Three Kingdoms and games.

Origins Of Romance of Three Kingdoms:

    The Three Kingdoms was a period in Chinese history near to one thousand years ago. It is believed to nave begin from the first year of Jianan which is the last title of Han emoperor's reign (AD 220). The period contain  kingdoms such as Wei, Shu and Wu. At the end of the Han Dynasty, the kingdom became over populated and the economy had been seriously damaged because of constant war. So the three kingdoms all attach great importance to economic development. And with the development of science and technology in war, the Three Kingdoms become a very splendid era. Talents and heroes were constantly emerging in the Three kingdoms, they all receives great respect from the people.
    In ancient times most scholars become government officials. Chen Shou also was an offical in Shu. Towards the end of Three Kingdoms, he joined Jin and then started writting the book named “History of the Three Kingdoms”. But the most popular book of Three Kingdoms is a couplet novel named "The Romance of Three Kingdoms". People used this novel as a basis in Tang poetry and Song Ci. In Yuan Dynasty and Ming Dynasty, the story of Three Kingdoms is more familiar to people. There are always some stories about Three Kingdoms in folk art, Dynasty and plays.
    Luo Guanzhong takes about the history of the Three Kingdoms, and collected folk stories, poems, and literary works  since ancient times. Finally Luo wrote a historical novel named "The Romance of Three Kingdoms".This book is also known as one of China's four famous novels. His influence reached Asia first and then reached all over the world. As a novel, it also has a lot of fictional plot. ( For example three Heroes Combating Lü Bu, force five passes and slay six captains and so on in "The Romance of Three Kingdoms"). Even to this day, These stories are still well known and is widely used in TV plays, movies and video games.

--------------------------------------------------------

Literary development of story：

-One of China's four classic：
    "The Romance of Three Kingdoms"'full name is "Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms' history". It is an ancient chinese historical novel. The author make a combination of fantasy and reality. The book is deeply popular in folklore . People are full of praise for this book even in today.

Main versions of "The Romance of Three Kingdoms":
1. Jiajing of Ming "Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms' history"
2. Biography in Ming "Xinke Anjian Quanxiang Piping History of the Three Kingdoms"
3. Li Zhuowu in Ming "Li Zhuowu Xiansheng Piping History of the Three Kingdoms"
4. Li Liweng in Qing "Li Liweng Piyue History of the Three Kingdoms"
5. Mao Zonggang in Qing "The first of four masterpieces "

    It is generally believed that the author of "The Romance of Three Kingdoms" is Luo Guanzhong. But there is also a view that this book is written with his teacher Shi Naian. But there is no clear evidence to prove this view.

    As an example, these were mentioned on WIKI. Besides the famous Peach Garden Oath, many Chinese proverbs in use today are derived from the novel. For e.g 'Speak of Cao Cao and Cao Cao arrives.'. This sentence interpretation on Wiki is meaning 'Equivalent to speak of the devil. Describes the situation of a person appearing precisely when being spoken about.' Obviously, there are many Cultural impacts of Three Kingdoms are still in use today. It reminds me of a sentence that someone told me like 'history always repeats itself by different ways'.
----------------------------------------------------------

 

    Of course, as a good piece of work, it will be favored by directors of movies and TV shows. "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is often used to make films. The most famous two is Romance of the Three Kingdoms (TV series) and Three Kingdoms (TV series), the famous film Red Cliff (film) is also very popular in China.


The information of these works：
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_of_the_Three_Kingdoms_(TV_series)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Kingdoms_(TV_series)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Cliff_(film)

-----------------------------------------------------------

 

    When it comes to talk about games of Three Kingdom, we must mention Dynasty Warriors series(video game). Dynasty Warriors (Sangokumusō) is a weapon-based fighting video game made by Koei game company. It was first published on December 1, 1997 as a video game for PlayStation. Dynasty Warriors is a "one-on-one" fighting game at first, and the later installments in the series are main in hack and slash.
    Many other games are influenced by it because of its sales are very good. Koei also published the same type game named Sengoukumusō. The development of some other same type games like Gundammusō and so on by cooperation with other companies.

 

    BB Senshi Sangokuden is a new series that Bandai company made for BB warrios' 20 years birthday. It also came from "The Romance of Three Kingdoms". So far, the series has Fuuun Gouketsu Hen, Eiyuu Gekitotsu Hen and Senjin Kettou Hen. There is also a side story of title, Sangokuden Gaiden Buyuu Gekitou Roku. This series includes models, comics, mobile games and
other products. Bandai SD series is the company's highest sales series, its sales reached 3,500,000 boxes before.

    In addition to the game of Three Kingdoms theme, I also found a game named "Iron Knight". "Iron Knight" is a game made by Tecent Game company's original design. It is an online game, the main way of playing this game is a cold steel fight for beating other players. Identity of players in the game id the heroes of history. Characters and stories are designed by referencing to a large number of  historical data. This ensures that the game has a high level in reviving legends of history.

