth known from these battles is that Zhuge captured Meng Huo 7 times and defeated the southern rebellion.
While there are many moments during the Northern Campaign that didn't happen, the most famous would be the Empty City strategy. Zhuge Liang was stationed in a city being marched on by Sima Yi's massive forces. Zhuge had little to no troops, so he ordered the gates open and while he himself wait at the top of the gate. Once Sima Yi saw him, he thought it was a trap and retreated.
Don't get Zhuge Liang wrong though, as I said he was a brilliant general and politician. However, the novel over glorifies him.
www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2jv5fp/what_do_we_actually_know_about_lu_bu
yeah, i totaly agree with all your standpoints, i have the rotk books. they are great read but it's idd a fictional book. I consider CaoCao the Tru hero who wanted to reform the state and country and make it 'great' again. And yes most stories around Lui Bei are indeed heavy overdone.
Lui Bei wasn't a hero. He couldn't do nothing right. His heavy loss where he ended up dying from at Yiling proves that. He had no strategist with him, just blindly attacked the Wu strongpoints and had no real strategy. His 'camping in the forrest' in summer heat proves he was a mediocre statesmen.
Also in the book rotk Cao Pi took the empirial throne and forsed the emperor to abdicate, then Xian died. Wich in reality didn't happen, Xian became the Duke of Shanyang and lived a very comfortable life and died 14 years later.
-Dante Kenchi
@@condorX2 bla bla bla spammer yada yada 🙄
@@SaretGnasoh i can't help myself lol.
Old habit.
Anyway, what do you think of my post?
Any suggestions?
@@condorX2 I like Cao Cao, but don't become too overly biased in his favor at the same time as you talk about RotK's bias towards Zhuge Liang. You can't expect another ruler to surrender just to prevent your own aggression from causing more destruction.
Sun Quan was not a bad ruler and Cao Cao had not made himself emperor, so the two lords could have coexisted as nominal subjects of Han. Whereas most of what Cao Cao had done up to that point was to secure his own realm, attacking Sun Quan was purely an unjustified grab for more power that ended in failure. The only thing preventing peace at that point was Cao Cao's own ambition.
@@ShinChara Well peace only can achieve through unification because even through Cao Cao and sun Quan are good buddy, the next generations may have a different idea.
I really fell for underdog characters like Pang Tong, the genius overshadowed by Zhuge Liang, but accomplished and capable by his own right.
Pang Tong, Fa Zheng, Xun Yu, Guo Jia, Lu Xun, Zhou Yu were all brilliant and interesting characters from the novel.
too bad pang tong died to fast
@@Neuvari So did Guo Jia and Zhou Yu
@@dinoyuan1574 lol yea but im a shu supporter lol
His lesson is to never underestimate anyone.
I love Three Kingdoms so much. I highly recommend the Manhua Ravages of Time
That Manhua is perfection. Some chapters, like Chen Gong's death is pure poetry.
Agreed ! It's a shame it's not more widely known...
@@CoolHistoryBros for real. It has my favorite version of Zhang Fei too.
It's great! 😄
is the manhua finished? i read it years ago, but it slowed down, so its forgotten by me, how about now?
This is my favorite, it was introduced to me in elementary school, and I began to seriously read it from the start to the end when I was in grade 9. Part of it was my curiosity and I am half Chinese.
This is the GREATEST piece of entertainment I have ever owned, that includes video games and toys. Have read the full version 15x. If you can follow all the characters then definitely read this.
When I was three I wanted to be Liu Bei due to his resilience and righteousness.
When I was in college Red Cliffs came out, I just wanted to be Liu Bei because Zhao Wei played Sun Ren.
When Total War: Three Kingdoms came out I started mainly with Gongsun Zan because, hey, White Horse. It's like the British Army's Scots Greys. Imagine the horse being part of the uniform.
Then when the Eight Princes expansion came out I started out with Sima Ying because I was making chili oil and had a bowl of dandanmian when I started the game, so I thought starting the game from Chengdu was a good idea.
Totally like the anonymous quote, I hope you find the source. Also, it is very enlightening that the romance is actually growing like human from young to old age! This is why I like this story, so many cool stuff to think/reflect about!!
Don't know if it's accuarate, but I read a comment somewhere that described the irony of each kingdom's downfall, such as Shu declining due to the corrupting influence of a eunuch faction just like the Han Empire it emulated, Wu declined when the king became a tyrant and turned on his family, and Wei fell when a man employed for his talent (Sima Yi) overthrew it from within.
It’s basically accurate
I guess that's how it was before the age of "nationalism" and nation-state concept. People didn't really understand about their obligation and rights within the social contract, and there was no recourse or remedy for far too commom problem like incompetent (or outright apathetic) people somehow get into position of power.
Each were overthrown by their own core values --> Loyalty, ambition, family
Beautifully poetic irony
It's from OverSimplified.
It's from OverSimplified.
I'm glad Dynasty Warriors gave Jin a Big Role as the 4th Faction in the roster.
I really recommend people to give Total War: Three Kingdoms a try. The format of the Total War series helps me to understand much better the geography of China at the time and why certain factions had very strong advantages over others.
Very true.. just started my playthrough as Sun Jian.. his in game faction traits reflect the claims of being descended from Sun Tzu.
well total war is really bad at making 3kingdoms game... go play some KOEI series. they are much better on and .
@@redhongkong I don't think 3K Total War is that bad of a 3K game, but I understand why. It's a westernized attempt on the ancient Chinese culture. For example: the succession system is a little wonky. You get a lot of weird leaders after some of the starter dies. As someone who studies some Chinese history and a fan of the setting, some of the leaders don't even make sense in the mid-late game. I also think they should implement some sort of faction fracture (Like in Crusaders King 3) when there's no obvious heir. This happens in the records when Yuan Shao died. The "balance of power" between factions within your own court is strongly emphasized in Chinese Kingship. Also, you also should be able to choose to restore the Han dynasty instead of always getting rid of Han (you can argue if Liu Bei's true intention was that or it's actually just a fake ass casus belli he had to claim to fight Cao Cao, but you should be able to do that imo)
I do highly recommend the ROTK series. I would recommend ROTK 11. I haven't played the later games but I heard it's not as good (but let me know if there is any good ones). ROTK 11 plays sort of like CIV and I feel in the ROTK series, characters are more fleshed out (they have unique portrait for every single characters).
