The ''Records or History of the Three Kingdoms'', also known by its
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
in the Three Kingdoms period into a single compiled text.
The ''Records of the Three Kingdoms'' is the main source of influence for the 14th century historical novel '' Romance of the Three Kingdoms,'' considered one of the great four novels of
Chinese classical literature
Chinese classic texts or canonical texts () or simply dianji (典籍) refers to the Chinese texts which originated before the imperial unification by the Qin dynasty in 221 BC, particularly the "Four Books and Five Classics" of the Neo-Confucian ...
.
Major chunks of the records have been translated into English, but the tome has yet to be fully translated.
Book of the Later Han
The ''Book of the Later Han'', also known as the ''History of the Later Han'' and by its Chinese name ''Hou Hanshu'' (), is one of the Twenty-Four Histories and covers the history of the Han dynasty from 6 to 189 CE, a period known as the Later ...
'', and the ''Records of the Three Kingdoms'' make up the four early historical texts of the '' Twenty-Four Histories'' canon. The ''Records of the Three Kingdoms'', also known as ''Sanguozhi'', contains 65 volumes and about 360,000 Chinese characters broken into three books. The ''Book of Wei'' contains 30 volumes, the ''Book of Shu'' 15 volumes, while the ''Book of Wu'' contains 20 volumes. Each volume is organised in the form of one or more biographies.
The author Chen Shou, was born in present-day
Nanchong
Nanchong (; Sichuanese: lan2cong1) is a prefecture-level city in the northeast of Sichuan province, China, with an area of . At the 2020 census it was home to 5,607,565 people, of whom 1,936,534 lived in the built-up (or 'metro') area made of th ...
Shu Han
Han (; 221–263), known in historiography as Shu Han ( ) or Ji Han ( "Junior Han"), or often shortened to Shu (; pinyin: ''shŭ'' <
Conquest of Shu by Wei
The Conquest of Shu by Wei was a military campaign launched by the dynastic state of Cao Wei against its rival Shu Han in late 263 during the Three Kingdoms period of China. The campaign culminated in the fall of Shu Han and the tripartite equi ...
in 263, he became an official historian under the government of the Jin dynasty, and created a history of the Three Kingdoms period. After the Conquest of Wu by Jin in 280, his work received the acclaim of senior minister Zhang Hua.
Prior to the Jin dynasty, both the states of Cao Wei and Wu has already composed their own official histories, such as the ''Book of Wei'' by Wang Chen, the ''
Weilüe
The ''Weilüe'' () was a Chinese historical text written by Yu Huan between 239 and 265. Yu Huan was an official in the state of Cao Wei (220–265) during the Three Kingdoms period (220–280). Although not a formal historian, Yu Huan has been h ...
Wei Zhao Wei Zhao and Zhao Wei may refer to:
People surnamed Wei
*Wei Zhao (Eastern Wu) (韋昭; 204–273), Chinese scholar during the Three Kingdoms period
*Wei Zhao (footballer) (魏釗; born 1983), Hong Kong football goalkeeper
People surnamed Zhao
*Zh ...
. Chen Shou used these texts as the foundation of the ''Records of the Three Kingdoms''. However, since the state of Shu lacked documents about its history, the ''Book of Shu'' in the ''Records'' was composed by Chen Shou himself based on his personal memories of his early life in Shu and other primary sources he collected, such as the writings of Zhuge Liang.
The ''Records of the Three Kingdoms'' used the year 220 AD—which marks the end of the Han dynasty—as the year in which the state of Wei was established. The ''Records'' refer to the rulers of Wei as 'Emperors' and those of Shu and Wu as 'Lords' or by their personal names.
Legacy
The Records of the Three Kingdoms was the main source of inspiration for the 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, one of the four great Classic Chinese Novels. As such the records is considered one of the most influential historical and cultural texts in Chinese history. In addition, the records provide one of the earliest accounts of Korea and Japan. Chen's Records set the standard for how Korea and Japan would write their official histories as well.
Influence on Asia
Chen's Records is the final text of the "Four Histories" (), which together influenced and served as a model for Korean and Japanese official histories.
The ''Records'' are important to the research of early Korean ( ''Samguk ji'') and Japanese history (三国志 Sangokushi). It provides, among other things, the first detailed account of Korean and Japanese societies such as Goguryeo, Yemaek and Wa. The passages in Volume 30 about the Wa, where the Yamatai-koku and its ruler Queen Himiko are recorded, are referred to as the '' Wajinden'' in Japanese studies. The Japanese started writing their own records in the early 7th century and the earliest extant native record is the ''
Kojiki
The , also sometimes read as or , is an early Japanese chronicle of myths, legends, hymns, genealogies, oral traditions, and semi-historical accounts down to 641 concerning the origin of the Japanese archipelago, the , and the Japanese imperia ...
'' of 712.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
The text forms the foundation on which the 14th-century novel '' Romance of the Three Kingdoms'' is based. In addition, Chen Shou's literary style and vivid portrayal of characters have been a source of influence for the novel.
The Records include biographies of historical figures such as
Cao Cao
Cao Cao () (; 155 – 15 March 220), courtesy name Mengde (), was a Chinese statesman, warlord and poet. He was the penultimate Grand chancellor (China), grand chancellor of the Eastern Han dynasty, and he amassed immense power in the End of ...
