Three Kingdoms – A Historical Novel Abridged Edition - Hardcover

Guanzhong, Luo

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0520215842 ISBN 13: 9780520215849

Publisher: University of California Press, 1999

Synopsis

Three Kingdoms tells the story of the fateful last reign of the Han dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 220) when the Chinese empire was divided into three warring kingdoms. Writing some twelve hundred years later, the Ming author Luo Guanzhong drew on histories, dramas, and poems portraying the crisis to fashion a sophisticated, compelling narrative that has become the Chinese national epic. This abridged edition captures the novel's intimate and unsparing view of how power is wielded, how diplomacy is conducted, and how wars are planned and fought. As important for Chinese culture as the Homeric epics have been for the West, this Ming dynasty masterpiece continues to be widely influential in China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, and remains a great work of world literature. This abridged edition is particularly useful for undergraduate courses. For the complete text, see the unabridged edition, now available in two parts: Part One; Part Two

About this title

Review:

"The subject matter of "Three Kingdoms has long held an extraordinary grip on the Chinese imagination. . . . No less an authority than Mao Zedong asserted that when he set out on the campaigns that would ultimately bring him to power, "Three Kingdoms was the book he valued most."--Patrick Hanan, "New York Times Book Review

From the Back Cover:

""The Three Kingdoms" gives us "The Iliad" of China. First of the five great works of traditional prose fiction, this master narrative transforms history into epic and has thereby educated and entertained readers of five centuries with unforgettable exemplars of martial and civic virtue, of personal fidelity and political treachery. Moss Roberts's translation, the first complete rendering in English, is one of surpassing excellence and impeccable scholarship. It should delight and captivate Western readers for many more years to come."--Anthony C. Yu, University of Chicago

"Moss Roberts's elegant and powerful translation of China's most important historical romance has a stunning directness that aptly conveys the dramatic boldness of the original episodic narrative. English readers may now finally understand why this 15th-century novel so strategically shaped the political world-view of generations of Chinese."--Frederic Wakeman, Director of the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley

About this edition

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0520215842
• ISBN 13: 9780520215849
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 506