@@redhongkong delusional
One reason why Sangozhi is popular to this day in whole Asia isn't only about the swashbuckling adventure with Guan Yu escorting Liu Bei wives, Zhao Yun heroism of rescuing Ah Dou, Lu Bo being men among men action , or political mind games from Zhuge Liang. What made Sangozhi beloved is the novel has alot of small personal moral lesson teaching us how to act like a honorable person. Cao Cao is a moral grey character where despite being ruthless also have honor in him, Liu Bei being sly and sneaky.
Personally I am more of Water Margin, where the characters are based on real historical figures but 90% fiction depicting them.
ua-cam.com/video/am63eDndvZw/v-deo.html as the 1995 ROTK Main title song mentioned "Take a dip of fine wine and remember the past"
I used to like Liu Bei when I'm young. As I grown older, I realize he was a snake that betrayed more people than Lu Bu.
I feel like the world would be so much better if China was united under Cao Cao banner.
Even the best emperor from Tang praised Cao Cao.
Cao Cao not only know for looking out for his people, he also attracted talents general's and the brains and he wanna get ride of corruption completely. Just like the current president Xi is doing lol.
Here is a sad twisted for Wu best strategist, Zhou Yu.
He resisted Cao Cao invasion instead of surrendering. He could help build a better and more peaceful China.
What went wrong? I remembered reading that he received a letter from Cao Cao stating he'll steal his wife for her beauty.
The question is, who really send that letter to provoked Zhou Yu before the invasion?
As you guys know, Zhou Yu died pretty young from a injured after he went to save a pirate friend.
All that could have prevented if Zhou Yu convinced Sun Quan to surrender.
His action would save so much lives, end the civil war and make China great again.
Anyway, I just wanna share this important info. It's where past government use misinformation to discredit their successor.
I love this quote 33:50
ua-cam.com/video/Gg1SGA3zYx8/v-deo.html
"Qin Shi Huang was a target of political propaganda created by the Han Dynasty that succeeded his.
It purpose was to discredit the Qin Dynasty and by doing so justify and elevated it own existence.
All of our sources for Qing Dynasty history come from the subsequent dynasty, the Han dynasty."
RotK, while a decent read, basically amounts to Three Kingdoms fanfiction. It was written during the Ming Dynasty, where a revitalization of Han Dynasty ideas and concepts was happening. As such, it is hardly surprising that RotK glorifies all of the "Shu-Han" characters as heroes while denigrating those of Wu and especially Wei. Cao Cao most notably gets an extremely bad rap as he is portrayed as being a devious scheming coward that the author begrudgingly notes was competent and had good retainers. In actuality, the Sanguozhi notes Cao Cao as being "the Great Progenitor" who cared for the common people and was primarily interested in restoring order, while having a ruthless realpolitik streak to him. Liu Bei, far from being portrayed as the hero who fought against overwhelming odds and disastrous fate, is instead ascribed a behavior similar to that of Lu Bu: a brave man with grand ambitions, but was personally a bit of an idiot. And please don't get me started on the historical porn that is RotK's portray of Zhuge Liang.
Zhuge Liang is associated with more fictitious stories than anyone in the novel. While Zhuge was a smart man, brilliant politician and able general, he is basically treated like an all-knowing God. For instance, his first accomplishment is setting the trap at the Battle of Bowangpo where he traps Xiahou Dun and Yu Jin in a fire. This was actually Liu Bei's idea in the actual history, Zhuge Liang wasn't even with Liu Bei at the time.
Zhuge is especially deified during the Battle of Chibi. Many of the credits given to him were either fake (the arrow gathering, making the wind change obviously) or taken from Zhou Yu.
Furthermore, Zhuge Liang's southern campaigns against the Nanman are all made up in order to glorify the genius of Zhuge. The only truth known from these battles is that Zhuge captured Meng Huo 7 times and defeated the southern rebellion.
While there are many moments during the Northern Campaign that didn't happen, the most famous would be the Empty City strategy. Zhuge Liang was stationed in a city being marched on by Sima Yi's massive forces. Zhuge had little to no troops, so he ordered the gates open and while he himself wait at the top of the gate. Once Sima Yi saw him, he thought it was a trap and retreated.
Don't get Zhuge Liang wrong though, as I said he was a brilliant general and politician. However, the novel over glorifies him.
www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2jv5fp/what_do_we_actually_know_about_lu_bu
yeah, i totaly agree with all your standpoints, i have the rotk books. they are great read but it's idd a fictional book. I consider CaoCao the Tru hero who wanted to reform the state and country and make it 'great' again. And yes most stories around Lui Bei are indeed heavy overdone.
Lui Bei wasn't a hero. He couldn't do nothing right. His heavy loss where he ended up dying from at Yiling proves that. He had no strategist with him, just blindly attacked the Wu strongpoints and had no real strategy. His 'camping in the forrest' in summer heat proves he was a mediocre statesmen.
Also in the book rotk Cao Pi took the empirial throne and forsed the emperor to abdicate, then Xian died. Wich in reality didn't happen, Xian became the Duke of Shanyang and lived a very comfortable life and died 14 years later.
-Dante Kenchi
And this..
Zhuge Liang was my favorite character when I first saw the show, but as I grow older, I did more reading and research. I'll share my thoughts here. Tell me what yall think.
www.quora.com/The-Three-Kingdoms-Period-in-Ancient-China-Why-wasnt-Wei-Yan-listed-as-one-of-the-Five-Tiger-Generals
I saw this well-written post regarding why Zhang Liang was being so cruel to Wei Yan because historically, Wei Yan was better than Zhang Liang. The novel, on the other hand, needs to make Wei Yan a scapegoat. To do this, they need a reason to tarnish his reputation and elevate Zhuge Liang by exaggerating his ability.
