Awesome Music / Total War: Three Kingdoms

• The game itself has some of the most wonderfully atmospheric music in a Total War title. "All Under Heaven", one of the first battle intro tracks you'll hear, really brings home the scale and drama of the conflict.
• The trailers make very effective use of classical Chinese poems. Since it helps to know what the singing is about, here comes the poetry class, folks:
  • The announcement trailer contains the ballad "At Fifteen I Joined the Army on Expedition" ("Shíwǔ Cóngjūn Zhēng", 十五從軍征), turning it into an alternately triumphant and haunting battle hymn. This poem was given a full rendering in an episode of The Advisor's Alliance, where Sima Yi recites the poem to Cao Cao (then already the King of Wei). The lyrics moved the warlord to tears. ^note The poem was sung in full a second time in the last episode of part 2, this time in the little girl's voice. The bold line below has became the game's Arc Words.
    At fifteen I joined the army on expedition, Only at eighty did I finally return.^note While the poem gave the figure of 80, it is almost certainly meant to be allegorical as even more than 400 years later during the Tang era, poet Du Fu mused in one of his poems that "living to 70 was rare since ancient times" (人生七十古来稀).
    On the way I met a villager: "Who is left in my home?"
    "See there in the distance is your home, Among the pine, cypress, and graves piled high."
    Rabbits enter through the dog hole, Pheasants fly from the rafters.
    In the parlour grows wild grain, Upon the well grows wild vegetables.
    I grind the grain for a meal. I pick the vegetables for the broth.
    Meal and broth are ready in an instant, But I know not whom to serve.
    As I step out and look east, Falling tears soak my clothes.
  • Cao Cao's trailer features the poem "Graveyard Ballad" ("蒿里行" Hāolǐ xíng, )^note Haoli was said to be a place where souls of the deceased gather, written by old man Cao himself. The bold lines are sung in the trailer.
    In Guandong there were righteous men, raising their troops against the evil-doers.^{In the trailer} Cao Cao and Yuan Shao sit down for a match of Weiqi in what appears to be the coalition's headquarter.
    At first they gathered at Mengjin,^note Mengjin was a fort where the lords of Zhou came to form an alliance against the Shang. This line is allegorical. While their hearts lay at Xianyang.^note Xianyang was the capital of the Qin dynasty. This means the coalition warlords were aiming at the capital.^{In the trailer} Cao Cao and Yuan Shao witness the war atrocities, then battle against Dong Zhuo's troops.
    Their troops were together yet their will was apart. They wavered like geese.^{In the trailer} Yuan Shao failed to assist Cao Cao, making the latter reject his leadership.
    Interests drove men to quarrels, Then they came back killing each other.^{In the trailer} Cao Cao foresees his eventual showdown with Yuan Shao.
    In Huainan, the younger brother^note Yuan Shu crowned himself, While an imperial seal was carved in the North.^note Yuan Shao planned to crown a Han prince as the new Emperor. However, the prince refused to join his plot.
    Armor breeds lice, Civilians died.
    White bones laid bare in the fields, For thousand of miles there was not even a rooster crowing.
    Out of a hundred, only one survived. Thinking of it breaks men's heart."
  • Sun Jian's trailer has the song "Immortals by the river" (臨江仙)^note Actually the name of a melody rather than the poem itself, but Yang Shen's verses are the most famous lyric to that tune.. Bold lines are sung in the trailer. For extra enjoyment, listen to the opening theme of the 1994 Romance of the Three Kingdoms TV series, which contains the whole poem. In China, the series is widely considered a classic.
    The billowing Long River^note known in the West as the Yangtze River. flows east.
    Waves wash away all heroes. ^{In the trailer}  Dong Zhuo fleeing West.
    Right and wrong, victory and defeat, all turns to naught ^{In the trailer}  The strategical map is shown in its whole.
    Only the blue mountains remain under countless red sunsets.
    White-haired woodcutters and fishermen on the river shoal,
    all too familiar with autumn moons and spring breezes.
    By a jar of turbid wine, they happily gather.
    Countless stories, of the present and the past, are all in their jests.
  • Dong Zhuo's trailer has a poem about his ambition sung in the background.
    The traitor Dong schemed to dethrone the Emperor,
    The Han Dynasty was in great peril.
    All officials in the court were in his clutches,
    Only lord Ding^note Ding Yuan opposed Dong Zhuo but later got betrayed and slain by his subordinate Lü Bu was a true hero.
  • The trailer for the "Eight Princes" DLC, based on the brothers of the Sima family warring with one another, uses a beautifully melancholic song whose lyrics based on the Seven Steps Verse(七步詩), a poem describing the bond between brothers and lamenting the idea of them fighting over petty reasons. The poem is called "Seven Steps Verse" because, according to legend (recorded in the historical/ historical fiction book Shishuo Xinyu, "A New Account of the Tales of the World"), it was composed by Cao Zhi, the younger brother of Cao Cao's successor Cao Pi. Cao Pi's distrust towards his brother grew to the point that he ordered Cao Zhi's execution unless the latter could compose a poem with the theme of brotherhood, without using the word "brothers", and within seven steps. Cao Zhi nailed it and survived. Since Sima Yi himself later used infighting among the Caos to seize power, one would expect his descendants to know better. The bold line is repeated multiple times throughout the trailer.
    Beanstalks burnt to boil beans,
    The beans were filtered to make juice.
    The beanstalks were burnt under the cauldron,
    And the beans in the cauldron wailed: ^{In the trailer} Sima Yong shells the city with trebuchets causing Sima Ai’s death when a fireball comes flying straight at him.
    "We were originally grown from the same root;
    How come we torment each other with such haste?" ^{In the trailer}  All eight princes come forward to greet Empress Jia, whose scheming directly led to the War of the Eight Princes.
  • The "Mandate of Heaven" DLC's trailer has a beautiful and grandiose performance reciting the 18th chapter "The Decay of Manners" from the Tao Te Ching, which fittingly speaks of how virtuous examples of humanity still shine through in dark times.
    When the Great Dao (Way or Method) ceased to be observed, benevolence and righteousness came into vogue.
    Then appeared wisdom and shrewdness, and there ensued great hypocrisy.
    When harmony no longer prevailed throughout the six kinships, filial sons found their manifestation;
    When the states and clans fell into disorder, loyal ministers appeared.