Customer Reviews

Three Kingdoms: A Historical Novel, Part 1

5 star:		(77)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

First off, you have to read the full translation of this book. I read the 1976 abridged version of Three Kingdoms translated by Moss Roberts first and thought it was pretty good, but felt that the story wasn't developed enough and lacked cohesion. Then a few years ago I finally found and purchased the full unabridged version published by the University of California Press and also translated by Dr. Roberts. This is the full-blown epic from start to finish with all the details and many of the translation errors of the previous editions eliminated. The prose was also improved and flows eloquently throughout the book's entire 3000+ pages. Three Kingdoms is the tale (part historical, part legend and myth) of the fall of the Later Han Dynasty of China. It chronicles the lives of those feudal lords and their retainers who tried to either replace the empire or restore it. While the novel actually follows literally hundreds of characters, the focus is mainly on the 3 families who would eventually carve out the 3 kingdoms from the remnants of the Han. The Liu family in the Shu kingdom led by Liu Bei, The Cao family in Wei led by Cao Cao, and the Sun family in Wu eventually led by Sun Quan. The book deals with the plots, personal and army battles, intrigues, and struggles of these families to achieve dominance for almost 100 yrs. This book also gives you a sense of the way the Chinese view their history: cyclical rather than linear (as in the West). The first and last lines of the book sum this view up best: "The empire long united must divide..." and "The empire long divided must unite..." If you are at least a little interested in Chinese history (ancient or modern) and culture this book is a must read.

"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is possibly the most famous and important novel in classic Chinese literature. Not only is it the earliest of the "Four Great Books" (as evidenced by its more archaic language), but it created a complete cultural phenomenon whose impact is still fresh today -- just ask all the young people today who, without having read a word of the book, still know the characters from the strategy and fighting video games released by the company Koei. And how many literary works can claim to have had a direct impact on history as this book, which was used as a strategy text by the great Manchurian leader Nurhachi and his son Hongtaiji?

I'd read the original archaic text when I was about eight years old, so obviously my views will be heavily slanted by my familiarity with this text. On approaching this translation, what I find is a well done, respectful and informative translation that doesn't quite nail the tone of the original text, but will be a good read for modern readers who don't read Chinese.

And to be honest, Chinese is extremely hard to translate into English. Just the fact that subjects, articles and pronouns are often omitted from a sentence is enough to cause nightmares for a Chinese-English translator. And even by Chinese standards, The Three Kingdoms is a work whose linguistic economy is staggering. In one page, this book can convey the deaths of half a dozen characters, three to four battles, multiple schemes, and include four or five "tribute" poems, to boot. Such is the style of this work, and it could not have been easy for translator Moss Roberts to adapt this style into English. And he has done the job remarkably, for though I don't think he was able to convey the flavour and rhythm of the original language (the question is, also, whether that would have been possible), his translation makes a good read, and strives to be faithful to the original text, down to the chapter divisions and the inclusion of the "tribute" poems which frequent the book. This was an essential piece in the style of the book and I was joyed to see the device retained.

There are instances scattered throughout where I felt the tone of the language may have been misinterpreted, or diluted by the language barrier. Obviously, I'm not a Chinese professor (as Prof. Roberts is), but as a native speaker, I felt his translations sometimes didn't quite hit the mark. For example, in the original text, one poem on the character Cao Cao distinctly used a word which meant "deception" or "guile", but Prof. Roberts adapted it to "craft", which dilutes the disapproving tone of the original. When Yuan Shao refused aid to Liu Bei on account of his son's illness, his advice to the messenger was "if he is in trouble, he may seek refuge with me", which suggests patronage, not "find refuge north of the river", which suggests a tactical manoeuvre related to geography. These are but two examples and you can certainly argue that the meaning of the original text is up for grabs, but as a Chinese native speaker and reader, one who has grown up with this text and re-read the book hundreds of times, I still find the translation a little off. There is also no attempt at creating period flavour in the language -- the translation is modern, not aiming to add archaic English flavour to try to reflect the age of the original Chinese text. This may be a good point, however, since the use of archaic English added to the language barrier might have resulted in a book that's very difficult to read. I think Prof. Roberts sacrificed flavour for clarity, a fair tradeoff to the benefit of the translation.

Again, the question is whether an English translation (or any other translation) could ever be accurate in this way to the original. Personally, I do think many of the discrepancies in meaning could have been avoided, or ameliorated. However, as aforementioned, for a reader who's never read the original, this issue won't affect his/her enjoyment of the text. Just the fact that there is a translation of this extremely important work of Chinese literature is a cause for celebration, and for those people new to this realm, this set of books is a great discovery.