I can confirm the exaggeration of Zhuge Liang by simply looking up the list of fictional events that happen in the novel. Take the empty fort strategy for example, it was originally deployed by Zhao Yun and the author of the novel stole the idea. The three visits never happen but it was the other way around because Zhuge Liang was a nobody that time. I also remember about borrowing arrows with a boat from Cao Cao but it was Sun Quan idea, who discover it by accident while he was on a reconnaissance mission. Wu love their water.
Let's get back to Wei Yan on why the novel needs to tarnish his reputation.
Please correct me if I'm wrong. Wei Yan never seems to lost a single battle as he campaigns with Zhuge Liang, from quelling the rebellion from the south to campaign against Cao Wei.
Zhuge Liang on the other hand, grant Ma Su, an inexperienced bookworm to lead a large army and you probably know how it ends. And guess who send there to save the remaining Ma Su troop?
Wei Yan remind me of Han Xin, where he defects from a previous lord that contribute a lot but die horribly.
I don't know why, but I feel like Wei Yan death was unjust. The man never lost a battle, yet when the shu send troops to capture him for defying a command secretly order by a dead Zhuge Liang, Wei Yan never resists or kill a single person from shu. On the other hand, the state he serves and contribute his whole life never pardon his family. They just outright kill his whole family.
Update: I realize now that the novel exaggerated Zhuge Liang ability. Take a look at the following and you know he's actually an incompetent individual. Take Ma Su for example, Zl assign him to lead a large army and Ma Su lost the battle badly. He suck so hard, he barely kill a single Wei soldier and all because he was being inexperienced. That must took a toll on ZL for making such careless decision.
To further show proof that Zhuge Liang was incompetent, his successor Jiang Wei took down Wei Yan double gate defense. He basically letting Dang Ai to enter Shu capital without much resistance. Even in death, Wei Yan help defends Shu.
Jiang Wei, on the other hand, makes it easy for the enemy. Traitor? He's not done yet, prior to Shu surrendering, Jiang Wei blunter cause Zhuge Liang only son to be violently killed.
Zhuge Liang son was adored in Shu, every time he wore his father robe, he looks like his old man.
I bet a lot of rotk fans never heard of ZL son or how he dies right? All they remember is his fictional feats.
@@condorX2 "I don't know why, but I feel like Wei Yan death was unjust. The man never lost a battle, yet when the shu send troops to capture him for defying a command secretly order by a dead Zhuge Liang, Wei Yan never resists or kill a single person from shu. On the other hand, the state he serves and contribute his whole life never pardon his family. They just outright kill his whole family."
If you think Wei Yan got screwed over. Go read about how the Hongwu emperor treated his generals that fought for him for decades. Most of them were told to commit suicide... All of that because of his paranoid control tendencies was satisfied and his heirs could rule without any threat.
Sima Yi greatly legitimised backstabbing and coups. After the decline of the Jin dynasty, and the various creation of northern kingdoms ruled by foreigners, both the south and the north experienced multiple coup de tats, regime changes, emperors killed by their own retainers who would start their own 'short-lived' dynasties.
@@condorX2 Every myth has some certain truth after all. There is a reason why Guan Yu to this day being the saint of loyalty. Or Zhuge Liang being remember as a genius for almost 1000 years before the novel was written in Ming period. I think Liu Bei historically might be manipulating liar but there is no denial that he started out as a humble as a shoe maker who become an Emperor. Not to mention there is something good in him that famous honorable generals and officers were loyal to him.
@@hanchiman Aye.
There's a theory that Liu Bei wasn't even remotely remorseful over Guan Yu's death
The theory is that Liu Bei had always had aspiration to become the emperor
However, Guan Yu was loyal to the Han dynasty - the only reason why he followed Liu Bei was because LB presented himself as a Han loyalist trying to revive the Han
However, by the time near Guan Yu's death it was apparent to him that LB was merely putting up an act, and LB's ambitions became apparent to Guan Yu, and a rift started developing between them
It sort of checks out
It's why Guan Yu never participated in the subjugation of Shu - because to him that was LB seizing land from Liu Zhang, who was the rightful lord of Shu, previously appointed by the Han court
It's also why Guan Yu embarked on his campaign with almost little to no support from the rest of Shu - Guan Yu was literally going at it alone
At that point, his mindset was, "Fine if LB doesn't care about saving the Han emperor, I'll just have to do it myself"
It's also why when GY requested for help, Meng Da and Liu Feng denied to help
Think about it
GY is supposedly the brother of the new lord of Shu LB, would any Shu subject dare to deny his request for help?
Especially Liu Feng, considering he is LB's adopted son
The theory is that, Liu Feng must have received instructions to leave GY be, and were later scapegoated for it
To LB, GY at that point has become an obstacle for him to be emperor, yet there is no way he can remove GY, so letting GY die a heroic death in battle is the perfect solution for him
And if GY's death gives him a pretext to invade Wu, that's like killing two birds with one stone, to him
The theory also goes on to say that LB's other close followers, like ZGL and Zhao Yun, were aware of these tensions, to some degree
It's why they vehemently opposed LB's Wu campaign, and chose to sit it out.
-Val K
ua-cam.com/video/RaQ4sSe-dGM/v-deo.html
Wow! Thx for sharing those really eyes opening insights.
A lot of us got brainwashed to think Liu Bei was the good guy since we first read the book, but as we grown older we learn new things through word of mouths via the internet discussion.
I think I've lost counts on the numbers of betrayals Liu Bei back stabbed on his once allies / friends / guardians.
@@condorX2 damn.. now this make alot of sense. Still Zhang Fei was pretty upset with Guan Yu death that he even suggest to attack Wu singlehandedly when Liu Bei was hesitating
I remember watching this other video essay about the book. They said that RoTK is a philosophical debate between Confucianism and Legalism. Luo Guanzhong's answer to this debate came in the form Zhuge Liang. He was loyal and pious, yet wasn't afraid to use trickery to achieve the greater good (not sure if my explanation to that essay is good enough lol). Now watching your essay about what makes this novel great makes me wonder what other surprises this novel will bring.
Time to re-read RoTK. Thanks for the amazing content! Subbed!
