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4.09 AVERAGE
4.09 AVERAGE
Reading super old things makes me feel so weird. This epic story was written in the 14th century, isn't that amazing? Anyway, stan Zhuge Liang
I saw John Woo's Red Cliff and wanted to learn a little more Chinese history. Pains me to say, I just couldn't get into it. I guess I'm just not into epics.
I fucking love Three Kingdoms for many reasons and hope to reread it again in the future. I enjoyed this book so much more than I thought I would, to the point of getting Dynasty Warriors 8 and becoming interested in the Chinese history of the period. In this review I'll try to cover fair warnings to the reader, some notes on the Moss Roberts translation specifically, why this book had such a huge impact on me, and also just a couple things in it that I just particularly loved and wanted to highlight (since this book is so damn long).
Note: This review is for the Moss Roberts translation of Three Kingdoms, unabridged. (Specifying because many editions and translations have been grouped together confusingly on Goodreads.) For notes on differences vs the Yu Sumei/Ronald Iverson translation from Tuttle Publishing, please refer to my review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2792544533
Challenges in Reading Three Kingdoms
This is not a light or easy read, but I found the process to be very rewarding and entertaining. For me, it was a lot of work to fully engage with the text. I spent a lot of time reading as well as going back to reread earlier sections, remind myself what was going on, look up characters on Wikipedia and on Kongming.net, review maps, and also read every footnote. Obviously none of this is necessary, but this was educational, entertaining, and helped me appreciate the book better. I found it helpful to refer to this searchable database of characters and fictional vs historical biographies (Kongming's Archives, http://kongming.net/novel/bios/) which also lets you see which chapters each character makes appearances in.
Three Kingdoms covers a huge span of time (168 to 280 AD) and multiple generations, with characters popping up here and there that haven't been seen in many chapters. The huge cast and the romanized names are probably one of the biggest hurdles for an English speaker. I have some passive fluency in Chinese having grown up with it, and looking up the proper pronunciations of the names helped to distinguish between characters that have similar romanized names in English, but even I still had trouble keeping some of the names straight. I thought Yue Jin and Yu Jin (two of Cao Cao's generals) were the same person for 75% of the book. Playing Dynasty Warriors 8 halfway through the book was actually surprisingly helpful in providing some cartoony faces and voices for the characters. Fortunately, for the most part it is not too difficult to get a handle on the key players and a couple important supporting cast members, and it's not necessary to stress over the rest.
Asides from the characters, the first 20 chapters were especially difficult as they fly through multiple battles, territorial changes, etc. with a big cast of warlords that are constantly backstabbing each other and changing sides. (Full disclosure: I read the first 17 chapters in the Yu and Iverson translation.) It gets easier and more exciting later on. It also helps to have maps handy for some of the battles, which Moss Roberts includes, but I didn't bother for the most part and still thoroughly enjoyed it.
Footnote Buddies: Moss Roberts and Mao Zonggang
Moss Roberts includes timelines as well as commentary on the themes of the book, the historical context, and some information on the recensions. Basically in the 1660's Mao Zonggang and his dad edited Luo Guanzhong's text for narrative flow and added commentary (this is discussed in Roberts' essay in the end, but there's also some info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_of_the_Three_Kingdoms#Recensions_and_standardised_text). Roberts also translates Mao's notes and includes them as footnotes to the text, and also makes notes where Mao removed information that was present in earlier recensions.
To me, Moss Roberts & Mao Zonggang felt like helpful and scholarly friends, enjoying the book with me and excitedly pointing out themes, parallels, and extra historical fluff. I devoured every single footnote. Moss Roberts also has a very excellent commentary in the back of the book discussing the importance of the work, the history of the different recensions of the book, and the historical and contemporary views of the book in taking pro-Liu Bei vs pro-Cao Cao stances. His footnotes cover differences between the Mao recension and earlier "drafts" of Three Kingdoms, so that we can understand the evolution of the views of Cao Cao as a hero vs villain.
