onsdag 23. juli 2008

三國志 vs 三國演義

My blog friend Laulong has a post about 三國演義 joke. Makes me all itchy because if it wasn't for this book, I wouldn't be reading Chinese today. My dad gave me this book when I was in Norway and because the story was so interesting I kept reading it and looked up dictionary for words that I do not know. Thus kept my interest in Chinese growing.

People has said, the book 三國演義 is 70% true, and 30% false.
Here I pointed out a few parts in 三國演義 that is not exactly the same as the true history of the three kingdoms.

- Chapter 2: It was 劉備 who beat 督邮, not 張飛.
- Chapter 5: 温酒斬華雄 never happened. 華雄 was killed in battle (not 1 vs 1) with 孫坚.
- Chapter 25: 斬颜良诛文醜, 关羽 never killed 文醜 himself, 文醜 died in army battle with 曹操.
- Chapter 46: 草船借箭 is 孫權, not 诸葛亮.
- Chapter 49: 诸葛亮 didn't "borrow" southeast wind. He knew the wind would come around that time of every year.
- Chapter 75: 華驼 never help 关羽 刮骨疗伤. He was killed by 曹操 before 赤壁之戰. He was 曹操's doctor though, in the storybook he was killed by 曹操 after 关羽 died.

They were from a book I read which the author read the "Romance of the three kingdoms" and try to find the information from the history books and thus drawing those conclusions.

My dreams has always been to visit the remaining sites in China. It should be relatively easy since my wife is from 重庆 and that's where 張飛 was located.

9 kommentarer:

Midnight Singer/ 午夜歌手 sa...

Hi Desertfox! Nice to meet you here!
Its amazing that u have the patience to read a long long Chinese novel! You may know more than me about the history of the Three Kingdoms!!
wish to hear more about your experience of learning to write the Chinese characters!

F.E.L.I.X. sa...

I never read 三國志, while just a quick scan on 三國演義 only. I think you know the story (actually it's history) more than me!

May I know if you took the photo on your blog header? It's so wonderful! I wish I can take one with the amazing scene.

雪山飛狐 sa...

Singer,
Nice to meet you too. I read the novel when I was 10 in an attempt to learn Chinese. However, I fell in love with the story and eventually bought the original copy and read it a few times. As of today, I still have trouble saying some of the names and city names.

Felix,
Nice to meet you and thank you for giving me the lyrics of the song last time. The picture was downloaded from a website featuring best polar light pictures each month. I have about 15 of them. I went to Tromsø in an attempt to see the light myself and propose to my girlfriend (now my wife), however, these things goes by chance and I was not lucky enough. I will make another attempt next year.

L L sa...

三國演義是我的啓蒙小說,在裏面,我學了太多東西!

Midnight Singer/ 午夜歌手 sa...

to desertfox

I still have trouble saying some of the names and city names.

<---i think the words in classical chinese writiings are difficult. if i want to know the pronunciation of the words that i dun know, i have to check them up in a dictionary!

雪山飛狐 sa...

singer,
Yeah, that's what I do as well. Have a 康熙字典 at home that becomes useful when I read those books.

As for my experience of learning to write Chinese. There wasn't much. Most of my friends and relatives finds it funny that I can read Chinese but cannot write Chinese (of course I can write my name and some other simple words, but I cannot write a full letter for example). I can only type Chinese online because I use pinyin which also helps me with Mandarin (my wife is from 重庆, China).

Midnight Singer/ 午夜歌手 sa...

TO DESERTFOX

yea its rather difficult for a second lang user to learn to write chinese characters. i have a gweilo colleague who always try to create a chinese signature for himself. i ALWAYS laugh at his calligraphy...coz it looks a collapsing building.

雪山飛狐 sa...

Singer,
Sad to say, but I am actually born in HK and have lived there for 9.5 years before leaving. So technically Chinese is my first language. English and Norwegian is my second and third. Although at this moment I can only write English and Norwegian.
I am sure if I need it one day I will have enough motivation to learn again.

Midnight Singer/ 午夜歌手 sa...

TO Desertfox

You may just learn it for fun or you may achieve an unexpectedly good standard!