Absolutely great explanation
cool, I dunno if jerry also interested in history
There's also a podcast called romance of the Three kingdoms podcast where basically the reader also the narrator of the podcast will put a little bit of a modern spin into it to To digest the novel a little bit easier. Also he is doing a new podcast called The outlaws of the marsh if you're interested into another classic Chinese novel. You can find this podcast anywhere you get your podcast from like Spotify or Google podcasts.
Chinese history is greatest and deepest history of human kind. They have a lot of foot print left until today. 👍👍👍
Idk about deepest but definetly intresting
Ya Boy Kongming (anime) got me interested in Romance of the Three Kingdoms and led me here. Glad it did. Great content!
I played the game & started from the NES first game, i 've been hooked on the story ever since. The more i learn about it intrigues me
I've been fascinated by the Romance of the Three Kingdoms ever since I first played Dynasty Warriors 4 back when I was 13. I have the 2-part complete and unabridged Moss Roberts translation sitting on my bookshelf shelf waiting for me to get at it one of these days. I've only read the first three chapters so far (back when I first got it a few years ago). I'm also looking into getting a copy of the 2010 series with the Jiang Hu fansubs.
oh yes I been waited for long time for you to talking about the romance of the three kingdoms novel and also first comment for this video,keep doing well and take care of your health and take a break. :3
Thanks. Yeah, this video and RotK is very important for me, so it took much longer to make. At least I think I have done it justice.
I really fell in love with the romance of three kingdoms from the old MS-DOS game RoTK II. Because of that game, I also found the complete novel in my high school library and read it. Honestly, that novel made me love to read. RoTK novel is still my most favorite novel until now.
My early interest in Chinese history was definitely influenced by playing Rot3K IV in SNES in the 90s. Later, when I became a history major and had already read a couple of translations, I considered specializing in representations of three kingdom characters (and especially Guan Yu), though I don't speak any asian languages fluently, and ended up following another very different route. Over the past few months, watching your videos has really rekindled my love for Chinese history, and I find myself pulling out chinese history books from the bookshelf. I'm definitely feeling like I'll re-read Rot3K soon, especially after watching this video. Thank you for the great work!
Enjoy! It will be interesting to know which character you will be drawn to on your reread.
Nice to listen to all sides of story. Haha. Prefer Cao Cao because my attitude is like him.
I used to like Liu Bei when I'm young. As I grown older, I realize he was a snake that betrayed more people than Lu Bu.
I feel like the world would be so much better if China was united under Cao Cao banner.
Even the best emperor from Tang praised Cao Cao.
Cao Cao not only know for looking out for his people, he also attracted talents general's and the brains and he wanna get ride of corruption completely. Just like the current president Xi is doing lol.
Here is a sad twisted for Wu best strategist, Zhou Yu.
He resisted Cao Cao invasion instead of surrendering. He could help build a better and more peaceful China.
What went wrong? I remembered reading that he received a letter from Cao Cao stating he'll steal his wife for her beauty.
The question is, who really send that letter to provoked Zhou Yu before the invasion?
As you guys know, Zhou Yu died pretty young from a injured after he went to save a pirate friend.
All that could have prevented if Zhou Yu convinced Sun Quan to surrender.
His action would save so much lives, end the civil war and make China great again.
Anyway, I just wanna share this important info. It's where past government use misinformation to discredit their successor.
I love this quote 33:50
ua-cam.com/video/Gg1SGA3zYx8/v-deo.html
"Qin Shi Huang was a target of political propaganda created by the Han Dynasty that succeeded his.
It purpose was to discredit the Qin Dynasty and by doing so justify and elevated it own existence.
All of our sources for Qing Dynasty history come from the subsequent dynasty, the Han dynasty."
RotK, while a decent read, basically amounts to Three Kingdoms fanfiction. It was written during the Ming Dynasty, where a revitalization of Han Dynasty ideas and concepts was happening. As such, it is hardly surprising that RotK glorifies all of the "Shu-Han" characters as heroes while denigrating those of Wu and especially Wei. Cao Cao most notably gets an extremely bad rap as he is portrayed as being a devious scheming coward that the author begrudgingly notes was competent and had good retainers. In actuality, the Sanguozhi notes Cao Cao as being "the Great Progenitor" who cared for the common people and was primarily interested in restoring order, while having a ruthless realpolitik streak to him. Liu Bei, far from being portrayed as the hero who fought against overwhelming odds and disastrous fate, is instead ascribed a behavior similar to that of Lu Bu: a brave man with grand ambitions, but was personally a bit of an idiot. And please don't get me started on the historical porn that is RotK's portray of Zhuge Liang.
Zhuge Liang is associated with more fictitious stories than anyone in the novel. While Zhuge was a smart man, brilliant politician and able general, he is basically treated like an all-knowing God. For instance, his first accomplishment is setting the trap at the Battle of Bowangpo where he traps Xiahou Dun and Yu Jin in a fire. This was actually Liu Bei's idea in the actual history, Zhuge Liang wasn't even with Liu Bei at the time.
Zhuge is especially deified during the Battle of Chibi. Many of the credits given to him were either fake (the arrow gathering, making the wind change obviously) or taken from Zhou Yu.
Furthermore, Zhuge Liang's southern campaigns against the Nanman are all made up in order to glorify the genius of Zhuge. The only truth known from these battles is that Zhuge captured Meng Huo 7 times and defeated the southern rebellion.
While there are many moments during the Northern Campaign that didn't happen, the most famous would be the Empty City strategy. Zhuge Liang was stationed in a city being marched on by Sima Yi's massive forces. Zhuge had little to no troops, so he ordered the gates open and while he himself wait at the top of the gate. Once Sima Yi saw him, he thought it was a trap and retreated.
Don't get Zhuge Liang wrong though, as I said he was a brilliant general and politician. However, the novel over glorifies him.
www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2jv5fp/what_do_we_actually_know_about_lu_bu
yeah, i totaly agree with all your standpoints, i have the rotk books. they are great read but it's idd a fictional book. I consider CaoCao the Tru hero who wanted to reform the state and country and make it 'great' again. And yes most stories around Lui Bei are indeed heavy overdone.
