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Literature: Romance Of The Three Kingdoms

redirected from Main.RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms

alt title(s): Romance Of The Three Kingdoms
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

The Romance Of The Three Kingdoms (original title 三國演義) is a 14th-century novel, which tells the story of the century's worth of war, turmoil and bloodshed known as the Three Kingdoms Period (169-280 AD). It is considered one of the "Four Great Classical Novels" of Chinese literature, and 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 many, many derivative works in various media (some more derivative than others) throughout the world.

The tale begins in the last days of the corrupt Han Dynasty, showing how the government and Emperor lost the "Mandate of Heaven" (天命), and the land fell into anarchy, with various warlords carving out their own territories in a struggle for supremacy. Gradually, out of the chaos, three kingdoms take shape: the kingdom of Shu, led by the virtuous Liu Bei (oddly, a distant cousin of the Emperor) and his sworn brothers, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei; the kingdom of Wei, led by the scheming Cao Cao; and the kingdom of Wu, led by the ambitious Sun family. All seek to unify the nation for one reason or another, and claim the right to rule for their own. And so the three kingdoms contend with one another over the next century, and heroes rise and fall in the strife, until the nation is finally reunified.

And, as you'd expect from a pivotal work like this, it's managed to gather quite a collection of tropes.
Tropes pertaining to the novel itself:
  • Bored On Board: Despite having been written so as to satisfy the Imperial guidelines, Luo Guanzhong managed to sneak in a few subversions on the nature of loyalty. Blink and you'll miss them, though.
  • Doorstopper: As That Other Wiki will tell you, it's OVER NINE THOUS- sorry, 800000 words and 120 chapters. Most publishers break it up into multiple books just to make things easier.
  • Dramatization: One translator referred to it as 70% fact and 30% fiction, which is more or less accurate: Luo Guanzhong's sources included not only historical records, but period Chinese operas, poetry and folktales as well. Some of the most memorable scenes in the book never really happened.
  • Loads And Loads Of Characters: And as That Other Wiki also mentions, over 1000 characters.
  • Very Loosely Based On A True Story: The Chinese are generally faithful to their adaptations of the novel; the Japanese, less so, with a notable exception.
Tropes within the novel:
  • Abusive Parents: Liu Bei's infant son, Liu Chan, was lost at Chang Ban, so Zhao Yun made a selfless charge into enemy lines to bring the kid back. So what does Liu Bei do? He throws his kid to the ground, pissed that he nearly lost a great general. The kid later grows up and loses the kingdom, and is considered by most readers to be completely useless. Probably because he was dropped on his head as a kid. In a major example of Values Dissonance, no one in the story calls Liu Bei out on this. Then again, he's the one who quoted lore as saying that "[b]rothers are as hands and feet; wives and children are as clothing. You may mend your torn dress, but who can reattach a lost limb?"
    • To be fair, this is during a period where a man can have many wives/concubines, one can easily replace a lost wife. A general who is a man among thousands? Not so much.
  • Action Girl: Sun Quan's sister (named Sun Shang Xiang in most opera adaptations - and Dynasty Warriors) who practices swordplay, has an entourage of maids decked out in armor and weapons, scares Liu Bei half to death on his wedding night, and scolds her brother's generals into submission when she eventually elopes with her husband. Historically, she raised havoc on a regular basis and had to be monitored by Zhao Yun. Not that she ever does any fighting, but that's enough...
  • An Aesop: The first part of Romance that any Chinese-language elementary student will learn in school is the "Seven Steps Poem", a story about Cao Cao's successor Cao Pi and his more popular son Cao Zhi. It's often presented as an anvilicious fable about sibling rivalry.
  • Alas Poor Villain: 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.
  • Annoying Arrows: Guan Yu and Xiahou Dun - but averted by the large number of characters who actually do get killed by arrows.
    • Even Guan Yu, while playing this trope straight some of the time, is knocked off his horse by an arrow and requires extensive surgery to heal the wound.
