Romance of the three kingdoms
by Luo Guanzhong, C. H. Brewitt-Taylor · first published 1644
24% recommend76% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Sprawling historical novel of power struggles and civil war at the fall of the Han dynasty, with a large cast of well-known characters. Readers value its window into Chinese history and its place in Asian culture.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
San guo zhi yan yi 三國演義
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Human Revolution http://www.joseitoda.org/religious/hr.html Romance of the Three Kingdoms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_of_the_Three_Kingdoms
on “Ask HN: What are the best books you've read that few others have?” ↗The "Four Great Classic Novels" from 14th-18th century China: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_Chinese_Novels Specifically: Water Margin Romance of the Three Kingdoms Journey to the West Dream of the Red Chamber They are referenced in everything in asian media and there a bajillion tv/movie adaptations of them but they are relatively unknown in the west.
on “Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?” ↗The Prince by Machiavelli, 1532 Chuang-tzu, 4th century BC The Art of War by Sun Tzu, 5th century BC Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong, 14th century AD
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books or essays written at least 100 years ago?” ↗ayn rand, the fountainhead jean jacques rousseau, the confessions sterling seagrave, dragon lady knights of king arthur's court romance of the three kingdoms
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books? I'm bored” ↗…- Records of the Grand Historian (Shi Ji) by Sima Qian - The Book of Han - The Book of Later Han - Nie Yinniang - The Kunlun Slave - Thirteenth Madam Jing - Red String - The Bearded Warrior - Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong - Water Margin by Shi Na’an - Justice Bao stories from Sanxia Wuyi and Xiaowuyi - Gong’an Qiwen - Ernii Yingxiong Zhuan Works by Jin Yong - The Book and the Sword - The Condor…
on “Scientists discover an ancient forest inside a giant sinkhole in China” ↗One of my favourite quotes is from "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". It notes an observation that I find generally applicable to many things in life: "Those long divided shall be united; those long united shall be divided: such is the way of the universe." Original…
on “Tell HN: Azure is having a major outage” ↗Because of your post, Mr. OP, I shall check out Game of Thrones. I have always been fascinated by how stories can teach us so many things if we look beneath the words. For one, I would highly recommend "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", a Chinese literature piece that tells the stories of various leaders and their strategies on leading armies to victories. NOTE: I am not in favour of war but merely the way that they are able to raise…
on “Project Management via Game of Thrones” ↗…Buddhist scriptures. You'll get to learn about Sun Wukong, who is the basis for a lot of Chinese, Japanese, and (I believe?) Korean spin-off characters, like Goku from Dragonball[1] Another good option is Romance of the Three Kingdoms which will cover a good portion of Chinese history (in a mythological way). A lot of the characters like Zhu Geliang [2] are still highly influential in modern Chinese culture. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Wukong#Influence [2]…
on “Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is taking over the planet” ↗Thanks for the recommendations — John Cho was also great in "Searching" (a thriller about a Korean-American who tries to find his daughter who disappears). Old classical literature from China (especially "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" about the power struggles in the fall of the Han dynasty) has been a good source for positive role models, too. I wish the Wolf Warrior movies could be a way to guide China's government to what it could…
on “What the Russians thought of James Bond in the 1960s” ↗Romance of the Three Kingdoms It's about a multi-decade civil war almost 2 thousand years ago & is the oldest of their classic novels and the characters are all household names. And many similar character types ... Diaochan <> Hellen,…
on “I taught the Iliad to Chinese teenagers (2021)” ↗…politicians who are controlled by a tiny minority of individuals who control key sectors of the economy. Go to 1. "The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus it has ever been" - Romance of the three kingdoms With a couple of exceptions, I have thus described the revolving history of China from the Zhou to modern times.
on “How private armies will remake modern warfare” ↗“The world under heaven, after a long period of division, tends to unite; after a long period of union, tends to divide. This has been so since antiquity.” - Luo Guanzhong, Romance of the Three Kingdoms
on ““In 2018 the blockchain/decentralization story fell apart”” ↗…approach that most 電子辞書 continue to take. And let's not forget the huge advantage provided by cellular internet access, particularly when it comes to looking up proper names when reading texts such as 三国志演義 (Romance of the Three Kingdoms).
on “Google Handwrite” ↗I have Moss Roberts' translation of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms scanned to PDF. ( https://www.amazon.com/dp/0520224787/ ) The product page doesn't advertise it, but the books are huge. I can't actually read my PDFs because my kindle display is much smaller than that.…
on “31.2˝ Color EPaper Display” ↗…of genre. In this sense, Jin Yong is, to Chinese literature, as impactful Tolkein is to Western literature. It is a tradition within Chinese literature to prefer setting your work within our history. Romance of the Three Kingdoms is perhaps the most well-known in this vein. So to be critical of "creativity" here, is, I think a little bit short-sighted. It's like saying a Ken Burns documentary lacks the creativity of The Avengers,…
on “Jin Yong, the 'Tolkien of Chinese literature', has died” ↗