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What makes “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” the Greatest History Novel?
The Ming-Dynasty author Guanzhong Luo tells a tragic historical tale of dreams, ambitions, unity, division, and love
The classic novel by Guanzhong Luo deals with the period from the Later Han Dynasty of China, through the Three-Kingdoms Period, to the early days of the Jin Dynasty. In the first line of the long novel, the author makes the overarching historical theme clear by writing: “Domains under heaven, after a long period of division, tends to unite; after a long period of union, tends to divide”. This illustrates the reoccurring pattern of Ancient China, where cycles of constant divisions arise, followed by a powerful empire that unites all, followed by another division, as illustrated by the novel.
This theme of division and unification is present from the beginning to the end of the novel where the Han Dynasty is split into three kingdoms and then a new force arising to unite the three under one name. Although the novel deviates to a certain degree from the actual recorded history, the overarching theme that runs through the history of Ancient China is consistent in it. The factually recorded history of Ancient China attests to this theme as well. Since the inception of the Chinese civilization along the Yellow…