  • Arranged Marriage: A staple of the times, not uncommonly forced, but Liu Bei's marriage to Sun Quan's sister is a hilarious subversion of the trope:
    Zhou Yu convinces Sun Quan to do it as a pretext to capture Liu Bei. Liu Bei makes an attempt to get out of it since he's bright enough to realize the danger, but is compelled to agree on grounds of political expediency (and since Zhuge Liang promises to protect him). When he arrives, it turns out that the Sun family's "queen mother" hadn't been told — and Zhuge Liang, having predicted it, got Zhao Yun to publicize the proceedings before the whole town. The mother of the bride is prepared to exercise her Parental Marriage Veto (by letting the groom be killed) despite Liu Bei's high reputation, until she and the "State Patriarch" (father of the Qiao sisters and thus Zhou Yu's father-in-law) actually meet Liu Bei and change their minds, blessing the marriage. In the meantime, Liu Bei is scared to death of his new Action Girl wife, and is stuck in Wu for a whole year after Sun Quan and Zhou Yu switch plans (deciding to keep him "drunk and happy" in hopes of dissolving his force)... When he decides to return, his wife is the one who proposes the idea of eloping, and then scolds four Wu generals into backing down in the course of their escape. And throughout the whole proceedings, Sun Quan and Zhou Yu are put through a massive Humiliation Conga:
    1.) Sun Quan's mother and Zhou Yu's father-in-law curse them for ruining the girl, since if the plan succeeds the story will follow her ("what man would want her now?!").
    2.) Then they curse them for trying to kill Liu Bei after meeting him and giving their approval.
    3.) Then the bride curses them for trying to stop her escape.
    4.) And just when Liu Bei and his bride escape, Zhuge Liang's chorus line of soldiers is conveniently lined up on the other side of the river just to mock Zhou Yu.
    Of course, Liu Bei, Zhou Yu and Sun Quan are all left holding the Idiot Ball, and Zhuge Liang wins... yet again.
  • Arrow Catch: Jiang Wei. See below for more details.
  • Arrows On Fire: A staple of any fire attack.
  • Ascend To A Higher Plane Of Existence: Following Guan Yu's death, he gets promoted to minor deity by a later emperor. But not before scaring Sun Quan by possessing and killing Lu Meng... who "fell over dead with blood gushing from the seven orifices of his body." To this day, you can still find altars to Guan Yu in many Chinese-speaking areas.
  • Automatic Crossbows: Zhuge Liang is credited in-novel with inventing these.
  • Badass: So many characters, especially Lu Bu. Scary thing is, Zhuge Liang himself (despite never having so much as drawn a sword in combat) may qualify as such, after looking at his track record...
  • Batman Gambit: Zhuge Liang, who shows a near-psychic ability to predict people's actions based on their character.
  • Better To Die Than Be Killed: Several examples. Notably, Guan Yu's subordinates Zhou Cang and Wang Fu after Guan's capture and execution.
  • Beware Of Hitchhiking Ghosts: Mi Zhu picked up a woman in his carriage who was actually a spirit of fire, sent to burn his house down. His kindness towards her caused her to warn him of this, however, so he was able to save his valuables and his family's life by hurrying home after she alighted from the carriage and vanished.
  • Blade On A Stick: The guandao, Guan Yu's blade, despite historical evidence that the weapon may not have existed back then.
  • Blood Brothers: The Oath at the Peach Garden between Liu Bei, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu is one of the most famous incidents in the novel. Note though that they're not the only such brotherhood (Sun Ce and Zhou Yu are as well), just the most famous and celebrated.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: Zhang Fei - and subverted when he used his enemies' knowledge of his love for wine to lure them into a trap. (Unfortunately both before and after this, his love for wine — or rather, the Unstoppable Rage that could come about — did cause negative consequences for Liu Bei, the last one being his death when his last two victims had their revenge. That, and there's the time that in stealing Lu Bu's war horses, he single-handedly broke an alliance that Lu Bu might have actually kept.)
  • Burn The Witch: Taoists. Sun Ce hates superstitions. Cao Cao just hates people who speak against him. As seen below, things don't turn out too well for either of them.
