★★★★☆ Classic historical novel of ancient China

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Luo Guanzhong, Ronald C. Iverson (Editor), Yu Sumei (Translator)

There are four widely-recognized classic Chinese novels. Seriously, do a web search for "classic Chinese novels" and you will find dozens of pages referring to "The Four Classic Novels of Chinese Literature". (Wikipedia lists six on its Classic Chinese Novels page" -- these include the usual four, plus two others.) The phrase "Four classic Chinese novels" also appears frequently in commentary on Chinese literature. The four are

Romance of the Three Kingdoms
The Water Margin
Journey to the West
Dream of the Red Chamber

Some of these come in multiple versions, even in Chinese, and multiple English translations, often with different titles. (For instance, Dream of the Red Chamber is also known as The Story of the Stone.) So it can get a little confusing. In my (inexpert) opinion, Three Kingdoms is the best novel of the first three. (I don't include Dream of the Red Chamber in my judgment because its discussions of Chinese poetry, art, and calligraphy are too far over my head.)

Don't be confused by the word "romance" -- it is used in its original sense -- essentially just "novel". Three Kingdoms is not a story of romantic love. It is a historical novel of the very early days of China, in the second and third centuries, before China existed as a single nation. It describes the political and military battles for the rule of what would eventually become China. It was written much later (mostly 15th century, although modern versions incoroporate later editing by other writers). Although Luo Guanzhong referred to historical records, the narrative of Three Kingdoms is probably not terribly accurate with regard to real events. (My own impression is that Three Kingdoms is roughly as accurate a guide to historical events as Shakespeare's plays, and less accurate than, say, Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series.) There is, however, one way in which Three Kingdoms feels quite real. Real history is big and messy. Three Kingdoms is also big and messy.

The most famous incident in Three Kingdoms is called the Peach Orchard Oath. This is a version of the Oath (from Wikipedia)

When saying the names Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, although the surnames are different, yet we have come together as brothers. From this day forward, we shall join forces for a common purpose: to save the troubled and to aid the endangered. We shall avenge the nation above, and pacify the citizenry below. We seek not to be born on the same day, in the same month and in the same year. We merely hope to die on the same day, in the same month and in the same year. May the Gods of Heaven and Earth attest to what is in our hearts. If we should ever do anything to betray our friendship, may heaven and the people of the earth both strike us dead.

It is not clear that this ever happened in reality -- historical sources don't mention it. It is likely that Luo adapted the story from folktales.

It has, however become historical. The Peach Orchard Oath has resonated down Chinese culture and history. For instance, it is referenced in Water Margin. It has served as a model for Chinese secret societies and military organizations. And it is central to Three Kingdoms. Although, as I said above, Three Kingdoms is a story of extraordinary complexity, from a certain point of view it is simple. Liu, Guan, and Zhang can rely completely on each other -- this gives them an advantage over the hundreds of other generals and would-be emperors they face, for whom treachery is entirely routine and to be expected.

If you read just one classic Chinese novel, it should be Three Kingdoms.

Amazon review

Goodreads review

Comments

★★★★☆ What are these people?

Red Side Story Jasper Fforde When I reviewed Shades of Grey , the first novel in Jasper Fforde 's Shades of Grey series, I asked Although I referred to Eddie as a young man, it is not clear to me what the people of the Collective are. I think they are more-or-less human. ... However, in some ways they behave like automata. These are puzzles that I hope Jasper Fforde will clear up in subsequent novels in the Shades of Grey series. Now I'm patting myself on the back, because that is indeed what Red Side Story is about. Or so say I. You might think it is about other things -- a love story, a fight to survive, a battle for justice, a cycle race -- and you would not be wrong. Red Side Story contains multitudes. Shades of Grey ended in a flurry of revelations about the Collective. Eddie, Jane and Courtland Gamboge visited the abandoned town of High Saffron, where Jane revealed that all the people supposedly sent to Reboot were in fact sent here to die. Eddie and Jane vowed

