Romance of the Three Kingdoms：In Search of theTraces of the Heroes of theThree Kingdoms
The historical novel for which the Chinese hold greatest affection and highest regard is called the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.This work of the 14th century was written on the basis of an historical work called the Records of Three Kingdoms.This latter was the“unofficial history”of the kingdoms called Wei，Shu，and Wu when they were at their height in the period following the Han dynasty.The historical work is a magnum opus：the Bookof Wei is 30 volumes，Shu is 15 volumes，and Wu is 20volumes.These 65 volumes narrate a history of over sixtyyears，from the first year of the reign of Wei Wendi in 220AD to the first year of the reign of Jin Wudi in 280 AD.The author of the historical work is the man Chen Shou（233–297）of early Western Jin（265–317）.Chen Shou was in name writing the history of Wei，but since the Wei was concurrent with Shu and Wu，he wrote their histories as well.
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms was written much later，in the 14th century as noted above，by a man named Luo Guanzhong，but was very much based on this earlier work and also on oral tradition.
In the latter Eastern-Han period（25–220），when the political structure was increasingly corrupt，state policies were in disarray，unrest was pervasive and refugees were fleeing throughout the land，opportunities for revoltbecame more common.One revolt took as its pretextthe putting down of the Yellow Turban Army uprising（184 AD）.The revolt was successful and the Eastern Han continued on in name but not in actuality.Among those military leaders who were carving off power for themselves，the strongest and most active were Cao Cao and Yuan Shao.