  • Call To Agriculture: Subverted, when Liu Bei had to share temporary lodging in the same city as Cao Cao, he deflected suspicion from himself by taking up gardening in his yard as a disguise.
  • Catch And Return: Jiang Wei (having accidentally spilled his quiver) catches an arrow fired at him by Guo Huai and then fires it back at Guo, killing him.
  • Chaste Hero: Multiple characters either directly or by proxy in ensuring that their charges aren't violated. **The most fortunate to do so may have been civil official Mi Zhu (who served Tao Qian and Liu Bei)... since the woman revealed herself to be the Goddess of Fire and that she had a command to burn his house down that night. Thanks to her warning, he kept his life, health, and his valuables.
    • And there's Zhao Yun, who turned down an offer to marry a beautiful woman in favor of serving his lord. Of course, what complicated matters was: 1.) She was the widow of the brother of 2.) a recently conquered vassal who 3.) had recently sworn brotherhood with him. Though it is not depicted in the novel itself, that move paid off later when said recently conquered vassal fled from Liu Bei, and Zhao Yun avoided considerable trouble.
    • 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.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Multiple characters, especially Lu Bu. (It was lampshaded with both Lu Bu and Liu Bei; 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 got off scot-free... for a while, anyway.)
  • Cliff Hanger: Every single chapter ending.
  • Combat By Champion
  • Cool Horse: Red Hare, said to be faster and stronger than the horses of its day (the Chinese term is "thousand-li horse"). May or may not go three times as fast as a regular horse. Either way, though, it's a stallion whose body and hair are entirely "glowing-sun red." The steed of Lu Bu until his death, then Guan Yu, who is regularly depicted atop Red Hare. (As an aside, Guan Yu is also described as being red-complexioned, which fits...)
  • Cool Old Guy:
    • Huang Zhong gets singled out for his advanced age, despite the fact that he can still kick ass with the best of them - and you have to be able to do that to stay alive for that long. Lampshaded when, in his first fight against Guan Yu, his horse suddenly keels over and Guan Yu lets him retreat. His excuse? "The horse is too old."
    • Later on, Zhao Yun at age 70 when he personally kills three generals and captures one, all of them brothers, in the same engagement and rendering an army of 80,000 Qiang tribesmen (working for Wei) frozen with fear, then kills their father in a second engagement and winning that skirmish too. The reason? "[T]he Prime Minister thought me too old and did not wish to employ me. I had to give him a proof."
  • Crowning Moment Of Awesome: The Battle of Guan Du. Cao Cao proves that quality beats quantity (this is also in history). Actually, just see RTK's entry here for just some of the many there are, some mentioned here.
  • Crowning Moment Of Funny: Contrary to popular belief, even a semi-historical tome like ROTK has its funny moments. Click on the link for details.
    • Toward the beginning a cabal of Eunuchs had dominated the court of the Vestigial Han Empire. One courtier(I forget which) desires their execution. The book comments, "The Eunuchs strongly objected to that plan."
  • Cycle Of Revenge: Guan Yu gets executed by the kingdom of Wu. Liu Bei, enraged, renews hostilities with Sun Quan leading to a disastrous military campaign and his eventual death after the failure. In the meantime, Guan Yu's ghost comes back to kill Lu Meng, the general who planned the trap that caused Guan Yu's death. And Liu Bei's wife - who is also Sun Quan's sister - drowns herself on hearing the news.)
  • Dark Horse Victory: The eventual unifier of the Three Kingdoms? The Jin Dynasty, founded by the descendants of Sima Yi - Cao Cao's strategist.)
  • Death By Despair: Zhuge Liang managed to irritate Zhou Yu to death. He managed to Hannibal Lecture two other Wei officials into a fatal fit later on as well. Happens to others as well.
  • Disposable Woman: Cao Pi's first wife (AKA Zhen Ji in Dynasty Warriors) is apparently told to commit suicide because Cao Pi favors his concubine. (Cao Rui, her son, had a Calling The Old Man Out moment that we unfortunately doesn't remember if it's in the book or not.)