My favorite Mao footnote is in Chapter 21. Earlier, Cao Cao battles the warlord Zhang Xiu, who was upset because Cao Cao has been banging his aunt. When Cao Cao admires some plums, Mao's footnote is: "Was he also thinking of Zhang Ji's wife?" Chapter 44 has my favorite Moss Roberts footnote, in which Zhuge Liang recites a ridiculous poem to Zhou Yu about how Cao Cao is going to come in, take Zhou Yu's wife and her sister, and bang them day and night in his "pleasure palace". Roberts helpfully footnotes the poem to let us know that it is written by Cao Cao's teenage son and that the poem is terrible in order for us to fully appreciate just how much of a troll Zhuge Liang is being.
Why I Found Three Kingdoms Impactful
Obviously, Three Kingdoms is an important cultural touchstone across multiple East Asian cultures, and is still a source for popular movies and television shows today, not to mention video games (Dynasty Warriors musou series, Total War: Three Kingdoms). Reading this book gave me that context and the pop culture references, and also gave me an experience that I could share with my dad (who read it in Chinese as a kid).
As a book described as 70% history, 30% fiction, Three Kingdoms is also a good way to learn about the time period. With the caveat that not everything is historically accurate, I still felt that I got a pretty good handle on the history of the Han dynasty's downfall, the chaos of warlords fighting for power and territory, the development of the Three Kingdoms (Shu Han, Cao Wei, and Eastern Wu) and their conflicts, and the rise of the Jin dynasty.
More importantly, I felt that the book and the accompanying essays were extremely useful in providing insight into historical Chinese views about regime legitimacy, the Mandate of Heaven, and justified regime change or revolution. I had never thought of thousands of years of Chinese imperial/dynastic rule as being particularly revolutionary or democratic, but there is clearly a moral imperative described that can be "lost" with poor governance, justifying overthrow and revolution. I can't think of any other major world classics of literature that promote revolution and government overthrow to this degree except for Outlaws of the Marsh/Water Margin, another Chinese classic (next on my to read list). You also truly get the sense of a land where governments can destabilize and everything can go to shit really quickly.
The moral standards described in Three Kingdoms are weird today even by wartime standards, and give some insight into Confucian morality while sometimes subverting it. Liu Bei, the supposed hero, engages in cannibalism, throws his baby son on the ground, and values brotherhood over the state/family to everybody's detriment. Even in this historically inaccurate retelling where Liu Bei is the hero, he still betrays just about as many people as Lü Bu.
There are also some deep themes here worth chewing over during reading, mainly: the meaning of loyalty (to friends, sons, fathers, or to the state?), karmic retribution, and parallels in or circularity of history. Seeing these parallels play out over a 100+ year span is satisfying.
That being said, this book is super long so here's just some specific shit I really liked and recommend keeping an eye out for.