    The first part of the game occurred during the Three Kingdoms period. It is based in "The Romance of Three Kingdoms". Whether it is an event, a geographical location or an environment, its repeat reached a high level.

The information of these works:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynasty_Warriors
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BB_Senshi_Sangokuden

------------------------------------------------------------

Analysis of story and Character Archetypes：

    Not only a lot of quotations, there are even many strategies used in battles in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". For example, the famous events as 'Create Something from Nothing'，Beauty Trap and Empty City. They all use the standards flexibly of "The Art of War". The principle of war described in this book is highly valued by the military men of the Three Kingdoms period.

The Art of War Information：https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_War

    Empty City uses psychological tactics from "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". It means that to cause the enemy's wrong judgment by using an action which looks be hasty in a critical moment. Not only in the battle of cities' defensive, this kind of strategic thinking can also be used in the battle
against heavy odds. It is not just a simple tactic, but rely on doubt to beat the opponent through the study of the psychology of the enimies' general command. We can't use it without enough courage and confidence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empty_Fort_Strategy

-------------------------------------------------------------

    Not only historical , the characters of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" are also very popular. For example in World of Warcraft, a raid boss named Iron Qon was made based on Lu Bu who is famous as the war lord of Three Kingdoms from "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

    It's designer Lon said that 'Qon is one of Lei Shen’s elite personal guard, and a master of mounted combat. An original concept for this fight was inspired by the Three Kingdoms warlord Lu Bu, a fierce warrior renowned for his skill in fighting with a spear from horseback. '



----------------------------------------------------------------

Metaphors - story/Character：

 

    After that, let's talk about the preferences of charaters of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" in other works. I choose the game "legends of league" this time.

    When we said to the character of LOL in the protype of the Three Kingdoms, The first one I thought is Zhao Xin who based on Zhao Yun a popular hero. On this basis, they also produces a lot of models of characters in the Three Kingdoms.  They are all used in the existing characters. These models include: Zhao Yun- Zhao Xin, Guan Yu- Tryndamere, Sun Shangxiang- Katarina, Diao
Chan- Diana.
Zhao Yun model of Zhao Xin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jtb5aXhBbtc

-----------------------------------------------------------------

    After reading these informations, I see that themes of the Three Kingdoms are ubiquitous in many different type works. Now I would like to talk about a new piece of Tv series named Legend of Chu and Han.

    Legend of Chu and Han and Three Kingdoms (TV series) are two famous Tv series and they are very similar. Both of them are very strict with the actors. Lu Bu and Xiang Yu in the two works are played by the same actor named He Rundong. Because they are two very similar characters. Their love and life also have a surprising similarity. It made me feel that the god of destiny makes fools of the people.

The information of these works：
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_of_Chu_and_Han
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Kingdoms_(TV_series)

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Visual and interactive versions：

    In addition to video games, we also noted that even card games also used the themes of the Three Kingdoms.‘Legends of the Three Kingdoms’ is a card game popular in the area of Chinese. This game takes a different card game Bang! as a prototype. It is based on the story of the Three Kingdoms, and created a variety of different functions of the card.‘Legends of the Three Kingdoms’ was released by YOKA games on January 1, 2008, and even data up  cards and rulers today. It also have an online version named Legends of the Three Kingdoms Online.
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%89%E5%9B%BD%E6%9D%80
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%89%E5%9C%8B%E6%AE%BAOnline

----------------------------------------------------------------

 

    Fianlly, outside of the game and the professional topics, let's talk about Cosplay(costume play) an art form that people can deduce the fantasy role by themself. and in this behavior, the actor is called Cosplayer or Coser for short.
   
 The popular sources of cosplay include manga and anime, comic books and cartoons, video games, and live-action films and television series. So most cosplayers are not going to let a famous series like Dynasty Warriors (video game) off. We can see many wonderful photos of Cosplay in their album. Even a company named Total Media Agency in japanese published a DVD named Dynasty Warriors's Cosplay adult video.

information of this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosplay
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Media_Agency

---------------------------------------------------------------

Conclutions:

    Now let's talk about what we learned. I have learned that a subject could evolve in many forms after this investigation. For example, By the information of video games, card game, Tv series, movies and so on, I understand that a good theme not only can be made to a game, it can also be made into ornamental works and any other entertainment options.
    We can associate the related themes though similarities .Such as similar stories or characters in history, and combine them into a new theme. I splite one or more of the related ideas, and then put them together. Finally, the work is an original idea based on historical themes. I believe that if we can
grasp this point, we can do better in the creation of new works. It can be a new world view, it can be a new idol, or it can be more of a possibility that we haven't found iyet. I hope to start with this study, I can pay more attention to the content of my work in the future. I wish I could give my work a unique soul to affect the hearts of the audience.