I'm quite curious if anyone here has heard of it. Its has been the best seller in China for many years.

For those who don't know about it. It was written in the 17th century, and describes a period of total chaos where warlords all rose up to fight for the throne. The events are based on history, although everything has undergone the drama treatment. It's a very interesting read, and although its very thick the story moves very fast.

I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in Asian history and would like a place to start.

Heh, "bestseller for many years" may be understating it a bit... :lol: The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is one of the great novels in Chinese history, along with Dream of the Red Chamber, Water Margin (or Outlaws of the Marsh), Journey to the West, etc.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms wasn't really my favorite... It had too much emphasis on the battlefield for my taste. But it is an important novel, so I'm glad that I read it, anyway. In Chengdu, Sichuan Province, they have a "temple", for lack of a better word, dedicated to it and, specifically, Liu Bei.

I preferred Water Margin. It's rather like Robin Hood, only with more drinking and killing. And I think everyone should read Journey to the West... That one's just fun.

Out of the four great classics, ROTK has to be my favourite, I like tales of battle, and I like all the plots the strategists come up with. I do think there is a down side to it, so much attention is diverted to a select few characters and some of them are portrayed poored, in comparision to their historical self.

For me, Water Margin would be a close second, the way the characteristics are described really made them come to life. Its incredible the way they can create so many characters and yet make them all unique, quite a feat.
Journey to the West was very enjoyable the first time, but I found little value in rereading it, and after awhile all the stories becomes similar, get into trouble, call for help, fail and get tricked, saved by Guan Yin at the last minutes, rinse and repeat.

Ahh, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. One of my favorite books. Unfortunately, it's the only of the major Chinese classics that I've read. I should look into those other titles. >.>

Then you should definately look into the others as well ^_^ Once you've read them, you'll never forget them. That's what I really like about the four classics, most books I forget a few weeks after finishing them ^^;;

I'm not sure if I read the other ones, but I've read Dream of the Red Chamber in several different translations. It's just that good. Too bad the original ending or intended ending is missing. It was supposed to be something of a roman a clef, so the author could not risk publishing anything negative about the family of which he wrote.

One of the main characters, Phoenix, is my favorite. I love how she organized the household - good practical advice for any boss or chatelaine today.

The books were also made into a movie. I saw a snippet of it on TV but have never seen the whole thing.

I never knew you could get English translations of these books, I gotta read them..I've watched one of the old Journey to the West series in Chinese, but I didn't understand much of the dialogue, since it was when I was very young.

I really should look into finding translated Chinese classics...I love Ancient Chinese history, its so fascinating.

I think i've heard of this before.. but never had a chance to read it.
From the looks of this thread, it seems that it's worth a look.

Would you recommend it more as a buy, or as a rental from the library?

(Ah.. I have heard it. Isn't there a game series by the same title?)

My brother read all three of the books and he loved it.

I loved this series! It was very touching and sad. But I wasn't a big fan of the details of the battles, it sort of bored me a bit but overall, it's definately a book I would recommand to people. It's a good experience.

Definitely a wonderful series! I haven't finished reading all of it yet, but I'm pretty familiar with the time period, and three kingdoms stuff in general.

Tianfu - they have multiple temples throughout China devoted to different people from the Three Kingdoms, like Zhuge Liang. Guan Yu has also attained a bit of a deity status, and is commonly worshiped in Daoist temples.

Colossia - the books are part of an 84 episode live action mini-series, which is probably what you saw part of. There is too much to these books to cram into one movie. However, they are making a movie about one tide-turning battle: the battle of the red cliff. Watch for it.

Selmarixie - the books can be hard to find through the library, but I'd say the books are worth the buy. Try for the Moss Roberts translation.