Specific Shit I Really Liked in this Super Long Book
Characters I really enjoyed, in no particular order:
*Lü Bu
*Diaochan
*Cao Cao
*Guan Yu
*Zhao Yun (Zilong)
*Zhuge Liang
*Zhou Yu
*Lu Xun
*Pang De
Best Bromances:
*Gan Ning and Ling Tong
*Guan Xing and Zhang Bao
*Lu Kang and Yang Hu
*Not Liu Bei/Guan Yu/Zhang Fei because they seem kind of toxic
**SPOILER** Favorite Plotlines
*Diaochan, a professional who gets the job done
*Cao Cao as a pragmatist who appreciates merit and turns enemy combatants into loyal followers (Zhang Liao, Jia Xu)
*Liu Bei hanging out with Cao Cao during their team up against Lü Bu
*Guan Yu hanging out with Cao Cao and then murdering his way back to Liu Bei
*Cao Cao psychologically and then militarily destroying Ma Teng and his son Ma Chao
*Yuan Shao's sons getting in a fratricidal territory fight and Cao Cao picking up the pieces (Battle of Guandu)
*Runup to the Battle of Chibi, in which Zhuge Liang trolls Zhou Yu with a horrible poem about how Cao Cao built a whole palace just for having sex with Zhou Yu's wife (and her sister)
*Battle of Chibi / Battle of Red Cliffs
*The downfall of Guan Yu at the hands of Lu Meng (Battle of Fancheng)
*Lu Xun kicking Liu Bei/Shu Han's ass all over the map (Battle of Yiling)
*Lu Xun kicking Wei's ass all over the map (Battle of Shiting)
*Zhuge Liang capturing Nan'an, Tianshui and Anding from Wei
Note: This review is for the Moss Roberts translation of Three Kingdoms, unabridged. (Specifying because many editions and translations have been grouped together confusingly on Goodreads.) For notes on differences vs the Yu Sumei/Ronald Iverson translation from Tuttle Publishing, please refer to my review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2792544533
Challenges in Reading Three Kingdoms
This is not a light or easy read, but I found the process to be very rewarding and entertaining. For me, it was a lot of work to fully engage with the text. I spent a lot of time reading as well as going back to reread earlier sections, remind myself what was going on, look up characters on Wikipedia and on Kongming.net, review maps, and also read every footnote. Obviously none of this is necessary, but this was educational, entertaining, and helped me appreciate the book better. I found it helpful to refer to this searchable database of characters and fictional vs historical biographies (Kongming's Archives, http://kongming.net/novel/bios/) which also lets you see which chapters each character makes appearances in.
Three Kingdoms covers a huge span of time (168 to 280 AD) and multiple generations, with characters popping up here and there that haven't been seen in many chapters. The huge cast and the romanized names are probably one of the biggest hurdles for an English speaker. I have some passive fluency in Chinese having grown up with it, and looking up the proper pronunciations of the names helped to distinguish between characters that have similar romanized names in English, but even I still had trouble keeping some of the names straight. I thought Yue Jin and Yu Jin (two of Cao Cao's generals) were the same person for 75% of the book. Playing Dynasty Warriors 8 halfway through the book was actually surprisingly helpful in providing some cartoony faces and voices for the characters. Fortunately, for the most part it is not too difficult to get a handle on the key players and a couple important supporting cast members, and it's not necessary to stress over the rest.
Asides from the characters, the first 20 chapters were especially difficult as they fly through multiple battles, territorial changes, etc. with a big cast of warlords that are constantly backstabbing each other and changing sides. (Full disclosure: I read the first 17 chapters in the Yu and Iverson translation.) It gets easier and more exciting later on. It also helps to have maps handy for some of the battles, which Moss Roberts includes, but I didn't bother for the most part and still thoroughly enjoyed it.
Footnote Buddies: Moss Roberts and Mao Zonggang
Moss Roberts includes timelines as well as commentary on the themes of the book, the historical context, and some information on the recensions. Basically in the 1660's Mao Zonggang and his dad edited Luo Guanzhong's text for narrative flow and added commentary (this is discussed in Roberts' essay in the end, but there's also some info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_of_the_Three_Kingdoms#Recensions_and_standardised_text). Roberts also translates Mao's notes and includes them as footnotes to the text, and also makes notes where Mao removed information that was present in earlier recensions.
To me, Moss Roberts & Mao Zonggang felt like helpful and scholarly friends, enjoying the book with me and excitedly pointing out themes, parallels, and extra historical fluff. I devoured every single footnote. Moss Roberts also has a very excellent commentary in the back of the book discussing the importance of the work, the history of the different recensions of the book, and the historical and contemporary views of the book in taking pro-Liu Bei vs pro-Cao Cao stances. His footnotes cover differences between the Mao recension and earlier "drafts" of Three Kingdoms, so that we can understand the evolution of the views of Cao Cao as a hero vs villain.
