Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast

Dong Zhuo learns that broken chariots, wild horses, and melancholy songs are, in fact, not auspicious signs. * Transcript (PDF) * Map of key locations * Graph of characters and relationships Quick Explanation of Another Omen In this episode, Dong Zhuo encountered a Taoist priest holding a sign on his way to court. The sign is a 10-foot-long cloth, with the Chinese character for “mouth” written on the top and bottom. So it looked something like this: Coincidentally, the character for Lü Bu’s last name looks like this:    

Expertly manipulated by Diao Chan, Lü Bu and Dong Zhuo come to blows over who gets to go to bed with a 16-year-old. * Transcript * Graph of characters and relationships * No map this week, as the whole episode is set basically in one place — the capital Changan Drama at the Phoenix Pavilion (Source: xietu.vicp.net)

Sun Jian leaves his son in charge, while Dong Zhuo leaves his son out in the cold for a pretty face. Note: To condense the lengths of each blog post, I am going to start linking to the map and the relationship graph instead of embedding the images in the post. * Transcript * Key Locations Mentioned in Episode 9 * Graphs of Characters and Relationships “Won’t you rather be with me instead of my son?” (Image via lianhuanhua.mom001.com)  

Now that they are not fighting Dong Zhuo anymore, the former coalition leaders have to do something to occupy their time. What better way is there to avoid idleness than waging war against each other? Transcript (PDF) Gongsun Zan spends much of the episode looking like this. Key Locations Mentioned in Episode 9 Click for larger version Graph of Characters and Relationships Interactive version  

Dong Zhuo moves the capital and turns the journey into a traveling horror show as only Dong Zhuo can, while the coalition becomes distracted when it discovers the one thing of value that Dong Zhuo left behind. Transcript Nobody makes the peasants wish for swift death like Dong Zhuo. Key Locations Mentioned in Episode 8 Click for larger version Graph of Characters and Relationships Interactive version    

The coalition forces are marching for the capital, but first, they will have to get past Dong Zhuo’s top generals. The result is two of the most famous battlefield encounters in Chinese lore. Transcript Key Locations Mentioned in Episode 7 Click for larger version Graph of Characters and Relationships Interactive version  

It’s a busy episode for Cao Cao. He gets out of a sticky situation, screws himself out of a delicious pork dinner, drops some life wisdom on his traveling companion, and then stirs up a whole lot of trouble for Dong Zhuo. Transcript “Well, he shouldn’t have been standing there …” Key Locations Mentioned in Episode 6 Click for larger version The Anti-Dong Zhuo Alliance Use this scorecard to keep track of the 18 contingents in the coalition against Dong Zhuo as we move forward in the saga. Name, Post Fate Yuan Shu, governor of Nanyang Prefecture Han Fu, imperial protector of Ji Province Kong Zhou, imperial protector of Yu Province Liu Dai, imperial protector of Yan Province Wang Kuang, governor of Henei Prfecture Zhang Miao, governor of Chenliu Qiao Mao, governor of Dong Prefecture Yuan Yi, governor of Shanyang Bao Xin, Lord of Jibei Kong Rong, governor of Beihai Prefecture Zhang Chao, governor of Guangling Prefecture Tao Qian, imperial protector of Xu Province Ma Teng, governor Xiliang Prefecture Gongsun Zan, governor of Beiping Prefecture Zhang Yan, governor of Shangdang Prefecture Sun Jian, governor of Changsha Prefecture Yuan Shao, governor of Bohai Prefecture Cao Cao, governor of nothing Graph of Characters and Relationships Interactive version

As Dong Zhuo rises to power, he bestows endless kindness on all mankind. He’s doing such a great job, in fact, that someone decides to give him a beautiful, bejeweled knife with a razor-sharp edge while he was lying down with his back turned. Transcript Don’t mind me.  Oh, and here’s a picture of the ivory tablet/paddle/notepad thing that one minister tries to hit Dong Zhuo with in this episode. Key Locations Mentioned in Episode 5 Click for larger version Graph of Characters and Relationships Interactive version  

“Only with Yi Yin’s talent can you act like Yi Yin.” So who is this Yi Yin? We dive into the story behind one line of dialogue from episode 4. Transcript

We’ve had rebellions, palace intrigue, a deadly power struggle, and a bloodbath at the imperial residence. But all of that was just the warm-up act. We are finally getting into the meat of the story, starting with ascension of Dong Zhuo, who’s like Santa Claus, just less jolly and more stabby. Transcript There is no map this week, since all the action takes place in or just outside of the capital Luoyang. Wine, sword, and a contentious political issue. What can possibly go wrong? Graph of Characters and Relationships Interactive version

He Jin makes his officers bang their heads against walls with his pathological inability to dispose of the eunuchs. Meanwhile, a bit character from episode 1, Dong Zhuo, drops by the capital with 200,000 of his best friends, just to say hi and see what’s up. Transcript He Jin has eunuch troubles. Key Locations Mentioned in Episode 3 Click for larger version Graph of Characters and Relationships Interactive version Additional Resources We’ve spent a lot of time in the first few episodes of the podcast talking about eunuchs, so I figured I’d point you to a couple links if you want to learn more about the role they played in ancient China and why, as troublesome as they were, almost no one entertained the thought of doing away with the whole system until the whole imperial system ended in the early 20th century. * Hidden Power: The Palace Eunuchs of Imperial China * Video: Eunuchs of Imperial China (warning: includes some potentially grimace-inducing segments) * Top 10 Notorious Eunuchs in Ancient China

