[LüFengxian]

Hi,

As my interest in the period of Chinese History known as The 3 Kingdoms increases, I find myself searching more and more for the truth, or, what actually happened at certain points in the romanticized novel by Guanzhong. By using Internet search engines I learned of a series of documents entitled the Sanguozhi, which is apparently the factual record of the period. I know that their are biographies being translated on Kongming.net of popular officers at the time.

Now, to my question. Is the Sanguozhi currently translated into a book/document form in the English language, or does Kongming.net have all that has been translated? From what I can tell, Sanguozhi was written down by a scholar, so I assume it is documented somewhere...

Please help, or correct me if needed, is Kongming.net the only source for reading Sanguozhi or is there a fully translated book?

[Sephodwyrm]

Sanguozhi was written by a scholar of the North-South dynastic periods. I think he's called Chen Shou. You can ask Yun about this matter as his specialty is in that particular era.

[Yun]

An English translation of the Sanguo Zhi has yet to be published, and this is of course a big reason for the misconceptions on the Three Kingdoms that continue to exist among the public. A guy named Su Mingde has tried translating the SGZ here: http://www.3kingdoms...os/sgzintro.htm

But so far it seems that he has only finished the biographies of Pang Tong, Xu Shu and Ma Liang: http://www.3kingdoms.../shusgzbios.htm

While I would much prefer that a translation by a qualified historian were available, that will probably have to wait until someone like Rafe de Crespigny appears in a younger generation.

Chen Shou was a minister of the Western Jin under Sima Yan. His Sanguo Zhi is one of the 24 or 25 official dynastic histories of China, which apart from parts of the Shiji by Sima Qian have never been translated into English. They have only recently been translated from archaic Classical Chinese into the vernacular language!

[Tyler]

No kongming.net has not translated the Sangouzhi and I don't see them focusing on that any time soon.

[Yun]

What kongming.net is doing is having their staff or members translate individual biographies from the Sanguo Zhi. These have varying levels of quality, since they're not done by the same person.

[Bryan]

Another place to look for some biographies that are translated in the same fashion as those at kongming.net are is this place right here: http://empiredivided...Biographies.htm

[RedHareRider]

Does an annotated Romance of the Three Kingdoms exist in English?

[Yun]

No, it doesn't. There are only some individual biographies, with annotations, translated on such sites as kongming.net and http://empiredivided...Biographies.htm

[Uncle_Han]

An annotated English translation of three chapters of the SGZ appeared a few years back. The volume is entitled _Empresses and Consorts_. The translation and notes are by Robert Joe Cutter of Arizona State University (formerly of U of Wisconsin) and William G. Crowell (a Ph.D. in early medieval Chinese history and former foreign service officer, now independent scholar). Cutter and Crowell have plans to translate the entire text, and will likely do so with the assistance of J. Michael Farmer of Brigham Young University. All three are specialists in TK and Period of Disunion history, thought, culture, and literature. The first volume, containing the biographies of the empresses and consorts (duh!) of each of the three states, was published by the U of Hawaii Press, and is of excedingly high quality. The remaining volumes will likely take several more years before they are ready for publication. Portions of this translation have been illegally reproduced on several websites. The book is widely available, and used copies at reasonable prices abound.

Additional chapters or individual biographies have been translated by other able scholars. For example, Wang Can's biography appears in Ronald Miao's dissertation and monograph; Qiao Zhou's biography appears in J. Michael Farmer's dissertation; Cao Cao's biography is in Paul W. Kroll's dissertation; etc.

Best,
Uncle Han

[Mok]

One of the most enjoyable versions I've read was published by Canfonian Pte Ltd, whose books are now only available by ordering through a form.

However, its comics and bilingual format may not be suitable to serious study. I borrowed all three volumes from my cousin (he bought it back in 1995) and devoured them in five days flat! That's how easy and accessible it is to read Canfonian's version.

However I do have a full Chinese hardcover version which I have yet to tackle fully. Unfortunately, no annotations.

[Liu Bei]

Where do you get the Chinese Sanguozhi, I rather read the Chinese than English. Because sometimes translates can be really weird.

[General_Zhaoyun]

Liu Bei, on Aug 2 2005, 03:30 AM, said:

Where do you get the Chinese Sanguozhi, I rather read the Chinese than English. Because sometimes translates can be really weird.

For chinese Sanguozhi, refer to http://shuku.net:808...csdsgz/sgz.html

[Gweilo]

Hey guys, 3 years ago I did download an English translation from Kongming.net. They used to have a link there to download it. It was created by researchers at the ThreeKingdoms.com website. The main three were:

Translated by C. H. Brewitt-Taylor

Edited by Snow N. Snow

Commentary by Dr Rafe de Crespigny

It came in 1.8 MB zip file. There are 120 chapters in it, and it was organized in html with hyperlinks to footnotes, etc. It was so impressive that I was fairly confident it was a complete translation. Now I'm wondering about it - especially why Kongming and ThreeKingdoms removed it as a free download.

This post has been edited by Gweilo: 03 August 2005 - 06:41 AM

[Uncle_Han]

For one thing, the text you mention was the novel, not the Sanguo zhi. It may have been removed because the translation was copyrighted. As I noted above, some websites have a habit of posting copyrighted materials without permission from the authors, translators, or publishers. These people, especially the publishers, have lawyers who protect the intellectual property and financial interests of their clients.

Distributing information in the form of lists and bibliographies is one thing. Stealing someone's work is another.

Best,
Uncle Han

[Gweilo]

Ah, thanks Uncle Han, I missed the distinction he made between wanting the actual history instead of the novel.