Due to the biographical rather than primarily annalistic arrangement of the work, assigning dates to the historical content is both imprecise and non-trivial. Certain volumes contain background information about their subjects' forebears which date back centuries before the main record. For example, the biography of Liu Yan begins with discussing his ancestor Liu Yu's enfeoffment at Jingling (present-day Tianmen, Hubei) in around 85 AD. The first event to receive detailed description throughout the work is the
Yellow Turban Rebellion
The Yellow Turban Rebellion, alternatively translated as the Yellow Scarves Rebellion, was a List of peasant revolts, peasant revolt in China against the Eastern Han dynasty. The uprising broke out in 184 CE during the reign of Emperor Ling of ...
in 184. Many biographies make passing mention of the event, but more concrete information such as correspondence and troop movements during the uprising can be found in fragmentary form in at least four volumes: the biographies of Cheng Yu, Yu Jin, Liu Bei, and
Sun Jian
Sun Jian () () (155–191?), courtesy name Wentai, was a Chinese military general, politician, and warlord who lived during the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. He allied himself with Yuan Shu in 190 when warlords from eastern China formed a ...
.
The three books in the ''Records of the Three Kingdoms'' end at different dates, with the main section of the ''Book of Wei'' ending with the abdication of
Cao Huan
Cao Huan () (245/246–302/303), courtesy name Jingming, was the fifth and last emperor of the state of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period. On 4 February 266, he abdicated the throne in favour of Sima Yan (later Emperor Wu of the Jin dyn ...
in 265, the ''Book of Shu'' ending with the death of Liu Shan in 271, and the ''Book of Wu'' ending with the death of Sun Hao in 284.
One abstract regarding the chronology is translated as follows:
Pei Songzhi
Pei Songzhi (372–451), courtesy name Shiqi, was a Chinese historian and politician who lived in the late Eastern Jin dynasty and Liu Song dynasty. His ancestral home was in Wenxi County, Shanxi, but he moved to the Jiangnan region later. He i ...
(372–451) extensively annotated Chen Shou's ''Records of the Three Kingdoms'' using a variety of other sources, augmenting the text to twice the length of the original. This work, completed in 429, became one of the official histories of the Three Kingdoms period, under the title ''Sanguozhi zhu'' (三国志注 ''zhu'' meaning "notes").
Pei collected other records to add information he felt should be added. He provided detailed explanations to some of the geography and other elements mentioned in the original. He also included multiple accounts of the same events. Sometimes, the accounts he added contradicted each other, but he included them anyway since he could not decide which version was the correct one. If Pei added something that sounded wrong, he would make a note or even offer a correction. In regard to historical events and figures, as well as Chen Shou's original text, he added his own commentary. Crucially, he cited his sources in almost every case.
Translations
The ''Records of the Three Kingdoms'' has not been fully translated into English. William Gordon Crowell alludes to a project to translate Chen Shou's work with Pei Songzhi's commentary in full, but it was apparently discontinued. Parts of that project are published by Robert Joe Cutter and William Gordon Crowell under the title ''Empresses and Consorts: Selections from Chen Shou's Records of the Three States With Pei Songzhi's Commentary'' ( University of Hawaii Press, 1999), which includes the translations for volumes 5, 34, and 50.
Other translations include Kenneth J. Dewoskin's ''Doctors Diviners and Magicians of Ancient China: Biographies of Fang-Shih'' ( Columbia University Press, 1983), which includes a full translation of volume 29.
Rafe de Crespigny
Richard Rafe Champion de Crespigny (born 1936), also known by his Chinese name Zhang Leifu (), is an Australian sinologist and historian. He was an adjunct professor in the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University. ...
, in addition to his translation of Sun Jian's biography (Volume 46), also translated excerpts of the ''Records of the Three Kingdoms'' in his translation of the '' Zizhi Tongjian'' that deals with the last years of the Han dynasty, as does
Achilles Fang
Achilles Chih-t'ung Fang (; August 20, 1910November 22, 1995) was a Chinese scholar, translator, and educator, best known for his contributions to Chinese literature and comparative literature. Fang was born in Japanese-occupied Korea, but atten ...
, who translated the ''Zizhi Tongjian'' volumes that deal with the Three Kingdoms period proper. The ''Zizhi Tongjian'' volumes in question draw heavily from ''Records of the Three Kingdoms''. Further excerpts of the ''Records'' can be found in various sourcebooks dealing with East Asian history.
Below is a table containing the known English translations of the ''Records of the Three Kingdoms'' that have been published in academia:Note that although there is a book that bills itself as Records of the Three Kingdoms in Plain Language ', it is not a translation of ''Sanguozhi'', but a translation of ''Sanguozhi Pinghua'' ("Pinghua" means "plain language"), a novel that served as the basis for the later and more famous '' Romance of the Three Kingdoms''.
Lists of people of the Three Kingdoms
The following are lists of people significant to the Three Kingdoms period (220–280) of Chinese history. Their names in Mandarin pinyin are sorted in alphabetical order.
Fictional characters in the 14th-century historical novel ''Romance of ...
*
Timeline of the Three Kingdoms period
This is a timeline of the Three Kingdoms period (220–280) of Chinese history. In a strict academic sense, the Three Kingdoms period refers to the interval between the founding of the state of Cao Wei (220–266) in 220 and the conquest of the ...
*
Military history of the Three Kingdoms
The military history of the Three Kingdoms period encompasses roughly a century's worth of prolonged warfare and disorder in Chinese history. After the assassination of General-in-chief He Jin in September 189, the administrative structures ...
* Chen Shou, the author of the Records of the Three Kingdoms
*
Luo Guanzhong
Luo Ben (c. 1330–1400, or c.1280–1360), better known by his courtesy name Guanzhong (Mandarin pronunciation: ), was a Chinese writer who lived during the Ming dynasty. He was also known by his pseudonym Huhai Sanren (). Luo was attri ...
, the attributed author of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and who was influenced by Chen's writing