History Literature / RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms

** Ma Chao against Cao Cao - their confrontation is one big CrowningMomentOfAwesome for the former, as Cao Cao is completely terrified and only barely escapes.

* LoveRuinsTheRealm: {{Inverted}} by the whole Diao Chan incident, where the realm was at a nadir anyway and getting rid of the tyrant was an attempt at making things better. (Unfortunately, it inadvertently trades the tyranny of Dong Zhuo for the chaotic rivalries of the regional warlords, while his puppet emperor simply comes "under new management.") Technically played straight in the buildup to the battle of Chi Bi, where Zhuge Liang provokes Zhou Yu (and the kingdom of Wu) into fighting by claiming that Cao Cao wrote a poem saying that he wanted to kidnap the Qiao sisters, one being Zhou Yu's own wife and the other, [[spoiler: his late best friend and sworn brother Sun Ce's widow.]]

* DyeOrDie: Cao Cao loses his cape and beard in quick succession after Ma Chao's men start looking for "that guy in the red cape" and (soon after) "that guy with the long beard". And then they start looking for "that guy with the shaved beard"...

-->''Should you wish to take the overlordship, you will yield the Heaven's favor to Cao Cao in the north, and you will relinquish the Earth's advantage to Sun Quan in the south. You, General, will hold the Human's heart and complete the trinity.''
-->--'''Zhuge Liang''', to '''Liu Bei'''

* ValuesDissonance: Just ''look'' at all the tropes below. This is not modern America.

* AlasPoorVillain: Cao Cao receives one of the longest poems in the book upon his death, almost entirely complimentary. The final lines run:
-->Ah! The ancients' splendid deeds or secret thoughts
-->We may not measure with our puny rule.
-->But criticize them, pedants, as ye may
-->The mighty dead will smile at what you say.

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: The Battle of Guan Du. Cao Cao proves that quality beats quantity (this is also in history). Actually, just see RTK's entry [[Awesome/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms here]] for just ''some'' of the many there are, some mentioned here.
* CrowningMomentOfFunny: Contrary to popular belief, even a semi-historical tome like ROTK has its funny moments. Click on the link for details.

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade:
** Guan Yu, although this is more of the fault of traditional opera and certain biased emperors.
** Likewise Liu Bei... and Zhuge Liang ''to a point''. (It's actually a historical inversion, as Zhuge Liang was considered the top political and domestic administrator, not the supreme tactician and strategist he is in the novel... ''on top'' of his political and administrative prowess. Liu Bei himself is also a slight inversion; he was actually a competent commander and not the weeping wreck we most often see, and some of the strategies in the novel attributed to Zhuge Liang were actually his own.)
** Zhang Fei gets hit with this hardcore, going from historically being the most strategically accomplished of Liu Bei's main generals to a blundering drunkard.
** Guan Yu and Zhang Fei's sons Guan Xing and Zhang Bao are portrayed in the novel to be some of the gretest warriors of Shu in their later years. In reality, Guan Xing never entered a battlefield, and Zhang Bao died young without proving himself- He got outlived by his father.
* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: While historically, it's hard to say if anyone was the real villain, Cao Cao and the kingdom of Wei end up being cast as the main villains, while the kingdom of Wu is relegated to a secondary position because they're fighting the DesignatedVillain half the time and the DesignatedHero the rest of it.
* Han Xuan gets turned into a loud, rude and cruel person, while he historically was known to be quiet and kind... and he gave up instead of getting slain.

* MagnificentBastard:
** Simply, Cao Cao. He's the kind of guy who will recite poetry on the Yangtze, murder a nearby lackey who criticizes it, and then bury him with full military honors, ''all in the same scene''. He's unfailingly polite to his guests, even when he's about to have them killed. He's unflappably cool, even after a defeat they'll be making [[RedCliff movies]] about a couple thousand years later. The man is the original magnificent bastard.
** Zhuge Liang, also.
** Sima Yi reaches this when he gives his speech to Gongsun Yuan's emissary:
---->"There are five possible operations for any army. If you can fight, fight; if you cannot fight, defend; if you cannot defend, flee; if you cannot flee, surrender; if you cannot surrender, die. These five courses are open to you, and a hostage would be useless. Now return and tell your master."
** Zhou Yu whenever Zhuge Liang isn't also in the scene. Puts on an elaborate [[spoiler: FeedTheMole]] plot, complete with a drunken sword dance. Hands Cao Cao his greatest military defeat at Chibi.

* MarySuetopia: The Kingdom of Shu with Zhuge Liang as Prime Minister. All the peasantry are happy and well fed, taxes are paid on time and treasuries are full to overflowing, and people strive towards excellence in every facet of government.
** Hilariously, this was basically how it historically was under Cao Cao's rule.
* MaryTzu: Zhuge Liang
* MemeticMutation: Various incidents from the Three Kingdoms have made it into the Chinese language in the form of proverbs, as well as being Trope Namers for several of TheThirtySixStratagems.