Lui Bei wasn't a hero. He couldn't do nothing right. His heavy loss where he ended up dying from at Yiling proves that. He had no strategist with him, just blindly attacked the Wu strongpoints and had no real strategy. His 'camping in the forrest' in summer heat proves he was a mediocre statesmen.
Also in the book rotk Cao Pi took the empirial throne and forsed the emperor to abdicate, then Xian died. Wich in reality didn't happen, Xian became the Duke of Shanyang and lived a very comfortable life and died 14 years later.
-Dante Kenchi
Of course if you are cunning. Lol.😄😄
you rather kill your uncle and his family?!!! how could youuuuuu
@@condorX2 I somewhat agree. I was introduced via the Dynasty Warriors games, and to this day I have a soft spot for Straw Shoe Liu Bei, and his humble beginnings and perceived benevolence. Zhuge Liang does no wrong in my eyes.
However, as I became a man, I respected the fact that Liu Bei was just as dirty as I thought Cao Cao was. I respect that Cao Cao actually did a lot of good for the common people. As a husband and father, I definitely sympathize with Sun Quan's "Family First" mentality.
Today, I have a more balanced look at it. I still have my soft spot for the Shu good guys, but I look at Cao Cao as a source of wisdom.
@@koldraiynedownskayle5744 I've found interesting to share.
There's a theory that Liu Bei wasn't even remotely remorseful over Guan Yu's death
The theory is that Liu Bei had always had aspiration to become the emperor
However, Guan Yu was loyal to the Han dynasty - the only reason why he followed Liu Bei was because LB presented himself as a Han loyalist trying to revive the Han
However, by the time near Guan Yu's death it was apparent to him that LB was merely putting up an act, and LB's ambitions became apparent to Guan Yu, and a rift started developing between them
It sort of checks out
It's why Guan Yu never participated in the subjugation of Shu - because to him that was LB seizing land from Liu Zhang, who was the rightful lord of Shu, previously appointed by the Han court
It's also why Guan Yu embarked on his campaign with almost little to no support from the rest of Shu - Guan Yu was literally going at it alone
At that point, his mindset was, "Fine if LB doesn't care about saving the Han emperor, I'll just have to do it myself"
It's also why when GY requested for help, Meng Da and Liu Feng denied to help
Think about it
GY is supposedly the brother of the new lord of Shu LB, would any Shu subject dare to deny his request for help?
Especially Liu Feng, considering he is LB's adopted son
The theory is that, Liu Feng must have received instructions to leave GY be, and were later scapegoated for it
To LB, GY at that point has become an obstacle for him to be emperor, yet there is no way he can remove GY, so letting GY die a heroic death in battle is the perfect solution for him
And if GY's death gives him a pretext to invade Wu, that's like killing two birds with one stone, to him
The theory also goes on to say that LB's other close followers, like ZGL and Zhao Yun, were aware of these tensions, to some degree
It's why they vehemently opposed LB's Wu campaign, and chose to sit it out.
-Val K
ua-cam.com/video/RaQ4sSe-dGM/v-deo.html
Wow! Thx for sharing those really eyes opening insights.
A lot of us got brainwashed to think Liu Bei was the good guy since we first read the book, but as we grown older we learn new things through word of mouths via the internet discussion.
I think I've lost counts on the numbers of betrayals Liu Bei back stabbed on his once allies / friends / guardians.
I guess from a foreigner's point of view, I feel more in touch with Wu's dilemma. You have to remember that unlike Liu Bei who claims descent from the Imperial family and Cao Cao who has control of the heart of China, Wu had nothing. They started with nothing and built their kingdom in the backwater of China on the efforts of their clan and a few talented individuals. I mean Sun Jian's father was either a merchant or a melon farmer depending on the source. Certainly not a lineage that would inspire awe despite how much of a badass Sun Jian is. That's something I don't like about the novel actually, It completely undermines Sun Jian's accomplishments and gives it to other characters while writing him out as a greedy villain despite him never keeping the Imperial Jade Seal.
The struggle to see Sun Ce climb up that chaotic ladder was beautiful to see especially considering how young he was and how few troops he could get while trying to appease an ambitious overlord who has his mother hostage. Truly a story worthy of poem and songs yet you hardly ever see anyone from China praise Wu's efforts into civilizing the lands south of the Yangtze. Its by the efforts of the Sun clan that later dynasties managed to remain intact by retreating south as they depended on the infrastructure built by Wu to survive.
Sun Quan's dilemma on whether to stick to alliances that have been worthless to his kingdom or his own family is a no brainer. The Sun clan is built on familial bonds and that is something I can respect.
Finally, on a different note, I thought Zhang Fei's portrayal in the novel to be extremely fictionized? He was actually a rich noble if I remember right and wasn't Guan Yu a Soybean seller before being forced to turn to banditry because of a false crime?
Played dynasty warriors 3 and loved the story, found out there was actually history behind the game so I got the books and later Romance of the three kingdom strategy game series. Gongjin or Chou Yu was always my favorite.
For anyone into Alt-History in 3K, I recommend Dynasty Warriors 8 Xtreme Legends for gamers and History of the Three States for Manhwa readers, why these two specifically? Because both have good Alt-History Lu Bu
This is genuinely the greatest UA-cam channel that teaches Chinese history (I know it does various national histories, but in terms of China, it's the best) there's several tidbits of information about countries like the Xiongnu and southern dynasties that I would not have learned if it wasn't for this channel, in fact, this channel is what taught me that Xiongnu even existed to begin with. So gg you're a channel I would definitely suggest to other people, you're very smart and trustworthy
The anonymous quote is very poignant.
I too read it with similar feelings and many things stuck with me. The prose was quite moving and told all types of different human stories, caught in a futile civil war. Passages describing the deaths, "Thus the greatest warrior in all of China died[Lu Bu]" "So died the greatest physician in all of China [Hua Toa]." "And thus the smartest man in all of China died [Zhuge Liang]."
You feel for the characters more than the ones on GoT. Like I get Zhuge Liang was never inclined to military affairs; killing other men. But he got dragged into all this.
