From 198 1, I began to study the romance of the Three Kingdoms systematically. In the process of repeated study, I found some mistakes in the book one after another.
For example, Zhang Fei's original word "one virtue" was mistaken for "one virtue" in Romance; Zhuge Liang's son, Zhuge Zhan, is an official general, but romantically named as "marching general"; In history, Yuan Shao once sealed the village township, but the Romance was wrongly called the Qi township. Ye Liu, an important counselor of Cao Cao, originally wrote Ziyang, but The Romance was mistaken for Ziyang. Li Dian, Cao Cao's general, was originally from Yangshan Juye, but romantically he was mistakenly called "Yangshan Julu Man". ...
Is it necessary to continue to make such mistakes, which is not conducive to the development of the plot and characterization, and can only leave a wrong impression on readers? I doubt it and think it should be corrected.
To 1985 1 month, Comrade Ren and I co-wrote the article "Geographical Errors in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms-From the Battle of Weinan" (the first edition of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences Press, 1985, 1 edition), and made a comment on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms in Luo Guanzhong, by Shen Bojun, Feng Chun Literature and Art Publishing House, 1999.
1986- 1987 Mr. Tan and I jointly compiled the dictionary of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. I have done a lot of textual research on the characters and plots in romance novels, and 623 comments have been added to the characters' words alone, a large part of which is to point out the "technical mistakes" in romance novels.
For example, Mao Ben's History of the Three Kingdoms says that Dong Guifei is Dong Cheng's sister (the 24th time), and my annotation is: "According to the history of Empress Fu in the later Han Dynasty, Dong Guifei (Romance of the Three Kingdoms) should be Dong Cheng's daughter."
According to the romance, Cao Yu is the son of Cao Pi (back to 106), the Emperor of Wei Wen. My comment is: "According to the biography of the reflection of Wei Shuwu and Shi Wen, Cao Yu is the son of Cao Cao and was born to his wife Cao Huan."
I also explained with notes that there were two Liu Dai in the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty: one was from Muping, Donglai, who was once the secretariat of Yanzhou, and was killed by the Qingzhou Yellow Scarf Army in the third year of Chuping (192); One is Cao Cao's subordinate Pei Guoren. He used to be a general history. In the fourth year of Jian 'an (199), he was ordered to follow Zhong Wang to Xuzhou to attack Liu Bei. Romance confuses them because they have the same name and word, which leads to mistakes. ...
Through such solid work, I have a more comprehensive understanding of the "technical mistakes" in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and I feel more and more that this is the need of the times and the historical mission that our generation of literati should undertake.
So, I resolutely started this huge academic project.
Shen Bojun and Ye Li proofread Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Bashu Publishing House, 1995 edition.
For a long time, there has been a tendency in academic circles to pay more attention to monographs than to arrangement. In fact, academic history has repeatedly proved that compiling a good version, especially the version with great difficulty and innovative methods, is as valuable as writing a monograph, and may even far exceed some monographs.
Sorting out the versions of the Three Kingdoms may have a greater practical effect on readers and research than expressing one's own views on some issues, and its vitality may be much longer. In this regard, I have no hesitation.
In the process of proofreading, I refined and deepened my understanding, and published two weighty papers successively: On Geographical Errors in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Journal of Hainan University, No.4, 1990) and Several Problems in Revising the Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Social Science Research, No.6, 1990).