I first became intrigued with the Three Kingdoms's historical events when I played the game Dynasty Warriors 2 for PS2. Afterwards I was desperately searching to find the best novel translation and finally bought the 4-volume box set translated by Moss Roberts which is the UNABRIDGED version(make sure to get this edition as it tells the whole story w/o leaving anything out).I then set out to explore the 2200+ pages of Chinese history and I must say, it was a fascinating experience. I initially grasped what was going to happen in time but there was so much other details to the story and idealisms portrayed. Leadership, loyalty, heroism, military tactics and warfare, treason, and even romance play such a significant role in this epic novel. "The empire long united, must divide" and "the empire long divided, must unite" pretty much opens and closes the novel perfectly. Heroes such as Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, and Huang Gai portray such loyalty that it would be kind of hard to imagine in today's society. From the other reviews I've read, most people think Liu Bei (Xuande) is the protaganist of the novel and this seems very true since Roberts lauds Bei's characteristics and portrays Cao Cao of the evil and cunning type. Personally, I think anyone can choose their personal protaganist and for me that would be Zhao Yun because of his undisputed bravery and loyalty. Another character that I admired was probably Zhuge Liang for his awe-aspiring military tactics. Zhuge was the best strategist of his time and he wrote several books on warfare but unfortunately, most were destroyed but you can still buy one of his famous books, "The Art of War." Warning, spoiler ahead:
This book has its sad moments particularly when someone important or someone who contributed a lot to his lord dies. You'll feel sympathetic towards those who fought hard as well as the ones who died. When the book starts, it's during the impending collapse of the Han then around 220 is when the real three kingdoms come into play: Shu, Wu, and Wei. It's sort of like a battle to the death of who would emerge victorious and indeed there was. Military tactics are exploited on each side and betrayal is widespread. In the end, it would be Sima Yi's family who would unite China under one rule, the Jin Dyansty.

And it's about time too. Moss Roberts does an excellent job of translating the epic novel by Luo Guanzhong in a full, unabridged four book series. Previously I had read an abridged version by the selfsame translator, and while I was impressed with the story, it was too choppy to satisfy me. I later found this unabridged version, purchased it at once and loved every moment of reading. This is it. The definitive "Three Kingdoms".

"The Three Kingdoms" is based on the era known as The Three Kingdoms period, or San Guo Yan Yi. This period chronicles the decline of the Han to the rise of the Jin dynasty (circa AD 170-260). The story tells the tale of protagonist Zhuge Liang (referred to as Kongming throughout the story) and his efforts to help his lord Liu Bei (referred to as Xuande throughout the story) unite the land and restore the crumbling Han. You see, Liu Bei is a distant cousin of the child emperor, Liu Xian, who is manipulated by the malicious despot, Cao Cao. Bei, a poor mat weaver, steps up to the plate and helps to put down the Yellow Scarf rebellion under Zhang Jue and the story takes off from there. Zhuge Liang does not actually come into the story until much later and dies in the middle of the fourth volume, but his importance is immeasurable.

This story is a must-read for history fans as well as fans of any of the video game series about the time period (Dynasty Warriors, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Dynasty Tactics, etc.). Fans of the video game series will love to hear tales of their favorite characters, such as Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun and many more.

An important thing to keep in mind when reading Luo Guanzhong's novel is that it is a biased account of the events. Luo Guanzhong is what I call a pro-Shuist, or someone who supports Shu (the kingdom ruled by Liu Bei), so Shu feats may be embellished and fans of the other kingdoms (Wei, Wu) might be frustrated as many of their favorite characters will not be viewed as positively as they may deserve to be.

With this in mind, "The Three Kingdoms" is a fun, if not lengthy, read and will keep you turning the pages. The story isn't terribly difficult to follow but some may have trouble keeping track of the cast of characters (some 600 plus characters in all) and all of their names. What I mean by 'all of their names' is that the chinese had the surname (Zhuge), the given name (Liang) and a style (Kongming). Some officers are called by all three names and it can be difficult to follow. Zhuge Liang is called many things over the course of the novel, in addition to his surname, given name and style, but it shouldn't be to hard to follow. Probably easier then following my explanation of it, at any rate.

My major complaint with this edition (and it is minor) is the poor proofreading and the poor quality of the paper and binding. This book was published to Beijing standards and would not meet American standards. You will have to be a little careful with the book while reading it, but that's not too big of a problem. Also, the typos (two or three a chapter) can get annoying and make you wonder who was proofreading the book and make you think that you could do a better job (and you probably could).

That aside, this is a very enjoyable story and you will not be disappointed in buying the four-volume unabridged set translated by Moss Roberts.

Three Kingdoms is a terrific book on many levels. It can be read as a story book of the heroic culture of China in the past, or as a strategem. No matter how you may read the 3 Kingdoms, it is by far a book that almost any fan of literature will cherish. The book is centered around the destruction and rebuilding of a kingdom. The Shu in western China, led by Liu Bei; Wei in the northern heartland controlled by Cao Cao and Wu in the south that was established by Sun Jian, expanded by his son Sun Ce and later stabilized by his brother Sun Quan. The epic has at its core, filial duty, sacrifice, honor, and deception. I highly recommend reading Moss Roberts translation of the Three Kingdoms. By far it is the most comprehenisive edition translated into English. It is a must read to fully understand the ancient culture of China. By understanding the past culture of China, we can better understand the writings of post-modernist American-Chinese writers of the present.

