Records of the Three Kingdoms in Plain Language

by Anonymous, Wilt L. Idema (Translator), Stephen H. West (Translator)

The saga of the Three Kingdoms—which recounts the dramatic story of the civil wars (ca. 180–220 CE) that divided the old Han Empire into the Shu, Wei, and Wu states—remains as popular as ever in China, having served as the basis of not only traditional operas and ballads, but also, in more recent years, of movies, television dramas, and video games.

Translated into English for the first time here, the Sanguozhi pinghua (thirteenth century CE) provides a complete and fast-paced narrative account of the events of the period, from the beginning of the civil wars to the demise of the Three Kingdoms and the short-lived reunification of the realm by the Jin dynasty. Shorter, clearer, and more accessible to Western audiences than Luo Guanzhong’s later, greatly expanded Romance ( Sanguo yanyi )—and beautifully rendered in this edition by two modern-day masters of the art of Chinese literary translation—the Records of the Three Kingdoms in Plain Language provides an ideal introduction to one of the foundational Chinese epic traditions.

Tables of major Chinese dynasties and reigns, a guide to understanding formal Chinese naming conventions, a glossary of Chinese names and terms, and reproductions of some woodcuts from the original edition of the text are included.

Genres: History, China

224 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2016

About the author

Books can be attributed to "Anonymous" for several reasons:

* They are officially published under that name
* They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author
* They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author

Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.

See also: Anonymous

Reviews

[WanderingHands · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extremely informative translation with lots of footnotes. I found the piece itself is pretty dry but a good summary of the major events of the period/myths surrounding it.

[Declan Pearce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pros:
Written using the original writing techniques
Useful and informative footnotes
Well-paced

Cons:
Uses traditional naming conventions i.e. multiple names for the same person
I had to read poems

[Emma Chen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I sure had a lot of fun with this book. A lot of it is completely ridiculous, but that just makes it all the more fun, and, at the same time, gives us insight into how the Chinese passed down their oral tradition. I'd call this book Romance of the Three Kingdoms' funny uncle, and I don't recommend reading this book if you haven't read that one. Since it's so brief, it doesn't go into detail, so you'll probably get mixed up with all the names and titles, because it does do funny things like constantly throughout refer to Liu Bei as "the first emperor" and refer to Zhuge Liang as "martial marquis," and about four other names. So, if you've read Romance of the Three Kingdoms and are looking for something a little bit more (I can't imagine why since that book is huge) I really recommend checking this out.
Another thing, though this book is very short, it give a little bit more of the story than Romance of the Three Kingdoms did. So, there's that too. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.