Episode 000: Who Are You? What Are You Doing Here?
A quick overview of what I’ll attempt to do with this podcast. You can also read this explanation instead.
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A few resources for those who want to delve more deeply into the novel and the historical era on which it is based (and yes, they contain spoilers):
- threekingdoms.com: Read an English translation of the novel online for free. Scroll past the Oprah picture at the top to see the table of contents. The site includes a lot of crowd-sourced annotations, some of which can be helpful.
- purepen.com/sgyy/: Read the original Chinese novel online for free.
- The China History Podcast: This excellent podcast series is a must-listen if you’re into podcasts and Chinese history and culture. There are episodes on the Three Kingdoms era, the Han dynasty that directly preceded it, and the Jin dynasty that followed.
- BBC podcast about the novel
Transcript
Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast.
So, what is this show about? It’s my attempt to tell the story of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms in a way that is accessible and interesting to a Western audience who did not grow up in a culture that has been infused with characters and tales from the novel for centuries.
For the sake of full disclosure, I should note that this is a re-recording of the introduction to the podcast. After doing 50-some episodes, I feel like I have kind of found my footing in terms of style and technical setup, so I wanted to redo this intro to give you a more representative impression of the show. Also, the original version of the intro sounded like I was whispering into the microphone, which, yeah, I kind of was, since I recorded that version at night and I was afraid of waking my toddler in the next room. That is one of the lessons I have learned. You only get one chance to make a good first impression, so let’s try this again.
If you are not familiar with the novel, here’s a very quick primer. If you want more information than what I provide here, there are certainly many sources of information online, so I’m not going to read the Wikipedia entry to you. The book is considered one of the four great classic Chinese novels. It covers a period of almost a hundred years, from 184 to 280. That takes us from the last days of the Han dynasty to the founding of the Jin dynasty. The novel has often been called 70 percent history and 30 percent fiction.
I have seen some comparisons of the book to the works of Homer in Western literature, but I think a more apt comparison might be the works of Shakespeare, because just like how characters and lines from Shakespeare’s work have become infused into Western culture, the stories and characters from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms have become infused into the culture of Chinese culture.
Just to give you an example: You know how we say “Speaking of the devil”? Well, the Chinese equivalent of that is “As soon as you mention Cao Cao, Cao Cao is here.” Cao Cao is one of the characters from the novel, and he was famous for how swiftly he moved his army.
That’s why I want to do this podcast, to help a Western audience understand a key piece of Chinese culture and history. Now, there ARE several English translations of the book. I got one of them for my wife a few years back. But when I flipped through the book, it struck me how boring a faithful translation of the novel was to read. It was just a neverending barrage of strange and similar-sounding names of people and places, mixed with dry accounts of military campaigns. That is not the novel I remember growing up with. And I think the reason is that by the time I started reading the novel, I had already become so well acquainted with the main characters, because they had become a part of popular culture and taken on a life of their own, which is not necessarily reflected in the text of the novel.
So I’m retelling the story with more color instead of just reading straight from a translation of the novel. Along the way, I explain the numerous cultural and historical references, as well as inject a little bit of my own thoughts from time to time. I think this will make the story more interesting and help you gain a better understanding of the various characters.
In addition, I am posting supplemental materials to the podcast’s website, such as maps, transcripts, graphs of key characters, and a timeline. The website is 3kingdomspodcast.com, spelled with the number 3. From time to time, I also post links to other relevant material that will help you get a better idea of certain aspects of the book and the historical era in which it is set.
As for the pace of the show, I have found a routine that works well for me: I release one new episode per week for three straight weeks, and then I take a week off to relax and maybe get a little bit ahead in my preparation. This is a long novel, and the last thing I want to do is to get burned out and quit halfway through. I estimate that this podcast will run roughly 150 episodes, which means it will probably take about four years to complete. We are in this for the long haul, and I need to pace myself accordingly.
Finally, a couple caveats: I’m not a professional storyteller or a voice actor. I’m not even that good of a public speaker. Also, before this podcast, I had not done much audio recording and editing. So naturally the early episodes are a little rough when compared to the later ones. I began to find my footing style-wise after about 10 episodes, and the audio quality gets much better around episode 53. So bear with me early on. I was figuring things out as I went. I promise you that it gets better.
Alright, so that’s a brief overview of what this podcast is all about. I hope you will give it a chance. I can’t wait to dive into the story. In the meantime, check out the website, 3kingdomspodcast.com, spelled with the number 3. There, you will also find links to the show’s social media presence on Facebook and Twitter. I’ll see you next time on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. Thanks for listening.
