San-kuo chih yen-i, Romance of the Three Kingdoms

San-kuo chih yen-i, or Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

A Chinese novel telling the tale of the Han Dynasty in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, specifically: Hsin-ch'ieh ching-pen chiao-cheng t'ung-su yen-i an-chien ch'iang San-kuo chih chuan, fragmentary copy made up of parts of chan 19 and chan 20. Published by Cheng Shih-jung in 1602 in Chien-yang county, Yukien province in Southeast China. There is a complete set of this text in the Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, this being the second known sample of this particular text.

Letter from YW Ma, Professor of Chinese Literature at University of Hawaii at Manoa, Hawaii, USA, 22 December 1983.

Also two photocopies similarly bound.

Luo Gaunzhong (c.1300-1400) wrote the 120 chapter masterpiece on Chinese dynastic history somewhere between 1330 and 1400. He started his epic with the Yellow Turban Rebellion, detailing the fall of the Han Dynasty under Emperor Lingdi and the division of the empire into the three kingdoms of Shu, Wei, and Wu, and ending with the reunification of the empire by the Jin Dynasty in 280 A.D. These popular stories had long existed in the oral tradition, often much elaborated and mythologised, and Luo Gaunzhong also used historical sources such as Chen Shou's Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms.

Single item

By appointment with the Keeper of Manuscripts. Access to records containing confidential information may be restricted.

Individual Manuscripts and Small Collections database available as part of Manuscripts Database.

Bound volume, 14.7x16cm

Description compiled by Maia Sheridan, Archives Hub project archivist, based on material from the Manuscripts Database.

Applications for permission to quote should be sent to the Keeper of Manuscripts. Reproduction subject to usual conditions: educational use and condition of documents.

None