New translation of Luo’s Three Kingdoms
September 29th, 2008 by Mei and LaraHere we begin our new translation of Luo Guanzhong’s classic historic novel Story of Three Kingdoms. Our intention is to make a more casual version, in the spirit of those told by the teahouse storytellers.
Here is a little background for friends not yet familiar with the Three Kingdoms story: In the chaos at the Chinese imperial court in the waning days of the Han Dynasty, the great but unscrupulous strategist Cao Cao has arrogated almost all power to himself, but claims to be working in the name of the emperor. Warlords and rebels are all over the country, burning, pillaging and staking their own claims to power with their own armies of followers. Liu Bei, one of the protagonists of Three Kingdoms, is a distant relation of the imperial family, although he earns his living as a weaver and seller of straw mats and sandals. Yearning to help the emperor and restore peace and order to China, he becomes sworn brothers with two other men of martial ability, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu, and they swear to live and die together while working to restore the Han dynasty. But without much in the way of money, power or official recognition, it takes them a long time to establish themselves as serious opposition to Cao Cao.
We’re starting with Chapter 37, which is in the middle of the book. We will eventually get around to doing the thirty-six earlier chapters, but we wanted to begin with Chapter 37 as this is the start of the run-up to the great Battle of the Red Cliffs. So please be patient with us, and don’t be surprised if you cannot find the earlier chapters yet on this site.
We also have a podcast of this translation, read by our very own Lara here at TalesAcrossTheSea.