Seven Parts Truth

Three Kingdoms: Introduction

Before we get to the text, my edition has a 20-page introduction from 1999 by a professor from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. It is a standard introduction: the book’s author, sources, themes, style, and influence. 

I once heard that you should wait to read a book’s introduction until you’ve read the whole book, so that the text can speak for itself. I did some of that here. When the introduction described the book’s themes and evidence for those themes in the text, I only skimmed this. I didn’t want major plot elements spoiled.

The author had many sources for Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Some of its famous fictional episodes like the Peach Garden Oath are not “inventions of the author but have their roots in folk traditions.” (p. 14). The book is traditionally described as “seven parts truth to three parts fiction” (p. 14). But it is not a mere compilation: the book is a “qualitative leap” (p. 7) from any preceding works. 

Romance is a story of heroes: “history as a series of biographies” (p. 15). I am expecting a series of legendary chronicles, with little room for love and marriage, physical surroundings, and psychological motivations (p. 16). This kind of focus helps explain how I first heard of the book: legendary chronicles are great source material for a Magic: the Gathering expansion. I am expecting many characters in heroic conflicts. Sounds great!