Three Kingdoms: A Historical Novel
fiction
The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus it has ever been.
The Han dynasty is in decline. Courtiers have taken power and rebellious factions are on the march. The capital of the empire, Luoyang, burns, and the tyrannous warlord Dong Zhuo seizes power. Liu Bei, a relative of the Han imperial family, and the warriors Lord Guan and Zhang Fei swear an oath to avenge the dynasty, aid the troubled and endangered, to perish together, and restore the mandate of heaven. These are the opening chapters of Ming dynasty author Luo Guanzhong’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a Chinese national epic on par with other great works such as Homer’s Odyssey, or Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of England.
As part of the ‘World Literature in Translation’ series by the University of California Press, this edition is accompanied by a useful and sophisticated introduction which grounds the reader in both the period of the author and of the action. The original twenty-four volume work has been substantially abridged, so it was a delight to notice that efforts had been made to ensure the representation of women characters, whose devious statecraft, virtuous action, or rebelliousness add much to the story. The polymath Zhuge Liang, known by his nickname ‘Sleeping Dragon’, is a captivating figure, and his wisdom, strategy, and inventiveness are deeply compelling elements of the latter half of the novel.
‘Three Kingdoms’ covers almost an entire century of Chinese history, incorporating elements from historical records, mysticism, poetry, and oral storytelling, with a perfect balance of lyricism and concision. Like history, however, its close opens out onto the endless vista of human activity, and it is with great enthusiasm that I await the publication of Feng Menglong’s Kingdoms in Peril, from the same series by University of California Press, which charts the unification of China under the Qin. The themes explored in Three Kingdoms of imperial ambition, decline, and struggle feel very contemporary today as we enter a new period of great power relations.