There’s also an ongoing translation of Romance of Three Kingdoms here:
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Romance_of_the_Three_Kingdoms
As of today it only has the first 15 chapters, but each chapter includes English translation alongside the original Chinese, a map with every single location mentioned in the chapter, hyperlinks to Wikipedia entries for every name in the text, and extensive footnotes.
It’s an open source wiki, so maybe some of your listeners will go help complete it.
Is this Prophetico Matthew Miller?!
John … My name is Yat Woh and although new, I must state my appreciation for your effort and commitment. Wishing you the very best.
I admire what you’re doing. I’m going to dive into your podcasts.
Thanks for checking out the show!
Hi from Paris (France not Texas )
I just discovered your podcast today through sinica. Am amazed and thrilled by all material! Already planning to make time to dive into it 🙂 was indeed trying to get more familiar with Chinese literature starting from like scratch, this will definitely help as I couldn’t resolve myself to go through Robert Noss translation by myself .. . Thank you for your project to bridge cultures and “shortcut” (4 years ! ), Best
Thanks Helen! I hope you enjoy the podcast and that it proves helpful to you!
I just stumbled onto this site while looking for an official Three Kingdoms audio book. I’m excited to start listening to this.. Thanks for making the effort to do it!
Thanks! Hope you like it, and look forward to hearing your thoughts.
I am an overseas Chinese not familiar with Chinese history. I watched the “Three Kingdom”video from Episode 1 -Episode 95 in 3 days!
I am trying to learn more and relive the history of China of this period.
I listened to first chapter of your podcast and is thankful for the extra information.
thank you very much.
It is a dream for all Chinese boys and even everyone to enjoy the stories and histories of SanGuo(Three Kingdom), novels, TV show, Music, Movies or even just some old saying. The culture of TK(three kingdoms) stay in our blood and flow in our body. Like knights spirit to European and Bushido to Japanese National Spirit. We can find Loyalty, friendship, love, cunning, cruelty, kindness and wisdom, and much more from the short history( only 200 years compared to Chinese long history). The voilent fluctuation of the society make it possible to change the role and class in the society in the old world. You have to make a choice, die or survive(that is a question), and how to survive. In a soft way, you have to face the cruel world like a Africa Plain. In a selfish way, you have to lose more, familly, reputation, love and only power left.
It is the same for everyone and every period in human history, even and especially NOW. It is time to make your choice to balance yourself and the world.
So I like threekingdom world.
A big fan from China and I even write some short stories about it, welcome to communicate with me. Welcome to China to find the history remains in China. I like WEN LU and Jiang Wei most, by the way. renaitim@163.com
I am now on my 6th episode. Wow! What a fantastic resource. Your labor of love has been like finding a golden ticket in a Wonka Bar. Thanks for sharing your insight and time on this truly remarkable project. Outstanding!
This is a great initiative! I just stumbled upon this when researching the novel. My interest was piqued because of the new Total War game. I hope that the more than a million people who bought the game will look into Chinese culture now. It is quite sad that I, in The Netherlands, was not educated about this period in Chinese history.
Thank you for all your work. I look forward to listening to all of your episodes.
When I turned 70 I realised that what I knew about China was as sparse as the Nevada desert. Needless to say I am thrilled to find your project and listen to 3 hours the first day. Plus read the notes and watched to first four episode of the 2010 tv series. 10,000 thank you’s (I noticed from my Chinese tv series they like large numbers).
so I came to find your podcasts in a round about way – during covid I learned to play Chinese Mahjong, and stumbled on a really cool MJ set that had pics from the Water Margin on each tile – so I looked into the Water Margin, and found that pod cast of yours – which I love – but eeks – listening from the start, imagine my disappointment when I caught up to your recordings! So now I’m starting on 3 Kingdoms – so far not much romance – but still excellent. My son (22 years old, teaches Latin) – often listens in with me, he asked if you can please add more “Beat him!”s, an d especially more “beat him hard!”s. We quote you often in our house. now starting to explore the website. thanks for all you do!!
Hello,John, I liked your podcast a lot when I studied in the UK, I just found your translation was so vivid and arresting . But when I go home ,as Chinese who live in the mainland, your web site can only download the pdfs, the podcast cannot be played or downlaoded because many websites are blocked in maniland China. I need to use VPN to listen and download them. So please help us who live in the mainland China to also get access your great audio works! I suggest that you could make some whole package download link independant of any website that China blocks( i.g. YouTube, Podbean…),so we don’t need to use VPN. And you could also put all your work on popular Chinese music and audiobook websites to reach us, a wider Chinese mainland audience!