Comments on: Three Kingdoms Chapter 37 http://talesacrossthesea.net/41/three-kingdoms-chapter-37-three-visits-to-the-straw-hut/ 海外奇谈　　　Good Vibrations, Better Translations: Fun Chinese Stuff in English　　　海外奇谈 Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:28:57 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.41 By: Lara http://talesacrossthesea.net/41/three-kingdoms-chapter-37-three-visits-to-the-straw-hut/comment-page-1/#comment-91 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 04:36:45 +0000 http://talesacrossthesea.net/?p=41#comment-91 Yes, he IS single-minded (actually pretty dull and limited to read about), which is perhaps the only reason Zhuge was persuaded to help him out. I do think he made a few attempts to get a few of Z.L.’s friends to join him – but they were smart and dodged the bullet! “Oh no, I’m just a wandering scholar.” “Oh, I’m not interested in politics.” To escape him maybe Zhuge should have wandered farther and longer!

Mei is translating an essay on “the Triple-Adorable Liu Ba,” about a smart guy that Bei pursued on and off for years, who ducked, dodged, changed his name and ran away to Vietnam, all in vain. He STILL wound up serving Liu Bei. So maybe Liu Bei was a more diverse recruiter than you give him credit for!

]]> By: xgz http://talesacrossthesea.net/41/three-kingdoms-chapter-37-three-visits-to-the-straw-hut/comment-page-1/#comment-90 Sun, 09 Nov 2008 03:28:01 +0000 http://talesacrossthesea.net/?p=41#comment-90 I’ve read the Chinese version many times. This is the first time that I read an English translation. I have to say the translation is very close to the original. But something interesting occurred to me that I never noticed when reading the Chinese original. Did you not notice how rude Liu Bei was to everyone? In his quest to get Zhuge Liang as his top adviser, he managed to offend pretty much all of Zhuge Liang’s friends. I had always wondered why none of these friends served under Liu Bei. They either went to Cao Cao in the north or to Sun Quan to the east. Some of them later played crucial roles in defeating Zhuge Liang. Now I understand why.

Liu Bei should have tried to recruit all of these people to work for him, and perhaps eventually promoting one of them to be his top adviser after testing them in real matters. Instead, he went directly for one person that he never knew but only heard from second or third hand, and neglected everyone else. Liu Bei’s single-mindedness here is comical. I never felt it in the Chinese text. Perhaps it’s the different cultural context.

]]>