  • Disproportionate Retribution: When his father is killed by one of Tao Qian's officers and robbed, Cao Cao raises an army and ravages Tao Qian's territories. Tao Qian manages to escape personal injury when Cao Cao had to withdraw his armies when his home territories came under attack.
  • Does Not Know His Own Strength: Sun Ce crushed Yu Mi to death while trying to take him prisoner.
  • The Dragon: Basically Lu Bu while in Dong Zhuo's service, as his defection eliminates the last check on Dong Zhuo's rise to power and he's recognized as the linchpin that holds the regime together even moreso than the army and other officers.
  • Driven To Suicide: Xun Yu opposed Cao Cao's ascension to the rank of Duke. When Xun Yu pled illness to get out of being sent on an expedition, Cao Cao sent him a box like those that normally hold presents. Opening the box to find it empty, Xun Yu took the hint and committed suicide.
  • Dye Or Die: 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"...
  • Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Dong Zhuo.
  • Eyepatch Of Power: Xiahou Dun gets hit in the eye with an arrow - and eats it. Subverted in that he doesn't make much of an impact in the later parts of the novel, and his death is mentioned in passing much, much later in literally a sentence, two at most.
  • Eye Scream: (Xiahou Dun: see the above.)
  • Faking The Dead: Played straight by Cao Cao against Lu Bu. Invoked and subverted by Zhuge Liang: he really was dead, but manages to convince Sima Yi that he was only Faking The Dead to cause him to retreat.
  • False Flag Operation: Done several times by various sides. Cao Cao's raid at Wuchao is a particularly important one.
  • Fear Of Thunder: Inverted: Liu Bei uses it as an excuse to cover up his shock when Cao Cao predicts that the two of them are the only true heroes of the age.
  • Flanderization: EVERYBODY. The scary thing is, it's not clear which is more deviant from the truth: this or Dynasty Warriors.
  • First Name Basis: It was common practice for men to take "style names": Zhao Yun was Zilong, Zhuge Liang was Kongming, Zhang Liao was Wenyuan, and so on. Relationship titles may also be substituted for names. How one character addresses another one can indicate a great deal about their relationship.
  • Forging Scene: At least one Live Action Adaptation show Liu Bei and his Blood Brothers receiving their signature weapons after such a montage.
  • Four Star Badass: Too many to count. Probably the best example is Lu Bu, whose knowledge of military tactics and strategy, and in fact any talent he may have as a military leader, is dwarfed by his personal combat ability.
  • Genghis Gambit: How Yuan Shao took Han Fu's territory.
  • Gentle Giant: Xu Chu. He was at least 6 foot 5, with a 52 inch belly, but he was known by names such as Sleeping Tiger, Tiger Fool, etc because while in battle, Xu was like a tiger, while outside of battle he was known as being simple-minded and honest.
  • Good Hair Evil Hair: Guan Yu's beard was reputedly fabulous to the point where Cao Cao gave him a beard bag. Oh, and when confronted by bandits, his taking off the bag (revealing the beard and identifying himself as Guan Yu) caused them to promptly surrender and their leaders to beg to join him.
  • Grievous Harm With A Body: Dian Wei's last stand had him using enemy soldiers as bludgeons.
  • Historical Hero Upgrade:
    • 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.)
  • Historical Villain Upgrade: 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 Designated Villain half the time and the Designated Hero the rest of it.
  • Hollywood Healing: Huang Gai, who had himself whipped as part of a plot against Cao Cao as a Fake Defector. He healed fast enough to participate in the battle... only to get wounded again!
  • Honey Trap: Diao Chan, with Lu Bu and Dong Zhuo eventually coming to their downfall because of her. (Or rather, Dong Zhuo. Lu Bu on the other hand... it'd be a lot more tangential.)