Liu Bei discovers that landing a government job in the Han court takes connections, patience, and a lot of dead rebels. And that’s BEFORE the leeches start ransoming you for a bribe. Fortunately, Zhang Fei resolves the matter diplomatically. Transcript Zhang Fei and his literal whipping boy.   Key Locations Mentioned in Episode 2 Click for larger version Graph of Characters and Relationships Interactive version  

The first episode finds the empire in turmoil and three men of valor vowing to do something about it. * Transcript * Map of Key Locations * Graph of Key Characters and Relationships From left: Zhang Fei, Liu Bei, and Guan Yu in the peach garden Zhang Fei is not amused. Transcript PDF version Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is Episode 1. Actually, this is a re-recording of episode 1. After doing the podcast for about a year, I feel inclined to go back and redo some of the early episodes to bring their quality, both stylistically and technically, more into line with the later episodes. So if you hear a few better-sounding episodes at the beginning, followed by a few, umm, not as-good-sounding episodes, that is why. This is something I’m doing slowly, since I have to keep producing new episodes as well. Alright, on with the show. Before we dive into the narrative, we’re going to begin with a poem. This is a common device in ancient Chinese literature. The poem at the beginning of a long epic often provides a meta view of the saga that is about to unfold. So keep the images and ideas from this poem in mind as we progress through the story of the Three Kingdoms.   The song goes: O so vast, O so mighty, The Great River rolls to sea, Flowers do waves thrash, Heroes do sands smash, When all the dreams drain, Same are loss and gain. Green mountains remain, As sunsets ingrain, Hoary fishers and woodcutters, And some small rafts and calm waters, In autumn moon, in spring winds, By the wine jars, by porcelains, Discuss talk and tale, Only laugh and gale.   Ever since antiquity, domains under heaven, after a long period of division, tend to unite; and after a long period of unity, tend to divide. For instance, the Zhou dynasty lasted almost 800 years, from 1046 to 256 BC. Nearing the end of the Zhou, however, seven kingdoms sprang up and made war on each other until the kingdom of Qin prevailed and founded the Qin dynasty. This was the dynasty that gave China its first emperor. But the Qin dynasty only lasted 15 years, and when it fell, the kingdoms of Chu and Han battled for control of the realm, and Han emerged victorious. The rise of Han began when, according to legend, Liu Bang, the man who would become its first emperor, slew a white serpent to signify the beginning of his uprising. Liu Bang would go on to unite the country under his rule, found the Han dynasty in 202 BC, and become referred to by posterity as the Supreme Ancestor. You will hear that title come up from time to time as various characters in the novel refer back to the great deeds of the first emperor of the Han dynasty. The empire created by the Supreme Ancestor was handed down through successive emperors for two hundred years, but these rulers became less and less supreme, until in 9 A.D., a court official named Wang Mang usurped the throne. Wang Mang’s rule, however, only lasted 14 years before Liu Xiu, one of many descendants of the royal house of Han, overthrew him and resurrected the Han Dynasty. The Han dynasty that came before Wang Mang’s usurpation is commonly called the Western Han, while the Han dynasty that followed the usurpation is called...

A quick overview of what I’ll attempt to do with this podcast. You can also read this explanation instead. Transcript A few resources for those who want to delve more deeply into the novel and the historical era on which it is based (and yes, they contain spoilers): * threekingdoms.com: Read an English translation of the novel online for free. Scroll past the Oprah picture at the top to see the table of contents. The site includes a lot of crowd-sourced annotations, some of which can be helpful. * purepen.com/sgyy/: Read the original Chinese novel online for free. * The China History Podcast: This excellent podcast series is a must-listen if you’re into podcasts and Chinese history and culture. There are episodes on the Three Kingdoms era, the Han dynasty that directly preceded it, and the Jin dynasty that followed. * BBC podcast about the novel Transcript PDF version Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. So, what is this show about? It’s my attempt to tell the story of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms in a way that is accessible and interesting to a Western audience who did not grow up in a culture that has been infused with characters and tales from the novel for centuries. For the sake of full disclosure, I should note that this is a re-recording of the introduction to the podcast. After doing 50-some episodes, I feel like I have kind of found my footing in terms of style and technical setup, so I wanted to redo this intro to give you a more representative impression of the show. Also, the original version of the intro sounded like I was whispering into the microphone, which, yeah, I kind of was, since I recorded that version at night and I was afraid of waking my toddler in the next room. That is one of the lessons I have learned. You only get one chance to make a good first impression, so let’s try this again.   If you are not familiar with the novel, here’s a very quick primer. If you want more information than what I provide here, there are certainly many sources of information online, so I’m not going to read the Wikipedia entry to you. The book is considered one of the four great classic Chinese novels. It covers a period of almost a hundred years, from 184 to 280. That takes us from the last days of the Han dynasty to the founding of the Jin dynasty. The novel has often been called 70 percent history and 30 percent fiction. I have seen some comparisons of the book to the works of Homer in Western literature, but I think a more apt comparison might be the works of Shakespeare, because just like how characters and lines from Shakespeare’s work have become infused into Western culture, the stories and characters from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms have become infused into the culture of Chinese culture. Just to give you an example: You know how we say “Speaking of the devil”? Well, the Chinese equivalent of that is “As soon as you mention Cao Cao, Cao Cao is here.” Cao Cao is one of the characters from the novel, and he was famous for how swiftly he moved his army.   That’s why I want to do this podcast, to help a Western audience understand a key piece of Chinese culture and history. Now,