My favorite Mao footnote is in Chapter 21. Earlier, Cao Cao battles the warlord Zhang Xiu, who was upset because Cao Cao has been banging his aunt. When Cao Cao admires some plums, Mao's footnote is: "Was he also thinking of Zhang Ji's wife?" Chapter 44 has my favorite Moss Roberts footnote, in which Zhuge Liang recites a ridiculous poem to Zhou Yu about how Cao Cao is going to come in, take Zhou Yu's wife and her sister, and bang them day and night in his "pleasure palace". Roberts helpfully footnotes the poem to let us know that it is written by Cao Cao's teenage son and that the poem is terrible in order for us to fully appreciate just how much of a troll Zhuge Liang is being.
Why I Found Three Kingdoms Impactful
Obviously, Three Kingdoms is an important cultural touchstone across multiple East Asian cultures, and is still a source for popular movies and television shows today, not to mention video games (Dynasty Warriors musou series, Total War: Three Kingdoms). Reading this book gave me that context and the pop culture references, and also gave me an experience that I could share with my dad (who read it in Chinese as a kid).
As a book described as 70% history, 30% fiction, Three Kingdoms is also a good way to learn about the time period. With the caveat that not everything is historically accurate, I still felt that I got a pretty good handle on the history of the Han dynasty's downfall, the chaos of warlords fighting for power and territory, the development of the Three Kingdoms (Shu Han, Cao Wei, and Eastern Wu) and their conflicts, and the rise of the Jin dynasty.
More importantly, I felt that the book and the accompanying essays were extremely useful in providing insight into historical Chinese views about regime legitimacy, the Mandate of Heaven, and justified regime change or revolution. I had never thought of thousands of years of Chinese imperial/dynastic rule as being particularly revolutionary or democratic, but there is clearly a moral imperative described that can be "lost" with poor governance, justifying overthrow and revolution. I can't think of any other major world classics of literature that promote revolution and government overthrow to this degree except for Outlaws of the Marsh/Water Margin, another Chinese classic (next on my to read list). You also truly get the sense of a land where governments can destabilize and everything can go to shit really quickly.
The moral standards described in Three Kingdoms are weird today even by wartime standards, and give some insight into Confucian morality while sometimes subverting it. Liu Bei, the supposed hero, engages in cannibalism, throws his baby son on the ground, and values brotherhood over the state/family to everybody's detriment. Even in this historically inaccurate retelling where Liu Bei is the hero, he still betrays just about as many people as Lü Bu.
There are also some deep themes here worth chewing over during reading, mainly: the meaning of loyalty (to friends, sons, fathers, or to the state?), karmic retribution, and parallels in or circularity of history. Seeing these parallels play out over a 100+ year span is satisfying.
That being said, this book is super long so here's just some specific shit I really liked and recommend keeping an eye out for.
Specific Shit I Really Liked in this Super Long Book
Characters I really enjoyed, in no particular order:
*Lü Bu
*Diaochan
*Cao Cao
*Guan Yu
*Zhao Yun (Zilong)
*Zhuge Liang
*Zhou Yu
*Lu Xun
*Pang De
Best Bromances:
*Gan Ning and Ling Tong
*Guan Xing and Zhang Bao
*Lu Kang and Yang Hu
*Not Liu Bei/Guan Yu/Zhang Fei because they seem kind of toxic
**SPOILER** Favorite Plotlines
*Diaochan, a professional who gets the job done
*Cao Cao as a pragmatist who appreciates merit and turns enemy combatants into loyal followers (Zhang Liao, Jia Xu)
*Liu Bei hanging out with Cao Cao during their team up against Lü Bu
*Guan Yu hanging out with Cao Cao and then murdering his way back to Liu Bei
*Cao Cao psychologically and then militarily destroying Ma Teng and his son Ma Chao
*Yuan Shao's sons getting in a fratricidal territory fight and Cao Cao picking up the pieces (Battle of Guandu)
*Runup to the Battle of Chibi, in which Zhuge Liang trolls Zhou Yu with a horrible poem about how Cao Cao built a whole palace just for having sex with Zhou Yu's wife (and her sister)
*Battle of Chibi / Battle of Red Cliffs
*The downfall of Guan Yu at the hands of Lu Meng (Battle of Fancheng)
*Lu Xun kicking Liu Bei/Shu Han's ass all over the map (Battle of Yiling)
*Lu Xun kicking Wei's ass all over the map (Battle of Shiting)
*Zhuge Liang capturing Nan'an, Tianshui and Anding from Wei
I've certainly never read a book on this scale before- there were some many characters and so much time passed.