★★★☆☆ Not this

Selected Poems (Dover Thrift Editions) by Emily Dickinson Emily Dickinson For me the essential experience of poetry is the “Yes, THAT!” moment, when you read a verse, and you know EXACTLY what it means. A moment was captured, a feeling, a thought. Now, I do not claim that this is the only way to experience poetry, or the right way, or the best way. It is only my way. This works if the mind of the poet and the mind of the reader meet. That makes the experience of poetry very personal. And, I am sorry to say, Emily Dickinson ’s mind and mine didn’t often meet. It was not a complete loss. For instance, this landed The bustle in a house The morning after death Is solemnest of industries Enacted upon Earth,— The sweeping up the heart, And putting love away We shall not want to use again Until eternity. But it was one of perhaps three poems in this collection that did. Even the famous “Because I could not stop for Death” didn’t do much for me. Part of the problem for me was that Dickinson

★★★☆☆ Moon gods, metaphysics, and sneers

Tidal Creatures Seanan McGuire Tidal Creatures is the third novel in Seanan McGuire 's Alchemical Journeys series, or the seventh if you include the Up and Under books. The unifying principle behind the series is the personification of things that are not persons, objectively or scientifically speaking, such as the Doctrine of Ethos ( Middlegame ), Winter and Summer ( Seasonal Fears ), and now the Moon. Five of the main characters are Moon goddesses (Aske, Change'e, Artemis, Diana) and a Moon god (Máni). We also meet Kelpie, who is not in fact a Kelpie, but a personification of Artemis's Hind. Each of the gods/goddesses is in fact two persons -- a god/dess and an ordinary human whose body the two share. McGuire explains the relationship at length. Roger Zelazny began his career by writing about thirty stories, which he sent to all the Science Fiction magazines, for which purpose he had made a comprehensive list. In this way he collected 150 rejections and no accept

★★★★★ Twenty-five years of recreational mathematics

Hexaflexagons and Other Mathematical Diversions Martin Gardner In 1967 my Aunt Althea, the very best of all possible aunts, gave me a subscription to Scientific American for my twelfth birthday. I remined a subscriber until the 1990s. Among the best features of SA were the monthly columns "The Amateur Scientist", where you could learn how to build a laser in your garage -- you think I'm joking, but I'm serious -- and Martin Gardner 's Recreational Mathematics column "Mathematical Games". Yes, I know that to many of you the phrase "recreational mathematics" makes about as much sense as "recreational colonoscopy", but there are enough people who were willing to entertain the idea that math could be fun to sustain Gardner 's column for 26 years. I was one, and Gardner was brilliant. These columns were collected and published in fifteen books by SA . The best way to get them now is in electronic form. There is a searchable CD

★★★☆☆ A LOT of novel

Myriad Joshua David Bellin Once when I was a postdoc at MIT, I heard physicist Alan Guth speak in the Physics Colloquium. Guth was known for having invented the idea of Cosmic Inflation , that the universe exploded in size just BEFORE the Big Bang, setting the initial conditions for the Big Bang. (Versions of this idea are now mainstream physics.) In his Colloquium, he discussed the possibility that inflation could start anytime, anywhere, from quantum fluctuations. This, he showed us, would lead to the creation of a new universe. He then asked how we might see this. And he showed us that since the new universe would be entirely unattached to the one in which it began, there would be no observable consequence in the universe in which it originated. I was bemused. It felt to me as if he had walked down to the front of the room, pulled his hand out of his pocket and there unfolded an entire new universe. He then folded the new universe back up in his hand and put it back in his pock

★★★☆☆ An examination of mystery fiction

Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone Benjamin Stevenson My title for this review makes it sound like Benjamin Stevenson 's Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone is an academic work on mystery fiction. It is not. It is, in fact, a murder mystery. The title choice was deliberate, though, because at times it feels very academic. Our hero, Ernest Cunningham, is an author who writes HOWTO books for would-be mystery writers. That is, he writes short little self-published eBooks that go for $1.99. The book in fact ends with an advertisement for two of these books: 10 Easy Steps to Write Crime Like You Lived in the 1930s and Golden Age to Your Golden Page: How to Write a Mystery . They don't exist, of course. Murder mysteries are like sonnets or haiku -- a defined literary form with specific and somewhat arbitrary rules that writers are supposed to follow. Ernest Cunningham of course, knows all these rules, and he is very explicit about what they are and how he is being ca

★★★★☆ The Chinese classic novel with WOMEN!