  • Honor Before Reason: Following the battle at Chi Bi, Guan Yu trapped Cao Cao in one of Zhuge Liang's ambushes. But because Cao Cao had treated him well previously when he was in service, Guan Yu lets him go. (Supposedly Zhuge Liang had actually accounted for this when he sent Guan Yu, though.)
  • Humiliation Conga: Meng Huo's seven defeats and Cao Cao's retreat from Chi Bi, among others.
  • Hypocritical Humor: Perhaps unintended. But for some reason every time one of the characters plots a conspiracy or a civil war, or other such things, it is "for the good of the State".
  • 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 Values Dissonance, his grateful response when he finds out would be a modern-day Wall Banger... not to mention the fact that when he tells Cao Cao about it, Cao Cao rewards the peasant with a hundred ounces of silver.)
  • Important Haircut: Played straight by Cao Cao, cutting his hair when he should have been executed represents how he's willing to bend the rules to his whim. Subverted by Zhou Fang, who cut off his hair to impress Cao Xiu with his trustworthiness. He was lying, and it really shows how far he's willing to go for his true lord, Sun Quan.
  • Incendiary Exponent: The Fire Ship attack at the battle of Chi Bi. Legendary and effective.
  • I Shall Taunt You: Zhou Yu, Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi were all fond of doing this... and usually with each other. Zhuge Liang, however, kills people via taunting.
  • Just Joking Justification: The most common excuse for changing your mind about executing people/handing your concubine to your adoptive son/threatening to expose an assassination plot. Honestly, they need to work on their routine a little.
  • Kill Em All: Redundant, but all the famous characters are dead by the end of the novel. It lasted a hundred years - should you be surprised?
  • Laser Guided Karma:
    Sun Jian pointing toward the heavens as an oath said, "If I have [the Imperial seal] and am hiding it myself, may my end be unhappy and my death violent!"
    He dies in an ambush in the next chapter. Oh, and rocks crush his head.
  • Love Ruins The Realm: 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, his late best friend and sworn brother Sun Ce's widow.
  • Mac Guffin: The Imperial Seal is supposed to signify the Mandate of Heaven and the right to rule the land. Everyone fights for it, Sun Jian dies on account of it, and then its use is subverted when Sun Ce trades it off for an army which he uses to found the kingdom of Wu. The seal eventually passes to the kingdom of Wei, and while it's still used to claim the right to rule, nobody really cares.
  • Made Of Iron: Several characters, including Zhou Tai (who takes twelve wounds defending Sun Quan from bandits when Quan was a child) and Dian Wei.
  • The Magnificent: Sun Ce became known as the "Little Conqueror", after scaring one enemy officer to death and crushing another one between his arm and torso.
  • Magnificent Bastard:
    • Zhuge Liang.
    • 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 movies about a couple thousand years later. The man is the original magnificent bastard.
    • 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."
  • Make Me Wanna Shout: While Zhang Fei's shout wasn't superpowered, it reputedly killed at least one general at Chang Ban. From fright. Sun Ce managed to pull this off as well.
  • The Man: One of Cao Cao's many official titles. Really.
  • Mary Suetopia: 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.
  • Memetic Mutation: 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 The Thirty Six Stratagems.
  • Mooks: Galore, of course, with special mention going to the poor messengers. Those poor, poor, messengers...
  • Murder The Hypotenuse: Lu Bu eventually kills his patron and adoptive father, Dong Zhuo, for the sake of Diao Chan.
  • My God What Have I Done: Quite a few people and moments.
    • For Cao Cao, it was when he had Ju Shou executed ("Aww crud I just killed the one guy who isn't a backstabbing freak... even if his loyalty was for the other guy and he tried to run away!"), and when he had his leading admirals executed for treason early during the campaign against Sun Quan, only to realize right afterward that he'd been had.
    • Later, when he was on the run, his father's sworn brother gives him shelter. Cao Cao and his retainer hide in a back room, over hears something about to be killed, assumes its him, and jumps out and slaughters the entire household, including the wife and children of the person who promised to give him safety. Turns out that they were talking about killing a PIG as part of the feast they were having to honor Cao Cao. Cao Cao runs, meets the family friend outside, and then stabs him in the back because he didn't want the authorities knowing about him. This is however subverted that shortly after, Cao Cao lets out his famous quote that excuses his actions and defines his character:
      Better I betray the world rather than have the world betray me!