I feel I didn't do this book full justice- I was reading it whilst starting university so read it often whilst tired and at a very slow pace. I think I probably would have enjoyed it more if I'd read it at a time with less distractions.
The main criticism I have is I rarely felt much for the charcters. A lot of them (particularly Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang) felt too perfect. And you didn't spend much time with a lot of the characters because there were just so many, so you didn't feel much for them either.
A good book, but out of the two Chinese classics I've read so far I'd definitely recommend Dream of the Red Chamber over this (but they are very different kinds of book)
I feel I didn't do this book full justice- I was reading it whilst starting university so read it often whilst tired and at a very slow pace. I think I probably would have enjoyed it more if I'd read it at a time with less distractions.
The main criticism I have is I rarely felt much for the charcters. A lot of them (particularly Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang) felt too perfect. And you didn't spend much time with a lot of the characters because there were just so many, so you didn't feel much for them either.
A good book, but out of the two Chinese classics I've read so far I'd definitely recommend Dream of the Red Chamber over this (but they are very different kinds of book)
The tale of Three Kingdoms, as epic and fantastical as it is, strikes me more like a tragedy. Spanning from the decline of the Han dynasty around 168 A.D. to the formation of the Jin dynasty around 280 A.D., the text has multiple major storylines running concurrently, but most of the emotional and developmental energy revolves around the conflict between not only the characters Liu Bei and Cao Cao, but also their ideals and legacy. Their deaths came earlier than I expected in the text, but the struggle between the two's empires continued long after the two's passing.
Over the course of the story, a dizzying number of additional characters are introduced. No others receive as much focus as Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Guan Yu, and Zhuge Liang, but numerous others supporting cast members also have their characters explored in depth. An even larger number of names are mentioned in passing for their display of virtue or bravery in combat. Speaking of combat, let's not forget the hundreds of thousands of unnamed soldiers and civilians who fight and die in countless battles, sieges, and sackings. The ground is constantly muddied by blood, and the rivers constantly run red.
But all the deaths and killing is not why I would describe the Three Kingdoms a tragedy. It's more because of the sense of futility it conveys. The writing and story elements are abound with repeating patterns, cycles, and foreshadowing. Some are obvious, while others much more subtle, being separated by many chapters, if not volumes. As Cao Cao usurps the Imperial throne for his sons, so does Sima Zhao for his. The repeated excursions Zhuge Liang makes against the North, with increasing resistance from the Emperor of Shu. The Han is undone by eunuchs in the beginning, and so are the Wu and Shu at the end. Perhaps nothing is more telling of these deliberate patterns than the opening line "The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide" being repeated, albeit reversed, in the closing line "The empire, long united, must divided; long divided, must unite."
Specifically speaking of the Moss Roberts translation (4th hardcover printing), I found the prose to flow smoothly and found no difficulty casually reading through the story. I did think that it was rife with spelling mistakes, but everything I read online seemed to indicate that this translation was a vast improvement compared to the previously available Brewitt-Taylor translation. The maps printed between chapters were also in black and white, even though I think they were originally sourced in color, making them somewhat difficult to read. Maybe I purchased a Chinese bootleg version of a book printed in China? Is that even possible? Much more important an helpful than the maps, however, were the countless pages of footnotes at the end of every volume. I can't say I read even the majority of them, but the ones I did greatly expanded my understanding of the cultural or historical significance of what was happening in the story. Some even provided the alternate text existing in the 1522 version of the Three Kingdoms novel, whereas the Moss Roberts translation is of the 1660s version.
