A Plain History of the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms

Abstract

Through six centuries of commercial activity, cultural identification, wartime pillage, and scholarly scrutiny, the Sanguo zhi pinghua 三國志平話 (Plain Tale on The Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms), a work of popular historical fiction, survived to be reprinted for scholarly study around 1930. But this title and others from an original 1320s series continue to exist only because of a shared dedication to the study of books and through the collaboration of generations of Chinese, Japanese, and probably Korean merchants, teachers, editors, scholars, and bibliographers. This essay traces the tortuous path followed by this thin book through time, wars, and personal passions to reveal the generosity of scholars in making this title and its historical significance known today. As with cultural matters at other times and places, this path was regularly overshadowed by political and commercial interests.