Three Little Kingdoms

[muckefuck]

As of last night, I was just over one sixth of the way through the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. (After 250+ pages, we're closing in on the part where there are three kingdoms. Real. Soon. Now.) I feel pretty good about that, given that I'm not generally Mr Reads Long-Ass Books. If I get through this, the Russian novels will seem a little less terrifying. Chef Jeff told me that there's a Thai saying to the effect that anyone who reads "San Kok" cover to cover "is a scary person". (I think some nuances must be casualties of translation there.)

It's tough to figure out why it's so engrossing, since it basically consists of combat after combat linked with a little intrigue and the occasional bizarre incident. If I thought that the most distasteful of these would be in ch. 4 where Cao Cao slaughters an entire family because he mishears their hog-butchering preparations as plans to kill him (slaying the aged paterfamilias on the road out of town, lest the old man set a posse on him), I was sadly mistaken. No, Liu An butchering his wife for Liu Bei to eat since he has no game to offer is far worse. (Not only does Liu Bei--the hero of the novel--eat her, but, upon finding out, his reaction is to shed tears of gratitude--and when he tells his commander, Cao Cao decides to reward the guy with 100 taels of silver!) By comparison, the scene where Xiahou Dun eats his own eye is mere comic relief.

Comments

[camwyn]

Come on, we're talking about Liu Bei here. When one of his lieutenants risked his life to save Liu Bei's son in a strategically tight spot, Liu Bei pretty much spiked the baby like a football because he didn't think the soldier should have risked himself and the army for something so small. At least, that's how I remember it - it's been a while.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

That doesn't sound the least bit out of character for him--or his brothers, for that matter. (Roberts' translation includes a reference to another work where Guan Yu and Zhang Fei are depicted as slaughtering each other's families so they'll both be orphans like Liu Bei and family will never come between them.) I guess I'd never fully considered the one-sidedness of the Five Confucian Relationships, but the book pretty much rubs my nose in it.

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

Me like read vampire book.

I like stories!

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Thanks for reminding me! I just mentioned to Monshu over the weekend that I keep meaning to pick up Pu Songling's Strange stories from a Chinese studio. While I'm at it, I should really try to get my hands on a copy of Shen Congwen's Imperfect paradise.

[rollick.livejournal.com]

Ooh. You smart. Vampire book hard. Big words. Me like comics. Pretty pictures!

[bunj.livejournal.com]

For my money, the playing-chess-while-getting-poison-scaped-off-your-bones scene is the best part of the book. Those are the cojones that get you elected to godhood. Guan Yu is the bomb.

Bunj, your source for nuanced literary criticism.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

That is totally my fave scene, too, but it's like fifty chapters away. I always like imagining the high-pitched squeak of Hua Tuo's tools as he scrapes away the poison and the effect this sound has on the courtiers and military men who are in the room. Priceless.

Re:

[bunj.livejournal.com]

Chess Set: 500 yuan
Surgical Tools: 150 yuan
Chair: 75 yuan

Everyone wincing at the thin, dry sound of poison being scaped off your arm bone; while you calmly play chess: Priceless.

eating her

[darkphuque.livejournal.com]

So, Long Pork was served. I wonder...was it Liued, or stir fired with tender greens?

As a kid I used to go the (then) Field's Museum. In their Oriental department they have a graphic depiction of what the levels of Hell were like in the Chinese mind....its sounds like what you are reading...

I have just finished reading a series of articles about the Croat Ustashe and its slaughter of Serbs during WWII....we should compare notes...

Re: eating her

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

So, Long Pork was served. I wonder...was it Liued, or stir fired with tender greens?

Actually, when asked what kind of meat it is, Liu An says, "Wolf". Exotic meat fanciers, beware!

As a kid I used to go the (then) Field's Museum. In their Oriental department they have a graphic depiction of what the levels of Hell were like in the Chinese mind....its sounds like what you are reading...

I've read some graphic descriptions of the Chinese hells as well, and they aren't much like Three Kingdoms. Less slaughtering a man's clan because he betrayed you, more hungry ghosts trying to quaff bodily fluids through their microscropic necks.

I have just finished reading a series of articles about the Croat Ustashe and its slaughter of Serbs during WWII....we should compare notes...

Um...let's not and say we did? I'm reading this book in spite of the atrocities it contains.

[crouchback.livejournal.com]

One of the things that struck me after reading it wasthe fact that Liu is supposed to be the good guy.

He is just as ruthless as Cao Cao, except he dithers and cuts loose with some moralistic cant before doing whatever piece of rat bastardy he was going to do all along.

Cao, at least, is honest enough to be happy when he is told that he is able enough to rule the world and wicked enough to disturb it.