Wow, read RofTK when I was in high school but this puts into a new perspective. I should read it again! Thanks for posting this!
GuanYu was my childhood favorite, CaoCao is my current fav
when you are older then you understand CaoCao did what he needed for his family which is understandable.
14:35. Liu Bei always wanted to establish his own kingdom but he just don't know how to do it. It is very true that we need to appreciate more and learn the lesson from Jin Dynasty. But sadly it is not emphasis enough. Go watch 《三國機密之潛龍在淵》
Best story ever! It made me start reading classical Chinese poetry too, starting with Cao Zhi, and also the history of the Three Kingdoms.
Romance in the three kingdom is so popular, that recently, a new japanese anime called paripi kongming is currently airing. It features zhugeliang kongming, the famous strategist in shu kingdom, reincarnated to modern japan, and using his skill as strategists, helping a young aspiring singer to become super star.
The anime received my attention because i enjoy romance of the three kingdom.
Its a nice anime.
I recently purchased a four volume set of books containing the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. I have just begun reading it. I most appreciate this succinct and insightful synopsis. Thank you!
Awesome job man!!! It’s nice to finally see someone who talk about chinese history and culture!!
i really appreciate and admire the effort you put into presenting everything you've gathered and researched in such an organized and amazingly approachable manner. there's so much rich history and nuances of which i've never even considered, all packed into these easily digestible videos; i love it.
will you continue to add more to the Tang dynasty series? i've always been fascinated by this golden age of chinese civilization -- even fantasized about what life would be like living in this period. and while a huge part of me dread to learn the sad truths of its decline in detail, this video made me feel like i'm now ready for closure. the empire [...] long united, must divide 😢
I guess I can go back to Tang dynasty eventually, when I found something. interesting to say about it.
I've heard about this book from Kondo isami one of the leaders of the 新選組 shinsengumi. He read it alongside with the story of The 47 Ronin. Born a peasant but later became a サムライ during the bakumatsu period when the shogunal faction and the Imperial faction were fighting against each other. He always dreamed of being a samurai but the Edo cast system kept him below but he was very skilled with the sword and was more samurai than the samurai themselves. So I can imagine how this must have influenced him greatly
Great video mate! Romance of the Three Kingdoms has got to be one of the greatest texts in all of existence in my humble opinion.
I've read it four times. Its one of my favorite pieces of literature. One thing that might throw people off, is that the idioms and terms they sometimes use can make some parts feel a bit fantastical and exaggerated, but thats just how they poetically described things in its time. Even the tone changes about 2/3rds as well, from great battles with mighty heroes, to scheming that would make game of thrones look like a playground spat. I second his recommendation!
Thank you for this video! I hope it’s an effective tool for my (so far unsuccessful) campaign to get my friends to read Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
@@captainmurphy4720 I know what you mean! I even gave a speech about it (search my name on youtube. It will pop right up) and I don’t think I convinced anyone who hadn’t read it. I expect CJ’s video will be more helpful than mine.
A suggestion in a Cao Cao tribute thread brought me here...such thorough scholarship...thank you...
BTW, at 18:05, that was maybe an unintentional pun ( Wei-way )
One of the best contextual takes on RoTK I've seen on youtube. Really well done.
I think the "Romance of the three kingdoms" is the equivalent of the Iliad and Odissey! Both are foundational tales for their respective cultures, both show wars with many characters, both have truth behind them (though 3Kiingdoms has actual written history to back it up). But the main thing is that the reason why they are such amazing story is exactly they way that they were written. Or more precisely, the lack of a single author. Whilst the Iliad &o dissey have homer supposedly making them, for a very Very long time, they were passed down orally. And 3 kingdoms had multiple revisions and dialogue that I'm certain wasn't totally made up "bastard of 3 fathers".
What this allowed is an overall improvement of the tale. Basically people over time could add their favourite stories, remove the more boring ones, and change how events and people play out in the tales. And if this change was approved, the tale would be applauded and it would continue down the line. If the alteration was boring or inefective, then that version did not continue. So over time you end up with a fantastic story that was the product of succesful and interesting development, the best of the best.
Shoulnd't the arturian legend be european equivalant instead ?
It is also a crowdsourced epic, but the theme is slightly different. I am thinking of talking about it one day.
It is interestingly comparable. Liu Bei and Odysseus in The Iliad have a bit in common. Considered crafty to their peers, but nowadays some of their actions might be considered underhanded. Liu Bei betraying Lu Bu for example and Odysseus killing a trojan who offered him ransom to spare his life as a similar example.
@@MrSafior The arthurian legend's development time really isn't that long.
I agree about the new interest in people in the story. I'm a big Ma Chao fan. I'm starting to like Deng Ai. I feel his story is very tragic about serving the wrong lord or faction. But all the dynasties fell because all 3 original leaders worried about the now and never took time to look to the future of their kingdoms. Yuan Shao is a big example why the successor is very important.
I implore you to go into depth about the Warring States period of China, as well
It's lesser known in the west
However, it has a manga based on it's final years, so I came to know of it
I think the protagonists shifted to ShuHan because they were the underdogs, and everyone loves the underdogs in a good story.
Incredible video, well informed, and educational. I will add to the chorus of Three Kingdoms being my all-time favorite book. I even made my own video (that I will NOT encourage people to view after seeing this video) about the book, its history, and the many, modern editions. When I finish reading the book, I then either turn back to page one and start reading again, or pick up a different edition and read that. Thank you for this video.
Big kudos for accurately pointing out the dual/parallel concepts that simultaneously existed in regards to which of the three kingdoms held legitimacy.
A lot of English sources tend to rely on the old/outdated narrative that it was Wei that held the legitimacy until Confucian propaganda of Song-Yuan-Ming periods culminated into Luo Guanzhong's RotTK, which reversed it to uphold Liu Bei as the hero. But the truth is, like explained in the video, there was a clear-cut split in opinion that existed almost immediately after the land was reunified under Jin. As early as the 4th century, already intellectuals and scholars were writing commentaries that rejected the Wei-Jin influenced official histories, and almost 1,000 years before Luo Guanzhong's book ever came out, Liu Bei was already the hero and Cao Cao was deemed the villain among the populace.