The Story of the Stone Cao Xueqin There are four widely-recognized classic Chinese novels. Seriously, do a web search for "classic Chinese novels" and you will find dozens of pages referring to "The Four Classic Novels of Chinese Literature". (Wikipedia lists six on its Classic Chinese Novels page" -- these include the usual four, plus two others.) The phrase "Four classic Chinese novels" also appears frequently in commentary on Chinese literature. The four are Romance of the Three Kingdoms The Water Margin Journey to the West The Story of the Stone, or The Dream of the Red Chamber Red Chamber is distinctly different from the first three. It is the only one that feels (to me) like a modern novel. For instance, there are WOMEN! And they are not mere objects or cardboard cut-outs, but real, complex characters who carry the plot. Cao intended Red Chamber to be a memorial to the women he knew in his youth. And there is a love story! The protagonist,

★★★★☆ Portrait of a REALLY good politician

The Goblin Emperor Katherine Addison ** spoiler alert ** I'm marking this review as a spoiler because the central fact of The Goblin Emperor is that Maia is a really, really good politician. It is impossible to say that convincingly without also saying that he has political success. Of course, it could always happen that something goes horribly wrong in the end. But I would still have to admit that at some point in the book he is politically successful, which would be a spoiler. So, I'm taking the easy way out -- just mark the entire review a spoiler, and then I don't have to waddle awkwardly around the fact that Maia survives a coup attempt and an assassination attempt and ends the book as a successful and mostly well-liked leader. Now, I want to be clear, when I say "Maia is a really good politician", I understand that as a good thing. Politics is the name we give to the social mechanisms for making difficult decisions without violence. That is an extraordina

★★★★☆ Corruption and Witchcraft

A Hunger of Thorns Lili Wilkinson Don't you really want to hear more about evil and dark magic from the evil witches who choose it as a career? After all, Satan (AKA Lucifer) is the most compelling character in Paradise Lost , and Darth Vader is a pretty cool dude, when you think about it. Surely the Wicked Witch of the West has something to say for herself ? So, yeah, Wicked Witch point of view has been done. But not with this kind of conviction. Maude Jenkins, the main character of A Hunger of Thorns is a witch, as are her two grandmothers and as was her late mother. Are they wicked? Well, some people think they are. They don't see themselves as evil, but then the evilest people never do. These witches are no innocent nature-loving Wiccans. If you're addicted to the same pop culture trash as I am, think Elizaveta Arkadyevna , or Dark Willow . Maude and Mam and Nan are dark, powerful, and dangerous witches. They sometimes hurt people, although only rarely intentional

★★★★☆ Matrimonial predators

The Brides of High Hill Nghi Vo We catch up with Chih, who is accompanying the Pham family -- Mr and Mrs Pham and their daughter Pham Nhung to the castle of Lord Guo. The Phams are a family of merchants down on their luck, and Nhung has been proposed in marriage to Lord Guo. She and Chih met cute, and she asked them to accompany her to Lord Guo's castle for the marriage negotiation. Chih appears to have a mini-crush on Nhung, which she appears to encourage. Chih desperately misses their neixin Almost Brilliant, who is mysteriously absent. Nhung is naturally worried about being married. Chih, who knows many stories, true and fictional, about husbands and wives, would like to reassure her, but cannot honestly do so. Stuff happens. You will recognize the story pretty quickly. It's Bluebeard. You probably already figured that out -- the plural "Brides" in the title kind of gives it away. In this one Chih faces serious personal danger, more immediate than in any other S

Search This Blog