All in all, this is an amazing piece of historical fiction, and unlike anything else I've ever read before.
10/10
Reading dates by volume:
Volume 1: July 6th 2015 - August 3rd 2015
Volume 2: August 3rd 2015 - August 16th 2015
Volume 3: August 16th 2015 - September 8th 2015
Volume 4: September 8th 2015 - October 3rd 2015
Volume 5: October 3rd 2015 - November 10th 2015
Over the course of the story, a dizzying number of additional characters are introduced. No others receive as much focus as Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Guan Yu, and Zhuge Liang, but numerous others supporting cast members also have their characters explored in depth. An even larger number of names are mentioned in passing for their display of virtue or bravery in combat. Speaking of combat, let's not forget the hundreds of thousands of unnamed soldiers and civilians who fight and die in countless battles, sieges, and sackings. The ground is constantly muddied by blood, and the rivers constantly run red.
But all the deaths and killing is not why I would describe the Three Kingdoms a tragedy. It's more because of the sense of futility it conveys. The writing and story elements are abound with repeating patterns, cycles, and foreshadowing. Some are obvious, while others much more subtle, being separated by many chapters, if not volumes. As Cao Cao usurps the Imperial throne for his sons, so does Sima Zhao for his. The repeated excursions Zhuge Liang makes against the North, with increasing resistance from the Emperor of Shu. The Han is undone by eunuchs in the beginning, and so are the Wu and Shu at the end. Perhaps nothing is more telling of these deliberate patterns than the opening line "The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide" being repeated, albeit reversed, in the closing line "The empire, long united, must divided; long divided, must unite."
Specifically speaking of the Moss Roberts translation (4th hardcover printing), I found the prose to flow smoothly and found no difficulty casually reading through the story. I did think that it was rife with spelling mistakes, but everything I read online seemed to indicate that this translation was a vast improvement compared to the previously available Brewitt-Taylor translation. The maps printed between chapters were also in black and white, even though I think they were originally sourced in color, making them somewhat difficult to read. Maybe I purchased a Chinese bootleg version of a book printed in China? Is that even possible? Much more important an helpful than the maps, however, were the countless pages of footnotes at the end of every volume. I can't say I read even the majority of them, but the ones I did greatly expanded my understanding of the cultural or historical significance of what was happening in the story. Some even provided the alternate text existing in the 1522 version of the Three Kingdoms novel, whereas the Moss Roberts translation is of the 1660s version.
All in all, this is an amazing piece of historical fiction, and unlike anything else I've ever read before.
10/10
Reading dates by volume:
Volume 1: July 6th 2015 - August 3rd 2015
Volume 2: August 3rd 2015 - August 16th 2015
Volume 3: August 16th 2015 - September 8th 2015
Volume 4: September 8th 2015 - October 3rd 2015
Volume 5: October 3rd 2015 - November 10th 2015
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism
Moderate: Death, Violence, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War
Minor: Animal death, Blood, Cannibalism, Alcohol
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2491825.html
Some time in the last year I read a novel in which the protagonist tried to read this, and bounced off it. (I'm having trouble identifying which novel - a search of my electronic copies of likely suspects The Fat Years and The Three-Body Problem doesn't pull it up, so it must have been something else, possibly a Clarke submission.) I winced a little when I came across that reference - the group of friends with whom I read War and Peace in 2012 and Anna Karenina more recently had also tried The Romance of the Three Kingdoms as a collective reading project in 2013, and we ran into the sand pretty quickly. For those who don't know China or Chinese history, the names of people and places are pretty baffling; and the plot seemed to be epic politics and war, with few female perspectives and none at all from outside the ruling elites, and not a lot of characterisation.