The Song-Yuan-Ming era "propaganda" didn't necessarily change or reverse anything -- it merely strengthened that which already existed. The "Shu Han legitimacy theory" always ran parallel with the "Wei-Jin legitimacy theory" for the past 1,800 years -- even up to this day!
Totally agree with the part that the novels grew up and aging with you as you read it in different stage of your life. Known about the period and the novel through the dynasty warriors franchise In my teenage years,Zhao Yun and Guan Yu is my favorite,loyal, honorable,strong pretty much the prototypical main hero. Now am nearly in my thirties I started to gravitate and understand the nuance and merit of Cao Cao's pragmatism,as I no longer sees him as this simple conniving villain, there's many instances of hmmm he got a point kind of moment. Same goes for Sun Quan's dilemma and sympathize more with him rather than seeing him as this wishy-washy treasonous ally. Overall,great video CJ&the team. keep up the great work 👍
As a Chinese student who has studied both "The Romance" and "Records", this is the best episodes collections of explanation these two books I've ever seen on internet. Certainly sharing to anyone interested in the Three Kingdoms!😍
My fave character is Zhou "Gong Jin" Yu, its a pity he died young. Any zhou yu fan aside from me here??
If yes, what makes you like him?
@5anctuary Yesss, he was so good, until death called him too soon, bet if he had been alive, wu wouldve taken yi province.
Hate to see romance otk has villainized his character n made him inferior to kong ming.
I like him too and not really for specific reasons xd he's just a really good man (abilities, personalities and so on)
@5anctuary LMAO it’s xiao qiao
Well done, this answers a lot of the questions I had after playing the Dynasty Warriors video game. It even answered questions that I didn't even know I had.
Excellent video. Very interesting, informative and worthwhile video.
4:12 Not to mention that the founder of the Jin Dynasty was, despite everything, loyal to Cao Cao and respected him.
It was very interesting that one of kings of Jin dynasty, when he realized how his ancester stole the country from Cao and founded Jin dynasty, He covered him face witb hands and cried we all deserve to die.
@@yaweizhi7966 That's Sima Rui, founder of the Eastern Jin dynasty. That was just after the five barbarian nations partitioned Northern China between them after the War of the Eight Princes.
Best analysis of ROTK in English that I could find on UA-cam.
I’ve been reading the book online for free and I’m up to chapter 97, it’s taken me so long, it’s great all the way through, also I’m trying to find more Chinese historical movies / shows, I’ve seen the infamous 2010 3k, and the red cliffs movie, legend of grand
Yu and the 1994. I have just started watching the chu Han contention show of 2012 :) regardless another good video Brutha
bro can u share the link for the online book?
17:37 I just love this visual
obviously details are important to the experience, and I'd never want someone just to look at this instead of reading Romance of the Three Kingdoms for themselves, but WOW does this image capture the essence
I stopped watching this series to go read a translation for myself first. It’s really cool to get a sense of normal people. The stories told about them. The stories they tell about themselves. The stories they read. I even got the total war game to enjoy while reading and beyond. Thanks for introducing me.
great video, so informative! but at 7:13 there is a typo, you spelled Luo Guanzong as Lou Guanzong on the bottom, still fantastic and in the big tittle card you spelt it right!
Lol. Nice catch!
I've read these history over and Over again ...it taught me many things ...loyalty,Fielial Piety,Courageness, Brillianceness,and many more things
Lol, your explanation and analysis are spot-on, and man, are they making me chuckle.
"Crowd-sourced Fanfiction."
This line made me lost it, and best of all, this is very true!
Especially when any stories about Three Kingdoms were often used as some justification for future rulers in future dynasties!
I remember a tale of a _Qing Emperor_ once witnessed an apparition of *Guan Yu,* standing and bowing respectfully before him.
When he asked his ministers about it, the smartest of them congratulated the emperor, saying the emperor was none other than _Liu Bei reincarnated,_ thus explaining the apparition of Guan Yu.
Bravo, my friend, bravo.
"Crowd-sourced Fanfiction"-hah!
We also have the same thing in the present.
It's called *Warhammer 40K.*
I wonder if it too, will be considered as a literary treasure for future generations 🤣🤣🤣
P.S.: Singapore's Orchard Road is still packing?!
Hhaha that just a glimpse of the peach garden oath scene. I miss Lu Yi and Yu Hewei.. 😁
Anyway i love this video, the animation and the research you did. I just knew that the novel evolve or changes through different dynasty
For Liu Bei. It is how he face so many failure that really impressed me,.he never yield. He came from almost nothing except that he is a Liu and then become one of the established lord. But every characters also had their own charm for me :)
really glad u used the green-blue-red for the kingdoms colors
I knew very little about ROTTK, but I got hooked when I watched the goofy, kinda parallel adaptation/inspired series called "K.O.3an Guo". I know that the story is hugely different, but I just loved the characters. And now, I'm just starting to read ROTTK novel. :)
Waiting for my novel to come, I’m very exited . My mom played dynasty warriors with me as a child , I been into Chinese history ever since. I rly can’t wait to get my hand on the novel🥰
Best Three Kingdoms related video on UA-cam!!!
Excellent work my friend. You have excelled yourself!
The waves of the mighty river flowing eastward
Have swept away the brilliant figures of a thousand generations.
West of the old fortress,
So people say, is Lord Zhou's Red Cliff in the time of the Three Kingdoms.
The tumbling rocks thrust into the air;
The roaring surges dash upon the shore,
Rolling into a thousand drifts of snow.
The River and the mountains make a vivid picture-
What a host of heroes once were!
And I recall the young Lord then,
Newly married to the fair younger Qiao,
His valorous features shown forth;
With a feather fan and a silken cap
Amid talking and laughing he put his enemy's ships to ashes and smoke.
While my thoughts wander in the country of old,
Romantic persons might smile at my early grey hair.
Ah, life is but like a dream;
With a cup of wine, let me yet pour a libation to the moon on the river.
