I started reading "The Three Kingdoms" a few weeks ago. I finished volume 1 this weekend. I'm reading the Moss Roberts translation as my Chinese is nowhere near good enough to tackle reading it in the original. I have to say I'm enjoying it much more than I thought I would. I have to say I think having played Dynasty Warriors 4 first really helped. With the cast of 100's having played the video game and been able to put faces to people helped keep them all straight a lot easier. I also think having studied the Han and knowing the history makes it more interesting too. One of my favorite things about the Han was the way they took children and folk songs as omens of events that were happening. When these songs were popular people would interpret the meaning and it's reflection on the dynasty, part of the whole mandate of heaven. I'm so pleased to see this incorporated into the book. When events are happening advisers will say have you heard this song popular in (wherever) I think it means this and you should therefore do this.
I found that I quite liked the character of LuBu and was sorry to see him go. I felt he got a bad reputation as really he wasn't that much worse than Liu Bei swapping allegiances all the time. I thought there were some good moments, the one that sticks out the most was when Liu Bei, the hero, was fleeing for his life and having people feed him and protect him, he stopped at a hunters house, but the hunter could find no game to kill for him. So the hunter killed his own wife and fed her to Liu Bei, when Liu Bei asked what the meat was the hunter told him it was wolf. The next morning Liu Bei found her body, minus the arms, and realised what had happened. He was not horrified as his cannibalism but in awe of the great loyalty of the man and recommended him for honors when he returned to safety for the man's great sacrifice.
I also like how there is no equivalent of "don't kill the messenger" whenever anyone delivers a message that they don't like the messenger is always killed! But so far it's not just been lots of battles, though there have been a fair few. There's also a lot of politics and intrigues and plots and that's been very enjoyable. Loyalties shift and switch a great deal, and there are a lot of executions. But I enjoyed the portrayal of the problems of power between the eunuchs and the families of the Imperial consorts. While not having the characterization of "A Dream of Red Mansions" there is a lot more than I was expecting. I think one of my favorite moments of Cao Cao was when he accidentally killed the family that was protecting him because he thought he was going to be killed, but they were just talking about a pig. After wards when he saw his friend on the road he had to kill him anyway, even though his friend was loyal, as otherwise the whole village would have pursued him for what he'd done. Such is the making of the villain.
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