    • It seems to run in the family, with two examples in Cao Pi's case:
      • Trying to execute his poetic intellectual brother Cao Zhi (whose worst sin was to be a drunken layabout with his drinking buddies), but gives him a chance by challenging him to compose a poem, then another, without using certain words. Both poems reminds him what a Jerkass he's being, and having been called to account he lessens Zhi's punishment to exile.
      • When taking his son Cao Rui to a hunt, he kills a deer's mother and tells Rui to kill the child, but Rui asks why he should kill the son when the mother is already killed. Cue to Pi possibly remembering about him ordering Rui's mother (Zhen Ji) to commit suicide, and he eventually named Rui his successor.
  • Not My Driver: Meng Huo, fleeing from Shu forces, jumps on what appears to be a Nanman boat. You can guess what happens next.
  • One Man Army: Zhang Fei scares off an entire army at the bridge of Chang Ban. Also possible Truth In Television, since most fights tended to be decided by duels between the generals.
  • One Steve Limit: Averted, sort of. There are a lot of characters with similar sounding names, most of which have distinct characters which have the same romanisation. Plus, many character names sound just like place names. Much of the novel is filled with lines like "Zhang Fei fought at Chang Ban". It's easy to get confused after a while.
  • Off With His Head: Many characters, notably Guan Yu, both committing (with the most named victims!) and falling victim to this trope. Subverted when his head starts talking and his ghost starts killing people.
    • In a rather funny lampshading, after he possesses Lu Meng, throws Sun Quan around and sits on his throne before leaving/killing Lu Meng's body, then animates his own head in Cao Cao's presence, his disembodied ghost goes off calling for the return of his head... only for a priest who he met while alive to ask him: "[W]ho will also return the heads of your several victims—-Yan Liang, Wen Chou, and the commanders of the five passes?" Guan Yu takes the hint.
  • Oracular Urchin: Luo Guanzhong liked to put street children in just for the sake of singing ominous songs, usually hinting at subsequent events. However, there's at least one time where it's a character merely claiming that such children exist and are singing such songs... Genre Savvy, perhaps?
  • Perfectly Arranged Marriage
  • Please Spare Him, My Liege!: Fairly common, the most famous being Guan Yu's and Liu Bei's intercession on Zhang Liao's behalf.
  • Power Trio: Liu Bei, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu - at least in tradition. Also, if you want to stretch the definition a little, the Three Kingdoms themselves.
  • Rain Of Arrows: Subverted when Zhuge Liang "borrowed" Cao Cao's arrows by sailing out dummy ships laden with straw.
  • Regent For Life: Between the eunuchs, Dong Zhuo and Cao Cao, emperors had absolutely no power and even less luck. (Heck, Dong Zhuo overtly has one emperor deposed and then forced to drink poison, while his empress is literally thrown out the window.)
  • Religion Is Magic: As Cao Cao and Sun Ce learnt, do not under any circumstances screw around with Taoist mystics. Subverted by Zhuge Liang who claimed to summon the east wind at the battle of Chi Bi... but really just did the whole ritual to waste time since he'd predicted the change in weather previously. (Historically, Zhou Yu just consulted a local fisherman.)
  • Revenge Before Reason: Liu Bei marches on Sun Quan to seek revenge for the death of Guan Yu. Everyone besides Guan Yu's immediate relatives and Zhang Fei tries to convince him to focus on Wei, but Liu Bei insists on invading Wu. Even after Sun Quan makes a large number of concessions, he refuses to back off and focus on Wei. The result is a massive defeat for Shu.
  • Rule Of Cool: Most of the liberties taken with history in the novel, especially regarding character deaths. No, we can't have generals dying old and in bed... let's kill some of them really painfully!
    • Oddly averted in the case of Xiahou Dun though, as his death barely gets a sentence or two.
