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The Sanguo Yanyi
  • Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Vol. 1
    Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Vol. 1
    by Lo Kuan-Chung, Robert E. Hegel, C. H. Brewitt-Taylor

    I am currently producing an audiobook adaptation of the Sanguo Yanyi (The Romance of the Three Kingdoms), one of the Four Classics of Chinese Literature.  

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About the Sanguo Yanyi Audiobook

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By the Romance of the Three Kingdoms on Amazon

I have long been fascinated with the almost two millenia-old Chinese epic, the Sanguo Yanyi, or "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" as it has been called here in the west. The book, written by various authors contributing to it throughout the centuries, is truly one of the finest examples of epic storytelling in the history of the world. I tend to refer to it, sometimes, when I'm describing the story to people, as "The Chinese Illiad". The term might be a tad bit imprecise, since the Illiad only covers, what, ten years or so? Whereas, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms covers 90+ years of Chinese history. Some time back, I got a bug up my ass or something, and decided to go out and find audiobook versions of all my favorite books. I have been very successful for the most part, but there were some glaring omissions that I could not countenance. For one thing, I've not yet been able to score an audio copy of "The Aeneid" by Virgil. And from all the information I've thus far been able to gather, there is no audiobook adaptation of the Three Kingdoms saga. (Perhaps this might have something to do with the fact that the story is 120 chapters long!) To say that I was a bit indignant to discover that no one had ever made an audiobook version of one of the best-selling books of all time, one of the greatest STORIES of all time would be a bit of an understatement. I looked and looked and looked for months to see if I could track down an audio copy, and found none. So I decided that I would make one myself.

By the way, I just want to say right here and now: I do not speak any of the Chinese dialects, so if I happen to mispronounce anything, my apologies, but I do the best I can. :p I realize that this is a project which will probably consume my entire lifetime. The book is, as I have said before, quite a long one. But I am resolved to finish this project, if it takes me forever, and when I'm done, the world will have this fine, fine story of loyalty, brotherhood, ambition, and betrayal in audiobook form! This version is adapted from the online version published by the good folks at Threekingdoms.com, featuring a musical score taken from the many Romance of the Three Kingdoms video games put out by Koei over the years. The music is courtesy of Kongming.net. If you're as much of a fan of the Three Kingdoms as I am, you'll have to check that one out! I have put a lot of work into this so far, and it's not going to stop, so I hope that each and every one of you enjoy this.

Entries in Updates and News (1)

Thursday
Nov142013

Help Ensure the Sanguo Yanyi Audiobook Can be Finished!

Do you like the Sanguo Yanyi audiobook? It would seem there's at least a few of you out there who like this work, despite its imperfections, and are waiting for it to be finished (as am I). Lucky you. YOU have a chance to help me make sure it can be finished. How so?

It's like this. Ladies and Gentlemen, I was going to put up a request here, with flowery language and all, to beg you guys to help me out but instead I'm just going to cut straight to the point here...some real talk for you.

I'm on the verge of ruin. Total financial ruin. Actually, I'm probably somewhat PAST the point of financial ruin, but in in the interest of downplaying my own failure as a businessman, I'm going to go ahead and just call it "on the verge" instead. Why am I on the verge of ruin?  Because like Liu Bei, I've spent years clinging to an idea of how things should be, a sense of abject rectitude that the world itself says "No way!" to. That's why. I've given my art away for free for years and years and years, doing this stuff for the love, not only because I wanted to have it but because I wanted all of you to have it too. I've given this stuff away for free for years because I think it SHOULD be free, and I'm sort of stubborn about doing what I think is the right thing to do.  Because of that, I've paid the price, year after year, as this psychopathic world with its psychopathic capitalist economy drives altruists (like I've tried to be) into the ground because the only way to make your way in this world, it would seem, is to get people to pay you. 

Now what does this have to do with you? Well, see, you've been enjoying the various works of art on this site for years, for free, and no...as a matter of fact, I DON'T hold that against you. I WANT to give this shit to you for free. I think you should have it for free. I don't think that this world should ever have put a price on art. But obviously, what I thought and how things happen to be are totally different things. Instead of things being the way I want them to be (surprise surprise), we've got a world where those who have a soft heart about these sort of things are just pretty much screwed.

So if you really like this Sanguo Yanyi Audiobook, I've got to tell you, people...there's a much, much greater chance of me being able to finish it if you guys can find it in you to donate something to the cause.

Now, I'm NOT writing this because of any intention to charge you for my work. I do NOT want to charge you for this stuff...that's why I'm asking you all to consider a voluntary donation to the "Keep the guy making this audiobook from starving and being homeless in the winter and therefore being unable to finish his audiobook" fund. If you believe in this work as much as your comments have indicated over the years, you should be glad to be a little bit generous here...So please do. You don't HAVE to be, but it's in your interest to donate, so please do. Thank you.

If you are interested in finding out how you can help this worthy cause, please contact me at baka13@gmail.com for details. Thank you. And happy holidays to you all.