The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, The Romance of War
By shirly on 2016-04-15

Last time, I have introduced A Dream in Red Mansions, the tragic history of the feudal noble family and tragic love story of the young couple. You may not be interested in such a theme as a boy who are keen on warm-blooded things like wars, battles and fights. Then the Romance of the Three Kingdoms will be undoubtedly a book you will appreciate. As one of the four major classic novels in China, it features on its focus on the the war description. It is a story about combats between three kingdoms, and also the righteousness, benevolence, wisdom and braveness of men. It rarely has any words on women and can be totally called as a men’s book.

\The story begins with the oath in the peach garden. The three men, Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, respectively the incarnation of benevolence, righteousness and braveness. With their Liu Bei’s outstanding leading talents and royal origin, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei’s braveness and battlewise, they soon gain accumulate their reputation. Liu Bei, as the leader of this team, gradually gains some official positions and rises higher and higher. And when he goes and seek refuge with Liu Biao, he witnesses his turning over time. A seires of things following that makes Liu Bei finally become the emperor of Kingdom Shu. He first visits the cottage of Zhuge Liang thrice in succession to invite the famous wise man Zhuge Liang to help him fight for soverignty over rivers and mountains. This episode, interesting and meaninful, lay the solid foundation for Liu Bei’s benevolence, politenss and respect for talents, which later in return helps him to gain many people with ability.

From the book’s name, we can gain the impression that the book is about the battle among three kingdoms as I have introduced before. The other two kingdoms are Kingdom Wei and Kingdom Wu, respectively reigned by Cao Cao and Sun Quan. The land of China at that time is cut into three parts by these three kingdoms. All of them want to conquer each other and become the dominator of the whole China. They weave conspiracies and plots to take possession of others’ domains. Who finally gets the most, who will easily defeat the others and become the dominator of China. So a good adviser is of great importance to assist the ruler. So it is also the battle between advisers. The most famous two advisers at that time. One is Zhuge Liang, and the other is Zhou Yu, the adviser of Sun Quan, the ruler of Kingdom Wu. There are so many battles between the two kingdoms, in which the wisdom of the advisers is applied. However, Zhou Yu, though equipped with profound knowledge and wise brain, is always defeated by Zhege Liang.

Three typical stories fully illustrate the competition between the two wise men and their determination to make it out who is more wiser and knowledgeable. Unfortunately, every time when Zhou Yu works out a good idea to capture Liu Bei, the ruler of Kingdom Shu. But each time, his plot is seen through and resolved by Zhuge Liang. He is so mad these three times that each time his old wound cracks. And finally, after three times’ failure, Zhou Yu, haunted by anger and wound, finally spits blood and dies.

The portrayal of characters in this novel is rather ditinguished. Different characters have different features. As has been told, Liu is well-known for his benevolence. He treats his officials politely and kindly. While Guan Yu, has a different characteristic. His righteousness is widely appreciated. As Cao Cao, who is regarded as the enemy of Kingdom Shu, has some favor on him, he sets him free when he captures Cao. He values friendship and remember all the kindness others give him. And Zhou Yu is depicted as one that is wise but with narrow midn.

Another one important person should not be forgotten in this book. That is Cao Cao, the ruler of Kingdom Wei. He has many shortcomings ----he is addicted to beauties, and he is violent and crule. However, no one can deny his outstanding military talents with great ambition. As his saying goes, I’d rather betray the whole world instead of letting the whole world betray me. However, suspicious and violent as he is, he is keen on reading books. During several decades of his life, he never leave him alone without a book. Therefore, his talents on literature also has its full manifestion on his poems.

This novel marks a wonderful military novels in Chinese literature history. In this book, many military tactics are used. Its status and meaning to Chinese literature history supass many other novels. Therefore, it can be called as classic novel and regarded as a must for Chinese culture gluttons.