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If I have to pick a favourite piece of classic literature ("classic" being here defined as something at least a hundred years old), I'd have to pick the Chinese historical novel Romance Of The Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong. This epic historical novel tells the story of the fall of the four hundred year dynasty of the Han, with China being divided into three parts before finally being reunited by the Jin Dynasty. Drawing on a variety of sources (including history, folk tales, and traditional opera), RotTK is at times heart breaking, hilarious, action packed, and clever.

And when I say "epic", I mean it in every sense of the word. Its scope is 120 years, its size (in my translation, at least) is some 1300 pages, and its cast of characters is over 1000 named (mostly historical). Battles are huge, with brave generals carrying out complex tactics at the behest of far seeing strategists. Duels are common, a showcase of the mighty warriors that each side has enlisted.

As can be expected of such a pivotal work, it has received numerous adaptations. The most popular in the west is probably the video game series Dynasty Warriors. But it has been made into a number of other video games, a couple of recent movies, several TV series (both live action and animated), and quite a few manga and manhua. The one that stands heads above the rest in that last category is Chan Mou's Ravages of Time, which manages to take everything I like about the novel and turns it up to eleven.

Which finally gets to the point of this post. So let's set the Wayback Machine to 190 AD. The place is Luo Yang, the capital of the Later Han. And Dong Zhuo, having taken over the Imperial court by force, is going to give his young puppet Emperor a lesson in leadership.

( Seven pages from Chapter 8, 'The Bloody Roads of the Ruler', under the cut. )