But I gave it another try, this time curbing my ambition and going only for the abridged University of California Press edition translated and edited by Moss Roberts, which cuts out about half of the material. I found this more digestible, though I still felt the need of maps to explain where the three contested kingdoms were in relation to any geography that I am familiar with. The main strand of narrative of the book is the rise to power of Cao Cao to displace the authority of the Han dynasty emperor (in the late second century of our era), but his power is restricted to the northern kingdom of Wei; after his death, his sons actually displace the Han heir from the throne, but their rule declines and eventually ends (in the mid-third century of our era). Wu and Shu, the other two kingdoms which have split off from the Han realm, alternatively fight Cao Cao and each other, but the core narrative seems to me to be in the north. It's a detailed study of the use and abuse of military and political power, drawing on Chinese philosophy and Sun Tsu (who is repeatedly quoted, with approval), and the moral we are supposed to draw is taht integration must follow disintegration. I didn't feel equipped to engage with it as I would have liked, because of my lack of familiarity with the core material. I think there may be a market for a Three Kingdoms for Dummies edition, with maps and family trees.
One thing that struck me, both on this reading and my previous effort, was the role of magic and especially ghosts in the story. The unjustly executed become unquiet dead, haunting those who persecuted them, often with direct physical consequences, such as frightening generals and kigns to death. I don't think this makes the story a fantasy any more than the Lovejoy books are fantasy due to their protagonst's supernatural ability to detect antiques - rather less so, if anything, given that it's presented as a normal part of the world of the Three Kingdoms, but it's worth noting.
Some time in the last year I read a novel in which the protagonist tried to read this, and bounced off it. (I'm having trouble identifying which novel - a search of my electronic copies of likely suspects The Fat Years and The Three-Body Problem doesn't pull it up, so it must have been something else, possibly a Clarke submission.) I winced a little when I came across that reference - the group of friends with whom I read War and Peace in 2012 and Anna Karenina more recently had also tried The Romance of the Three Kingdoms as a collective reading project in 2013, and we ran into the sand pretty quickly. For those who don't know China or Chinese history, the names of people and places are pretty baffling; and the plot seemed to be epic politics and war, with few female perspectives and none at all from outside the ruling elites, and not a lot of characterisation.
But I gave it another try, this time curbing my ambition and going only for the abridged University of California Press edition translated and edited by Moss Roberts, which cuts out about half of the material. I found this more digestible, though I still felt the need of maps to explain where the three contested kingdoms were in relation to any geography that I am familiar with. The main strand of narrative of the book is the rise to power of Cao Cao to displace the authority of the Han dynasty emperor (in the late second century of our era), but his power is restricted to the northern kingdom of Wei; after his death, his sons actually displace the Han heir from the throne, but their rule declines and eventually ends (in the mid-third century of our era). Wu and Shu, the other two kingdoms which have split off from the Han realm, alternatively fight Cao Cao and each other, but the core narrative seems to me to be in the north. It's a detailed study of the use and abuse of military and political power, drawing on Chinese philosophy and Sun Tsu (who is repeatedly quoted, with approval), and the moral we are supposed to draw is taht integration must follow disintegration. I didn't feel equipped to engage with it as I would have liked, because of my lack of familiarity with the core material. I think there may be a market for a Three Kingdoms for Dummies edition, with maps and family trees.
One thing that struck me, both on this reading and my previous effort, was the role of magic and especially ghosts in the story. The unjustly executed become unquiet dead, haunting those who persecuted them, often with direct physical consequences, such as frightening generals and kigns to death. I don't think this makes the story a fantasy any more than the Lovejoy books are fantasy due to their protagonst's supernatural ability to detect antiques - rather less so, if anything, given that it's presented as a normal part of the world of the Three Kingdoms, but it's worth noting.
This 14th century historical novel about the fall of the Han Dynasty is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. It also happens to rank #15 on the all time longest novel list at 2,339 pages. But I am glad I read it. While perhaps not great prose, it provided me valuable insight into some of the historical cultural aspects that help make China unique. I did enjoy it. Also, the body count and political intrigue was quite Games of Thrones-ish. :)