Luo Guanzhong, the author of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", a novelist in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties, died around 1400 AD. The opening words of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, "Linjiang Xian", which we are familiar with, are not done by Luo Guanzhong, but by Yang Shen, one of the three great talents of the Ming Dynasty. However, Yang Shen was only born in 1488.
So the question is, when "Linjiang Immortal" was written, Luo Guanzhong had already died for many years, so why did it become the opening words of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms"? "Linjiang Immortals Rolling Yangtze River East Passing Water": Rolling Yangtze River East Passing Water, The Waves Exhaust heroes. Success or failure turns empty. The green mountains are still there, and the sunset is red a few degrees. White-haired fisherman on the river, used to watch the autumn moon and spring breeze. A pot of turbid wine is a happy encounter. How many things in ancient and modern times are in the process of laughter. In fact, the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was not simply written by Luo Guanzhong, and the version we see today is not the original version of Luo Guanzhong.
During the Song Dynasty, there were "commentaries" set in the history of the Three Kingdoms, somewhat similar to today's movies. The ancients used rap at the tea house liquor store to tell the story of the Three Kingdoms. However, at that time, it was mostly fragmentary fragments and not systematic. When Lao Luo was born, popular folk literature novels became fashionable, and he combined the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", with the various stories heard in the teahouse at that time, plus his own preferences, to write the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is very different from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms that we see today. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms caused a sensation later, and several printed editions appeared. Scholars believe that the Nongwu edition during the Jiajing period is relatively close to the original version of Luo Guanzhong. The version we see today is the revised version of Mao Lun and Mao Zonggang's father and son in the early Qing Dynasty, and it is also their "Linjiang Immortal" as the opening words of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". They made great changes to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is more historical and closer to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The revised "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is more literary, the plot is more ups and downs, the character characteristics are clear, and it is more interesting to put it bluntly. In Luo Guanzhong's "Popular Interpretation of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the descriptions of Liu Bei and Cao Cao are both praised and depreciated, slightly biased towards Liu Bei.
However, in Mao's version of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei was completely written as a righteous party, but the orthodox Cao Wei completely "lost the hearts of the people". At the same time, Mao's version of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms also deleted a large number of unnecessary plots, because Luo Guanzhong copied a lot of the contents of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" in the book and listed many historical facts. After this "slimming down", the rhythm is tight, and the more you look at it, the cooler it is. In summary, the version of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" that we see today is a modified version of Mao Lun and Mao Zonggang's father and son, and the opening words "Linjiang Immortals" are also added by them, which plays a role in finishing touches.