This spring, there was a new anime that released called "Ya
boy Kongming!" which was about a famous tactition in the war of the
Three Kingdoms but instead of the story being based on the
original, it was a reincarnation story where Kongming was brought
back to life (but younger) in the modern times. It's a fantastic
show and easy to miss but unless you have taken a Chinese History
class in college like I have, it would be difficult to find people
who know anything about the original Three Kingdoms story, at least
outside of China.
There are two things that you must make distinct when it comes
to the three kingdoms. The first being that it really did happen
however this story is more or less a historical text recorded as
"The Records of the Three Kingdoms". This is text was composed by
Chen Shou however there have been other similar texts throughout
the ages.
The second distinction is the romance novels called "Romance
of the three Kingdoms" written by Luo Guanzhong which the edition I
have is in 3 books. This edition isn't historically accurate and
romanticizes the whole thing as theater. It's as accurate as Jane
Austin's Pride & Prejudice is for depicting the Regency period.
It's fantasy, but still has some truth to it.
You might ask what the difference between the two are, and
honestly this isn't something that you can just quickly gloss over
and say "this or that is different". No, you would have to consult
experts who really, really, really love the three kingdoms, both
the romance novel and its actual history. I was only interested
enough to pass the grade, nothing more. But, if you are genuinely
interested to learn more about this masterpiece, you at least now
have two very good leads to go from.
I hope this information was enlightening, I know that if it
weren't for that anime I wouldn't have even remembered about the
three kingdoms since it's so far in my memory. I mean no disrespect
but the teacher had us memorize a lot and I mean a lot of
information about it and it was mind numbingly boring for that
reason alone. We couldn't enjoy it, we had to just treat it as hard
work. Sad really since this is arguably some of the most important
pieces of literature in human history.
Feel free to stick around if you like, Jappleng is free to use
and generally about Japanese culture although we have different
forums and clubs for different parts of asian culture. What? What's
wrong with employing one of Kongming's Stratagem in using someone
else's influence as your own opportunity? ;)