My brothers played the strategy games on ps1 and ps2 and bought the book which got me into it which led me wanting to learn history in general. The 90s show and 2010 are good things to watch if people don't want to read though. The 2010 one is on UA-cam with good subtitles also there is a good anime which leaves out most bs anime has and stays true to the story on UA-cam as well but only goes up to red cliff battle and then stops. But there are so many ways for people to see it if they don't want to read but I would still recceomend they read it.
Never had the patience to read the book, but watched the two version of China produced TV series - 1980s and 2010. Both equally good. There is no good or bad guys, only people who gave their best to their objectives and ideals. The 2010 version did more justice to Cao Cao.
@@demonfromhell2022 already watched it. Good to see from this angle after watching so many series /movies based on the very Shu Kingdom- biased 三国演义
Very insightful & well researched intro! Fantastic!
Three Kingdoms is very famous in China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. But not sure how popular it is in other SEA countries though.
Well, even if it's 'only' these countries, it seems it's popular in quite a big part of the world.
basically east asian countries
@@lyhthegreat Vietnam isn't East Asian
It’s really famous in Vietnam, and we Vietnamese usually discuss about it! My favorite general of this era is Zhao Yun or Zhao Zilong.
三国演义 stirs something deep inside. I want to go back in time and dutifully restore the Han. If there are past lives, I would give anything to know what my previous self did during this period.
@小熊维尼
哈哈哈，我会感化张角同志、让他成为一个好马列主义者。
Absolutly true!!!
Anytime time I read, It was giving me a new angle everytime.
Ive read it years ago and i must say i enjoy the visual versions (either movie, comic, or anime) more 😃
CJ, thank you for your videos. Your mastery of the far east's complicated history is staggering.
The SD Gundam World Series is also based on Romance of the Three Kingdoms too.
I had read this book. I did it till the end of the story. During the reading I lost interest to continue when Zhuge Liang dead. I continued reading anyway with heavy heart. ☺
When I was younger I liked wu for not choosing a side in the conflict but helping when necessary or when it benefitted them, when I got out of high school I started to like Liu bei and shu for being more of a populist and understanding the value and support of people not just land or even wealth, as an adult I think I favor cao coa and Wei because they knew in order to make positive changes to the country they have to remove corruption and value ambition and talent instead of a forked tongue or a deceiver. Didn't like his approach but cao cao got shit done, And I can respect that, I loved the dynasty warriors games but I did sit down and watch the 2010 three kingdoms series and I liked it alot.
One interesting bit too is that even prior to the Jurchen Jin dynasty there was already some evidence of common people gravitating towards Shu-Han, such as what was famously recorded in Su Shi's 东坡志林, where children gathered to listen to oral storytelling of Three Kingdoms & cheered for Liu Bei but boo'd at Cao Cao
Someone reply my question with the same answer like you, in another video. I just asked about why Zhuge Liang is so famous to the point thats many shrine and temple build to commemorate him today. I wonder if its just because the novel or because the real man in history
@@echabigail very much the latter, as even in Records of Three Kingdoms there were already written instances of common people in Shu-Han building their own small shrines for Zhuge Liang or even inciting rebellions when the Jin took over in Zhuge Liang's name. The famous Tang era poets Li Bai and Du Fu are also noted fans of Zhuge Liang.
That in fact started in Eastern Jin dynasty as well as the Southern dynasties that followed. After the fall of Western Jin dynasty in 317 to Liu Yuan, a branch of the imperial family re-established themselves in Nanjing, known as the Eastern Jin. This branch was shrouded in rumours of illigitimate birth. So, to compete with Liu Yuan's claim, they started to advocate Shu claim to the throne, which just like their founder, is a distant relative to the Imperial house. Books such as Han Jin Chun Qiu which advocates Shu ligitimacy were published. By the way, the author of Han Jin Chun Qiu is one Xi Zuo Chi, same surname as the current Chinese President.
18:35 AYYY was not expecting the Webtoon to be there
Really good webtoon, I am biased so my favorite part is Sun Ce and Zhou Yu's shenanigans, until... of course.
I’m a descendant of the TANG DYNASTY ERA…my ancient ancestors came from there…proud to be Chinese even though I wasn’t born there.but my blood flows through thick and true…
LuoGuanZhong actually server under warlord during the war establish Ming. So he got a lot of really war experience. Also that's why all the advisor role in the novel is so important(and character whom didnot listen to their advisor would failed, anyone whom listen didn't) because himself was one. That make the books are real good education material for people want to learn strategy. In fact during the raise of QIn, their generals was hand this book as a learning material for real.
This is an excellent introduction, or actually a brilliant commentary.
Koei did it decades ago. Although of Chinese ethics grp , I only came to know the 3 kingdoms 20+ yrs ago,when I played Koei ROTK. And I was hooked since them and bought the novels to read. Before that, I have heard of certain characters like Guan Yu and Zhuge Liang , but not in details. The TW game was late in the game.
I'm half way through the "Three Kingdoms" 2010. Cao Cao in the beginning really messed up and made it a little difficult to "get in" the story but I'm glad I stuck with it. What I get from this story and other Chinese historical dramas is the fight to unite all of China and how this is like the world today, certain people or nations trying to unite the world under their idea of a perfect union.
I learned of ROTK with Dynasty Warriors 3 back in the day. Then I got into the strategy games when I bought ROTK 3 for the SNES, being sold at a local market.
As a teenager, I actually had to request the book from my local library. Reading it was an odd experience since the translation was different than KOEI's translation. Cao Cao for example was spelled Tsao Tsao in the translation I had.
Still a megafan to this day (actually bought Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires this very night). Speaking of Three Kingdoms media, I think Romance of the Three Kingdoms 8 is my favorite Three Kingdoms games. Too bad my emulated ISO of the PS2 version looks weird. I own a legit copy for my PS2, but I wanna play on the PC, and KOEI doesn't have an english version for sale on STEAM.
Well, that's about all my meandering. One final note. My mom has a pet dog I named Lu Bu.
Great video! I'll give the Romance a go after I get through The Dream of a Red Chamber. 😄
Now this is the one I've been waiting for. Buckle up
The novel became way more accessible to me after I played the TW game. Before, it was really hard to put faces on all those miriad characters.