The Growth of writers in the History of the Three Kingdoms: The "Golden Age" of Espionage Behind a Letter

Jimu news reporter Xu Ying

Recently, the best-selling young writers who focus on the "History of the Three Kingdoms" have grown up and launched a new work in the history of the Three Kingdoms, "The Chaotic World: The Past of the Three Kingdoms in the Letters". From the perspective of letters, interpret the story of the Three Kingdoms and the characters of the Three Kingdoms. Ma Boyong commented, "Ingenious angle, unique narrative, unique interpretation." Many of the history of the Three Kingdoms are closely related to Hubei, and on May 6, a reporter from Jimu News contacted Changchang for an interview, saying that he had also come to Hubei to visit the relics of the Three Kingdoms, and many places left a deep impression on him.

Writers grow

Three Kingdoms comic strips, TV series, games, are my "guides"

Reporter: When did you become interested in the history of the Three Kingdoms? Why did you choose to write a history book of the Three Kingdoms?

Growing up: I was born in 1986, the standard "post-80s", when children's books were far less abundant than they are now. My parents were painters and teachers at the Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts, and because of the needs of work, my family bought a lot of comic strips. Among them, there is a set of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" comic strip published by Shanghai People's Fine Arts Publishing House, the painting is very wonderful, the text is also very well compiled, I was immediately attracted. Comic strips became my first door into the world of the Three Kingdoms. When I was in elementary school, just in time for the CCTV "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" TV series broadcast, this version of the TV series does not need me to describe more, put in the present are classics, every night sitting in front of the TV to chase the drama is simply too happy, at that time to many Three Kingdoms characters like a number of family treasures. Then came the popularity of computer games, which I had played almost all of the Three Kingdoms games on the market at the time, and the games gave us the wonderful experience of participating in history and even transforming history in the virtual world. It was under the guidance of these seemingly entertaining ways that I developed a deep love for the Three Kingdoms and gradually became a researcher and writer of the history of the Three Kingdoms.

At present, there are many books on the theme of the Three Kingdoms on the market, it should be said that the Three Kingdoms still have a very strong reading foundation in the hearts of the majority of readers, on the one hand, because of the great influence of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", on the other hand, because the radiation of the Culture of the Three Kingdoms is very wide, in addition to the interpretation and history, poetry, opera, art, military, philosophy, science and technology, including archaeological excavations of cultural relics and the ruins of the Three Kingdoms scattered throughout the country.

The Three Kingdoms were the "golden age" of espionage warfare, and many espionage intelligence was presented through letters

Reporter: This time, this book "The Troubled World Comes to Hong", selecting the letters of the Three Kingdoms period as the object to interpret, how did this angle come to mind?

Growing up: Choosing the angle of the letter is also a fortuitous opportunity. A few years ago, there was a cultural program on TV called "Seeing Words as Faces", which invited some cultural and entertainment celebrities to read the letters of ancient and modern Chinese and foreign celebrities, which gave me great inspiration. I was wondering if anyone from the Three Kingdoms had written a letter? Because the Three Kingdoms are 1800 years away from us, there are not many historical materials preserved, and materials such as letters are certainly not as rich as those of the Ming, Qing, and modern times, but they are scattered in historical books and anthologies such as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Book of later Han", "Selected Works of Zhaoming", "Art and Literature Cluster", etc., and it is more troublesome for readers to read. My work in the book "Gone with the Wind" is first to pick them out, to select them, and then to find the stories behind the letters, and to divide them into 11 relatively independent chapters through non-fiction writing. Some may be written around a letter, such as Ji Kang's "Book of Renunciation with Shan Juyuan", which is the most famous letter in Chinese history, through which I recount the friendship between Ji Kang and Shan Tao and the gathering and dispersion of the "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Forest". Some are using a set of letters to connect a group of character relationships, such as Cao Cao's correspondence with Sun Quan, which is a true portrayal of the twenty-year history of the confrontation between the northern and southern hegemons.

Reporter: Do you think the content of the letter is highly credible? In history, many false surrenders, anti-intercalations, etc., were also realized through letters. What should we think of the information left by the ancients? Seeing is believing, and sometimes that's not always the case, right?

Growth: The content of the letters I think is a relatively reliable historical source. In the history books we see now, the author has a choice in the way of narration and the choice of historical materials for various reasons when writing. For example, Chen Shou, the author of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, was a native of the Western Jin Dynasty, so he had a lot of protection for Sima Shi, such as completely avoiding mentioning the matter of Sima Zhaojun. The spoken word recorded in the history books, such as what someone said, is mostly not the original language, because the historian needs to rewrite it "in writing". The letter itself is written, and when it is introduced from the history books, the original sentence will be retained in most cases, and at most it will only be some tailoring. Therefore, the letters of the Three Kingdoms that we can see now can be said to be basically credible.

