Records Of Heroes

{{italic title The ''Records of Heroes'' (英雄記), also known as the Records of Late Han Heroes (漢末英雄記) is a Chinese historical text of the

end of the Han dynasty The end of the Han dynasty was the period of Chinese history from 189 to 220 CE, roughly coinciding with the tumultuous reign of the Han dynasty's last ruler, Emperor Xian. During this period, the country was thrown into turmoil by the Yellow ...

. Written by

Wang Can Wang Can (177 – 17 February 217), courtesy name Zhongxuan, was a Chinese politician and poet who lived during the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. He contributed greatly to the establishment of laws and standards during the founding days o ...

, it contains various stories of the late Han warlords. The book was lost at some point in history, and the only surviving accounts of it are from the '' Annotations to Records of the Three Kingdoms'' by Pei Songzhi. During the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

, Wang Shijian (王世間) compiled these fragments and published them as a collection. The exact year in which it was written cannot be ascertained. However, among its stories which are clearly defined by year, as the year 208's anecdote that "in the middle of

Battle of Red Cliff The Battle of Red Cliffs, also known as the Battle of Chibi, was a decisive naval battle in the winter of AD 208–209 at the end of the Han dynasty, about twelve years prior to the beginning of the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history. ...

, Cao Cao tried to cross the Yangtze River by connecting lots of rafts, however, as

Zhou Yu Zhou Yu (, ) (175–210), courtesy name Gongjin (), was a Chinese military general and strategist serving under the warlord Sun Ce in the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. After Sun Ce died in the year 200, he continued serving under Sun Quan, ...

delivered fire attacks on it, Cao Cao had to retreat" (this story can be found at book 771 of ''

Imperial Readings of the Taiping Era The ''Taiping Yulan'', translated as the ''Imperial Reader'' or ''Readings of the Taiping Era'', is a massive Chinese ''leishu'' encyclopedia compiled by a team of scholars from 977 to 983. It was commissioned by the imperial court of the Son ...

'') It is likely that the book was written between 208 and 217 when Wang Can died. The ''

Book of Sui The ''Book of Sui'' (''Suí Shū'') is the official history of the Sui dynasty. It ranks among the official Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. It was written by Yan Shigu, Kong Yingda, and Zhangsun Wuji, with Wei Zheng as the lead author. ...

'' says that "There were eight books by Wang Can named ''Records of Late Han Heroes''. They are lost. There were 10 books during the Liang (梁) period." The ''

Old Book of Tang The ''Old Book of Tang'', or simply the ''Book of Tang'', is the first classic historical work about the Tang dynasty, comprising 200 chapters, and is one of the Twenty-Four Histories. Originally compiled during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdo ...

'' says that "

ne of NE, Ne or ne may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Neutral Evil, an alignment in the American role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'' * New Edition, an American vocal group * Nicomachean Ethics, a collection of ten books by Greek philosopher Ar ...

Wang Can's ten books were named ''Records of Late Han Heroes''". Here it is likely that ''Records of Late Han Heroes'' is identical to ''Records of Heroes''. Regarding the words "Late Han" in the title, ''

Siku Quanshu Zongmu Tiyao The ''Siku Quanshu Zongmu Tiyao'' ("Annotated Catalog of the Complete Imperial Library") is an annotated catalog of the thousands of works that were considered for inclusion in the '' Siku Quanshu''. Work for the 200-chapter catalog began in 1773 ...

'' argued that "presumably, Wang Can died when the Han dynasty still existed. Though there were so many symptoms that the Han dynasty was near its death, Emperor Xian still was on the throne. Wang Can surely could not use the words of "Late Han" as the title of his book, therefore "Late Han" is thought to be introduced by future generations. However as Wang Can described Cao Cao as "holy ruler" (聖君) in his "

A Poem of Military Service A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...

" (從軍詩), we cannot say with full certainty that Wang Can did not put "Late Han" in the title of his book". Chinese history texts 3rd-century history books History books about the Han dynasty