U ntil the end of the Qing dynasty in 1912, China was ruled by a millennia-long succession of imperial families. So what, exactly, is the book all about, and why does it still matter so much? It is a shame for this remarkable story to go under-appreciated for such superficial reasons, but it does require some demystification. The writing style is not what most Western readers will be accustomed to: for example, detailed descriptive passages are used sparingly, and much of the scenery is not described at all. The reader is also given a dizzying list of names to memorize, including geographical locations and, for individuals, as many as three different names which may be used interchangeably. Following all the countless narrative threads from start to finish requires multiple readings, especially as some of them seem insignificant at first. The most popular English edition tops out at 1,360 pages, despite being heavily abridged. In China, the novel has been adapted into multiple serialized television programs, as well as a string of blockbuster films, while in Japan and the West it has inspired a number of popular video games.įor the casual reader, however, the book can present a bewildering challenge. Chinese and Japanese culture has drawn heavily on the Three Kingdoms in poetry, artwork, theater, literature, and politics. Partly because the book relates to such a universal phenomenon, it continues to capture imaginations on a global scale. Later editions added to this work, however, and by the seventeenth century the most widely-circulated version had acquired the immortal opening line: ‘Empires wax and wane states cleave asunder and coalesce.’ The amalgamated version we read today is usually attributed to the fourteenth-century playwright Lo Kuan-Chung.
R omance of the Three Kingdoms is among the most widely-read and influential novels in the world, bringing together centuries of accumulated folk tales and popular elaborations relating to the Three Kingdoms period in ancient China (220–280 AD).
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