Of course, there is no deep meaning between the lines, whether the words in the letter are the true meaning that the author wants to express, or whether there is a sound outside the string, we need to interpret it today, which is also an interesting place for me to write this book. Recently, the Three Kingdoms spy war drama "Wind Rises in Longxi" is being broadcast, and the three kingdoms in history are also a "golden age" of spy wars, and many spy war intelligence is presented through letters. There is a chapter in my book, "Yi Yi Dong Wang: The Text Dark War Behind the Storm of The New City", which is about the Meng Da Incident that occurred in Xincheng County before Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, in which Zhuge Liang, Sima Yi, Meng Da, Li Yan and other participants have letters handed down, which is actually a spy war behind the letters, and the plot can be called a twist and turn, which is more exciting than the spy war drama.

Book cover

Hubei is the province of the most "three countries"

Reporter: In order to write the history of the Three Kingdoms, you have also come to relevant places in Hubei many times to collect wind, can you share with our readers two or three places you have visited and talk about your feelings?

Growth: Hubei is the most important gathering place for the history and culture of the Three Kingdoms. Because although there are also a large number of cultural relics of the Three Kingdoms in other provinces, but only one or two of the three countries are involved, Hubei geographically belongs to the core location of the Three Kingdoms, the area where the dispute between the Three Kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu is the most intense, and at the same time has the historical and cultural relics of the Three Kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu, which can be said to be the most "Three Kingdoms" province.

Over the years, in addition to writing, I have been keen to visit the cultural relics and relics of the Three Kingdoms in the country, and I am also preparing for the next book, so I have gone to Hubei many times to collect wind and investigate, and I have also read and studied the works and papers of teachers such as Ye Zhi, Wang Qiancheng, and Xia Rixin, scholars of the Three Kingdoms of Hubei, and deepened my understanding of Hubei culture.

In September last year, I planned a trip to the four cities of Jingzhou, Chibi, Ezhou and Wuhan with another friend, the theme of which was to visit the relics of the Three Kingdoms, and along the way we also took a short video, which was later posted on Douyin and the B station "Writing about the Growth of the Three Kingdoms". This trip made me feel very deeply, I think the land of Hubei is simply full of treasures, the ruins of the Three Kingdoms are dotted around, and there are too many things to excavate. The deepest impression is the Ezhou Museum, Ezhou in the previous impression is quite low-key, I have a lot of friends who like the Three Kingdoms do not know that Ezhou is the "Wuchang" of the Three Kingdoms Eastern Wu Sun Quan, they mistakenly think that it is the "Wuchang" of Wuhan now. However, it is precisely because Ezhou served as the capital of Eastern Wu for ten years, and later has been the capital of Eastern Wu, so a large number of excavated cultural relics from the Eastern Wu period have been preserved, such as crossbow machines, ring-headed knives, celadon figurines, bronze mirrors, wooden thorns, etc. The Ezhou Museum has set up an exhibition hall to exhibit the cultural relics of the Three Kingdoms, which is still rare in museums across the country. In front of the cultural relics, the breath of history comes to the face.

Growing up in Hubei Ezhou Sun Quan Square to take a photo

Another impressive city is Xiangyang, ten years ago when I was a graduate student, I followed the crew to Xiangyang as an intern of the "Han River" documentary, Xiangyang Ancient City, Han River, Yuliangzhou, Gulongzhong... Whenever I am immersed in these historical scenes, I can imagine the historical pictures that happened in this land 1800 years ago, the scenes of heroes galloping, and every day is full of excitement. Xiangyang is a city that rose because of the Three Kingdoms, his cultural significance and geographical value are also highlighted because of the chaotic era at the end of the Han Dynasty, I have always had great feelings for Xiangyang, it is a pity that the two times I went to Xiangyang because of the rush of time, I was not able to stop and read the city carefully, I hope that I can have the opportunity in the future.

Profiles: Growing up, writer, screenwriter. Born in 1986 in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, he graduated from the Communication University of China and now lives in Beijing. He is a member of the Beijing Writers Association and a member of the Beijing Cultural Relics Protection Association. He has published "The Dispute of the Nations: The Political Game of the Rich Families of the Three Kingdoms", "Such a Good History: The Struggle for Hegemony in the Three Kingdoms", and "The Race for the Deer: The Illustrated Romance of the Three Kingdoms" (text part) and so on.