Luo Ben 羅本, perhaps better known under his style name Guanzhong 貫中, was a Chinese author born at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. His most notable works include Water Margin and the fictional Three Kingdoms novel; Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Biography[]
Born around 1315 - 1318 AD[2] and believed to be from Taiyuan, as stated by his contemporary, play writer Jia Zhongming, who met him in 1364 AD Some historians, however, suggests other possibilities about his home, including Hangzhou and Jiangnan. The scholar Meng Fanren, who also wrote a 'historical' biography about Diaochan, believes Luo Guanzhong can be identified in the pedigree of the Luo family, and Taiyuan is most likely his hometown.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms[]
- See also: Fictional Personages
- See also: Fictional Events
Luo Guanzhong's most notable work is his fictitious novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, or Sanguo yanyi, a novel based on the historical events as written in Records of Three Kingdoms, by Chen Shou.
Luo Guanzhong's novel seems the more popular version of the two Three Kingdoms works and is still the base for many TV series, movies and videogames. Because of it's popularity, and the fact it is based on a historical work, it often is believed by people new to the Three Kingdoms to be factual.
Shu-Han Dynasty[]
Luo Guanzhong has changed many events and characters in favour of the Shu Dynasty, and took away many achievements from the men of the Wu Dynasty. Some people believe Luo Guanzhong was biased towards Shu. He also could've done this because he saw in Shu the perfect "good guys" to oppose the "bad guys" of Wei, but since the historical Shu was arguably the weakest of the three, he needed to make it more powerful to create a more balanced good vs bad story.
Examples:
- Hua Xiong was ordered to guard Sishui Gate against Yuan Shao's men. Sun Jian was one of the warriors who fought Hua Xiong, but was defeated. Guan Yu then offered to duel Hua Xiong and returned with his head before Cao Cao's wine turned cold.
In history, Guan Yu was relatively unknown at this time and didn't fight against Dong Zhuo and his men. Instead, Sun Jian fought Hua Xiong, who teamed up with Hu Zhen and Lü Bu at Yangren. Sun Jian completely defeated the three officers.
- Another example is Lü Bu's withdrawal after facing the three 'Sworn Brothers' at Hulao Pass. In reality Zhang Fei, Liu Bei and Guan Yu were not sworn brothers and did not participate in the Campaign against Dong Zhuo, thus did not outnumber Lü Bu. Sun Jian was the one who was outnumbered when he fought Lü Bu, Hu Zhen and Hua Xiong at Yangren. Lü Bu suffered a second defeat at the hands of Sun Jian a while later, in Luoyang.
- One of the biggest examples is the Wu strategist Zhou Yu. At the Battle of Red Cliffs Wu allied Shu to fight against Cao Cao's invading forces. Shu strategists Pang Tong and Zhuge Liang came up with brilliant plots and strategies to defeat the much larger forces of Cao Cao. In reality, Pang Tong did not participate in the battle and Zhuge Liang's role was very minor. Instead, the whole strategy and its execution came from Zhou Yu and Huang Gai.
Art Gallery[]