Imagine my surprise when my eleven year old son placed a few names from a video game (Dynasty Warriors) into Google and came up with biographies of real Chinese warlords. Investigating I found that the game was based on Chinese Literature, a historical book written in the 1200s about 3rd Century China by Luo Guanzhong. My son promised he would read the book if I ordered it. The book as ordered is printed in China and is broken into four 600 page sections. I did buy it and with his background from the game he sailed through all 4 sections in record time with nothing but high praise. I have read it myself and highly recommend it to anyone. We have also purchased the TV serialized DVD collection, in Chinese with English Subtitles, which is absolutely facinating viewing for those who have read the original books. The DVDs require staying power there are 58 of them put out by Chinese government TV studios. The recording quality and the subtitle errors are a bit of a deterent to all but real Three Kingdom Fans. If you are expecting a slick Hollywood film don't buy the DVDs.

Regarding the four Classics of Chinese literature, there is a popular saying that goes: "lao bu kan san guo, shao bu kan shui hu", translated as: "The young shouldn't read Water Margin while the old shouldn't read The Three Kingdoms". I did just the reverse: as a teenager living in France I voraciously read Water Margins, that depicts the lives of 108 outlaws (I knew all of their names by heart!) and is supposed to have a negative influence on young boys because of its vivid display of violence and its apology for the overturn of the social order that made it a favorite of Chairman Mao. The Three Kingdoms was not available in French at that time. I discovered this second classic much later in a Japanese translation, at an age when readers allegedly shouldn't be exposed to its depiction of stratagum, deceptions, frauds and trickeries that cunning politicians could use to their advantage. My dream is that when I reach old age and become conversant enough in Chinese, I will be able to read The Three Kingdoms and Water Margins, as well as the other two classics of Chinese literature, Journey to the West and Dream of the Red Chamber, in their original versions.

the other reviews probably say enough about the Three Kingdoms for me not to repeat them. I came to this novel after playing the old Koei games, and I loved reading it.

My only problem with the box set is that the books' format seemed very poor to me. After paying 50 bucks (with shipping), it was a little disappointing to realize I only got three (yes three, though the entire novel was there. I have no idea why it says "4-Volume Boxed Set") little paperbacks, with a very very small typeset on filmy paper that is very easy to smudge and smear. Also, there are more typos than there are hairs in Cao Cao's beard. Distracting.

I don't think you should let this deter you from reading the three kingdoms. But perhaps, if you know you're going to love it, you might want to wait until a much higher class version comes out than the one from the university press I got.

First of all, this is a classic of Chinese that is relatively unknown in the west. This epic could be considered the Shakespeare of the Chinese language. It depicts the decay and collapse of the Han dynasty. In the process of this decay, the nation is split into three kingdoms which stuggle for supremacy. In the process of this struggle, we find tales of friendship, heroism, betrayal, and tragedy. This novel has thousands of characters, but perhaps the main character is Kongming, the military strategist of one of the kingdoms. It's a pure pleasure to read his elegantly executed strategies.

This translation has a modern feel, so it was easier to read than other translations that I have read. Robert Moss does a good job of making the story flow. However, as some other reviewers have said, it doesn't have a poetic feel. While the story has been translated, it is always difficult to translate literature into other languages. Having said that, I think this is an excellent translation for those who want an easy read or those who are reading Three Kingdoms for the first time. Also I strongly recommend an unabridged version, such as this one. If you read an abridged version, the story won't seem well developed. The full text is necessary. I especially recommend this novel for those who are studying politics, military science, or business. You'll learn lots of strategies for living life.

Luo Guanzhong and others have contributed one of the most significant true war stories to ever been discovered and documented to date. Through their findings I have been able to observe how Chinese history was within the years of the Han dynasty, and the costs of war. From reading this remarkable historical novel, I have discovered a whole new world and have witnessed the costs of war. A world of tragedy, warfare, political and turmoil brought to peace by some of the most intelligent minds and valiant hearts. The reader first enters the scene at the brewing eye of the storm. Bandits have begun to break out across the country, causing local lords to rise up in defense of the Han. Soon, the major characters of the story are revealed, characters of great virtue and grand intentions. Over the next few years, certain lords gain massive power and begin to stake claims and glory for themselves, totaling disregarding the needs of the failing Han dynasty. Eventually three specific lords rise up among the others, forming three unique and distinct kingdoms, Shu, Wu, and Wei. These three kingdoms or dynasties; Shu led by Liu Bei, Wu by Sun Quan, and Wei by Cao Cao, all have certain advantages over the other two. Varying from wily strategists, massive amounts of manpower, and significant terrain advantages. Over the course of the next few decades these kingdoms clash for power over China. Who comes out the victor? Which Kingdoms rises above the others? Enter the Three Kingdoms.

Three Kingdoms is truly a book I look forward to reading again. Among its greatest strengths were the awe-inspiring plot, the well-developed characters and discovering the strategies and tactics of the older times. I recommend this excellent historical read to any whom have an interest in history, warfare or China. This is definitely one of the greatest historical novels known to date.