The Unique Charm of “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”: Chen Hong’s Wisdom – Nankai Media – Nankai University

“Romance of the Three Kingdoms” cannot be measured by conventional literary standards. Hu Shi was quite accurate in pointing out that the “magic” of this work largely comes from the depiction of “strategy”. The issue with Mr. Hu is that he rigidly opposed this unique charm to the definition of “literature”, while the boundaries of literature are not rigid or absolute.

We assert that the depiction of strategy in writing should not only be excluded from “literature”, but should also be considered as a prominent characteristic of literary personality in this novel, because the content is not bluntly narrated by storytellers, but is integrated into the plot and character images. In fact, the plot of “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” is intricate and complex due to the integration of this content, and many character images are enhanced by…