* [=~I'm A Humanitarian~=]: Liu Bei, on the run and starving, is given some meat by a local peasant. The source? ''The peasant's wife.'' (He is ignorant at the time, but in a clear case of ValuesDissonance, his ''grateful'' response when he finds out would be a modern-day WallBanger... not to mention the fact that [[spoiler:when he tells Cao Cao about it, Cao Cao ''rewards the peasant with a hundred ounces of silver'']].)

** The probably most famous example is Guan Yu, as one of his three conditions for surrendering to Cao Cao was the protection of Liu Bei's wives, and his rejection of the maids that Cao Cao assigned him. Then again, whether or not Guan Yu realized it, the maids and all of his privileges were attempts to butter him up to keep him from rejoining Liu Bei.

** And Liao Hua, who refused to take Liu Bei's wives for his own (after they were seized by bandits), killed his partner who did want to, and promptly turned himself and his partner's head over to Guan Yu. Excellent career choice, as he outlives most of the other characters, an accomplishment for one who turns up that early in the novel.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Multiple characters, especially Lu Bu. (It was lampshaded with both Lu Bu and Liu Bei; [[spoiler: Lu Bu once saved Liu Bei from an encroaching invasion and told him, "I hope you will not forget that when you come into your own." When Lu Bu was captured by Cao Cao though, Liu Bei pointed out Lu Bu's past -- and pivotal -- betrayals/killings of his first lord and then Dong Zhuo. Lu Bu got the rope, and Liu Bei [[KarmaHoudini got off scot-free]]... for a while, anyway]].)

* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: Done several times.

* DisposableWoman: Cao Pi's first wife (AKA Zhen Ji in ''DynastyWarriors'') is apparently told to commit suicide because Cao Pi favors his concubine. (Cao Rui, her son, had a CallingTheOldManOut moment that we unfortunately doesn't remember if it's in the book or not.)

** But seriously, if Shu was like that, how was it they ''[[FridgeLogic lost]]''?

** VideoGames/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms (11 in this series of strategy games and counting since 1985),
** DynastyWarriors
** Dynasty Tactics (More closely related to Kessen than Dynasty Warriors)
** KessenII. Kessen II is ''extremely'' loosely tied to the source material. It starts with the Imperial Seal being entrusted to Diao Chan, who falls in love with Liu Bei.
* Anime/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms (An anime series)
* IkkiTousen (''Extremely'' loosely, seeing as it has the major characters reincarnated as top-heavy schoolgirls. However, the story exists in-universe and thus some of the plot revolves around this fact.)
* {{Ryofuko-chan}}
* KoihimeMusou

* SanThreeKingdomsComic

* RedCliff, a movie by John Woo.

* TalesFromTheMiddleKingdom: A webcomic based on the novel. Find it [[http://middlekingdomtales.com/ here]].

The RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms (original title 三國演義) is a 14th-century novel about the century of war, turmoil, and bloodshed known as the Three Kingdoms Period (188-280 AD). It is considered one of the "Four Great Classical Novels" of Chinese literature -- for good reason. This epic is renowned for its beautiful style, complex and heroic characters, and enduring motifs and themes that remain relevant even in modern society. It not only left its influence throughout the Chinese culture, language, and literature, but also spawned [[DynastyWarriors many, many]] [[Anime/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms derivative]] works in various media ([[IkkiTousen some]] [[{{Ryofuko-chan}} more]] [[KoihimeMusou derivative]] than others) throughout the world.

--> Zhuge Liang, to Liu Bei

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: The Battle of Guan Du. Cao Cao proves that quality beats quantity (this is also in history). Actually, just see RTK's entry [[CrowningMoment/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms here]] for just ''some'' of the many there are, some mentioned here.

* YouShouldKnowThisAlready: Given that the Three Kingdoms period only lasted for a brief time compared to the rest of Chinese history, the ending is pretty much a ForegoneConclusion.

** Likewise Liu Bei... and Zhuge Liang ''to a point''. (It's actually a historical inversion, as Zhuge Liang was considered the top political and domestic administrator, not the supreme tactician and strategist he is in the novel... ''on top'' of his political and administrative prowess.)

** KessenII. Kessen II is ''extremely'' loosely tied to the source material. It starts with the Imperial Seal being entrusted to Diao Chan, who falls in love with Liu Bei. SoYeah.

**[[IncrediblyLamePun most men at the time got served by their wives. This man actually served his wife up. Reward the genius.]]

*DefeatMeansFriendship: Huang Zhong, Xu Zhu, and Taishi Ci amongst others.