Keywords for reading notes of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms":
1. "The rolling Yangtze River flows eastward, and the waves wash away the heroes..." When people mention this poem, people will think of one of the four famous works. One's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the full name is "The Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms", was compiled by Luo Guanzhong, a writer of the Ming Dynasty. As can be seen from the title, this novel is based on the "Three Kingdoms", but it is not as solemn as an official history, but an ancient vernacular novel. Compared with "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has become more artistic. Below, I will comment on this 660,000-word masterpiece from several aspects.
1. Truth and Fiction
The biggest difference between romance and official history is that romance is not entirely true, romance is a novel. Everyone says that "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is 70% historical fact and 30% fiction, which is indeed the case. But fiction is made using artistic techniques, not just any historical facts. For example, Guan Gong warmed wine and beheaded Hua Xiong. This incident was not written in the history books. For another example, regarding the meeting with Lu Su alone, the history books say that Lu Su went alone to meet with Guan Yu. There are of course countless similar examples. After reading it and doing a little analysis, it can be seen that most of these fictional plots are foreshadowing each character described in the novel. Because, if we just create real characters as mentioned in the official history, some characters will be contrary to the author's political and ideological views. Moreover, while fictionalizing, the author also paid attention to the rationality and coherence of the plot, rather than rigid fiction. This is why after reading it, you will feel like you are actually there. In short, the author's writing in this aspect is quite successful, and these plots also reflect part of the author's subjective wishes.
2. Deification and vilification
The characters in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" are not entirely real people, but characters who have been processed from official history. Among them, some are deified. Characters and vilified characters.
Typical representatives of deified characters are Zhuge Liang and Guan Yu. The place where Zhuge Liang is deified is "the prophet of uncertainty", and the place where Guan Yu is deified is "loyalty" and "righteousness". Next, I would like to briefly compare why the author focuses on deifying these two people.
Zhu Xi, a famous Neo-Confucian scholar in the Southern Song Dynasty, believed that the Shu Han was the orthodox among the Three Kingdoms. Zhu Xi's previous views, starting from Chen Shou, were mostly based on Cao Wei. Since Zhu Xi, kings, ministers, and people have also begun to accept Zhu Xi's views. The reason is that this view is in line with Confucianism and can be accepted by the ruling class. Luo Guanzhong also agreed with Zhu Xi's point of view. Therefore, most of the characters he deified were loyal to the "Han Dynasty". Among them, the author writes Zhuge Liang as the embodiment of "wisdom" and Guan Yu as the embodiment of "loyalty" and "righteousness". This is why, influenced by "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the rulers during the Daoguang period gave Guan Yu a posthumous title of more than thirty characters.
As for uglification, it is basically for deification. For example, Zhou Yu was a hero who died young in history, but "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" describes him as a man who was jealous of the virtuous and capable. Most of the ugliness serves as a foil for the deification.
3. Characters and Clues
One of the great successes of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is that it has successfully created many characters with distinctive personalities, such as: the resourceful Zhuge Liang, the courageous and loyal Guan Yu, Zhang Fei who is rough but fine, Liu Bei who is loyal and honest, Zhao Yun who is both brave and resourceful, Cao Cao who is cunning and suspicious, Zhou Yu who is jealous of talents and talents, Mi Heng who is arrogant and talented and so on. The author uses the characterization of details to reflect the distinctive characteristics of the characters. For example, when writing about Zhang Fei, in the 70th chapter, the author gave a detailed description of Zhang Fei's war case in which Zhang Fei used a small trick to outwit Zhang He. At the same time, he also added a dialogue between Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei, which further showed that Zhuge Liang's resourcefulness.
"The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" can handle a variety of characters and the intricate relationships between them just right, because the author not only has real writing, fictional writing, detailed writing, abbreviation, narration, and flashbacks in his writing , and the author uses the literary technique of narrating along clues. The main clue of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is the establishment and destruction of the Shu Han regime until the three-point return to the Jin Dynasty, with sub-clues interspersed among them. For example, during the Battle of Chibi, the author unfolds the narrative from three clues: Liu Bei, Sun Quan, and Cao Cao. These three clues are interrelated, and only one or two clues will be described in a chapter. This interweaving will make the reader feel very coherent, instead of the lengthy and boring reading of only one clue.
4. Feudalism and Kingship
One of the political and ideological views expressed in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is the advocacy of typical Confucianism - Kingship and benevolent government. A large part of the fictional storylines in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" are designed to express this idea. It is precisely because of this that the author boldly created a series of artistic images of "loyalty" and "righteousness" in his works.
The first is Zhuge Liang.
Zhuge Liang described in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is the embodiment of "loyalty" and "wisdom". In particular, the author uses all his strength to exaggerate Zhuge Liang's "wisdom".
In the ruling group of the landlord class at that time, Zhuge Liang was a person who saw problems more acutely, had courage and strategy, and was able to adapt to changes. However, it has these advantages because of its emphasis on practice. For example, when Cao Cao captured Jingzhou and led his troops southward, Zhuge Liang analyzed the situation at that time to Sun Quan and predicted that Cao Cao would be defeated. It was precisely because Zhuge Liang had compared the strengths and weaknesses of the enemy and ourselves before the war. For another example, Zhuge Liang dared to use the "empty city strategy" because he analyzed the situation of the enemy and our generals and knew that Sima Yi knew that he was "cautious in life and never takes risks." Therefore, he took advantage of Sima Yi's long-term understanding of himself and adopted a very special strategy. The suspicious strategy of "taking risks" resolved the crisis. However, in more chapters, the author writes Zhuge Liang as a "prophetic" figure. For example, Zhuge Liang's several "watching the sky at night" and several "ingenious suggestions". And in "Sacrificing the Wind at the Seven-Star Altar", the description is even more absurd. Similar problems can also be seen in "Eight Formations of Qiaobu", "Banshi Sacrifice to Lushui", "Wuzhangyuan Jingxing" and "Dingjun Mountain Revealing the Saint".
Guan Yu is also a character described in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms". In the author's writing, Guan Yu has also changed from a general with the same status as Zhao Yun and Huang Zhong in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" to a brave and loyal hero in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms". "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" beautifies Guan Yu in this way entirely to promote the feudal ideas of "loyalty" and "righteousness". After "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Guan Yu became a figure that fully conformed to the ideals of the feudal ruling class, and Guan Yu's influence among the people became wider and wider. The rulers of the Ming and Qing Dynasties named him the "Great Emperor" several times and built temples for him everywhere. This clearly shows how the description of "loyalty" and "righteousness" advocated by Guan Yu is very suitable for the needs of feudal rulers.