  • Siege Engines
  • Smug Snake: Cao Cao never really gets a chance to shine in the novel, despite being the designated villain of the story. (Ironically subverted by the eulogy poem that immediately follows his death basically declaring him above good and evil.)
  • Speak Of The Devil: Or, as the Chinese say, "Speak of Cao Cao and he appears." Parodied (by being taken to its logical extreme) here.
  • Stealth Insult: Cao Cao weeping for Guo Jia's death after his defeat at Chi Bi. All of his advisors realize that he is making fun of the fact that none of them was able to see through the Wu/Shu fire attack in time.
  • Straight Arrow: Everyone had to be at least decent in archery, but Lu Bu, Zhang He, Xiahou Yuan, Taishi Ci and Huang Zhong were known for their accuracy. (Heck, Lu Bu enforces a ceasefire between Liu Bei and Yuan Shu's general Ji Ling by bullseye-ing his own halberd from 150 paces away, and once Taishi Ci while participating in a siege of a castle and being insulted by a defending officer on the rampant who's pointing at the besieging army, pins the officer's hand to the castle with an arrow shot. Oh, and soon after his debut, he was surrounded by enemy horsemen while riding with a message but shot them all down.)
    • There's an archery contest in Cao Cao's new palace where five consecutive officers of Wei competing for a crimson silk robe all score bullseye — Zhang He shooting backwards, while Xiahou Yuan does it bent over backwards — but it's Xu Huang who wins... by shooting the twig holding the robe itself.
  • The Strategist: Everyone's got at least one, but Zhuge Liang is the King of Strategists in the novel, and probably the most awesome character in the book.
  • The Thirty Six Stratagems: Trope Namer for several; see the trope entry for details.
  • Thirty Xanatos Pileup: With that many factions opposing each other, this is unavoidable.
  • Treacherous Advisor:
    • Chen Deng advised Lu Bu very poorly, as he was plotting to sell him out anyway.
    • Sima Yi too against Wei after Cao Rui's death, although in Dynasty Warriors 6 it's against Cao Cao specifically. One of his descendants even has the reigning Wei emperor murdered in broad daylight.
    • There's also Xu Shu (for Cao Cao), although he did so by neglect since he had "familial obligation" to leave Liu Bei's service, but promised not to help his new lord Cao Cao, and he keeps quiet upon discovering that Pang Tong (which makes him the heroic - in a sense - version of this trope) was involved in the Liu Bei-Sun Quan alliance's plot leading up to the Battle of Chi Bi.
  • Unfortunate Names: Cao Cao's given name consists of a character that, when pronounced slightly differently, is also used to write one of the many Chinese words for "fuck," and is the "grass" of the infamous "grass mud horse" meme. The "mud horse" part just sounds similar to "Your mother."
    • In addition, there are some names that are unfortunate for English speakers, such as He Man, who lasts only two or three paragraphs in Chapter 12. (His only line of dialogue: "I am He Man, the devil who shoots across the sky. Who dare fight with me?" Unfortunately for him the relatively minor character Cao Hong does, faking retreat before cutting him down.) Note that this name is not pronounced even remotely like the English "He Man", but more like "Huh Mahn".
    • There's also Cao Pi, whose name is properly pronounced something like "Tsaow Pay" but who is regrettably referred to by some English-speakers as "Cow Pee".
  • Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Done several times.
  • Villainous Glutton: Dong Zhuo. An official lit a wick in his corpse, and it burnt for days.
  • Warrior Poet: Cao Cao and his sons were renowned poets, and founded one of the major styles of poetry of the time.
  • Xanatos Funeral: As an old saying goes, a dead Zhuge Liang scared a live Sima Yi. And HOW!
  • You Shall Not Pass:
    • Dian Wei holding off Zhang Xiu's forces.
    • Zhang Fei at the Battle of Chang Ban, where he shouts a challenge for anyone in Wei's army to come and pass, and no one comes forward, allowing Liu Bei time to escape.
  • You Should Know This Already: 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 Foregone Conclusion.

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