In 2014 a new translation by Yu Sumei was released in three volumes.īelow you can read the Brewitt-Taylor translation. The most popular English translations are done arguably by Moss Roberts in 1994 and Charles Henry Brewitt-Taylor in 1925 (both reprinted several times). Romance of the Three Kingdoms has been translated several times. Read Romance of the Three Kingdoms online To this day his work still serves as main inspiration for TV series, movies and videogames. With Romance Luo Guanzhong has become the most succesful author of fictional Three Kingdoms. Those 30% were taken from various fictional accounts such as Sanguo zhi pinghua (' A storytelling of the Records of the Three Kingdoms'), from which the Peach Garden Oath was taken, various folklores and opera's (where Diaochan's story comes from), and, of course Luo Guanzhong's own mind. Qing dynasty historian Zhang Xuecheng 章学诚 once wrote that Romance was 70% historically correct and 30% of it was fictional, but this statement seems to generous and is often considered incorrect. The historical work written by Chen Shou for the Jin dynasty.

One of the sources that Luo Guanzhong took inspiration from was, of course, the Records of the Three Kingdoms. The word 'compilation' is perhaps a bit of an exaggeration, because Luo Guanzhong has added many characters and events himself, but the base of the novel lies within other works. Romance of the Three Kingdoms, as a whole, is traditionally attributed to its author Luo Guanzhong, but it should be noted that Luo Guanzhong has taken inspiration of many other (fictitious) works and that Romance of the Three Kingdoms could arguably be seen as a compilation.

It mostly covers the lives of the men who rose to prominence during the waning years of Han, such as Cao Cao or Sun Quan, but spends only few pages covering the events that led to the fall of the Three Kingdoms, thus prominent people during the final years of the Three Kingdoms, such as Sima Zhao or Du Yu appear only in few pages. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is based upon the turbulant years near the end of the Han dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period starting with the Yellow Turban Rebellion and ending with the unification of China by Jin.

2 Read Romance of the Three Kingdoms online.

Romance of the three kingdoms 13 cajole