Sanguo - Books, Culture, Podcasts, and Revolution

About the Sanguo Yanyi Audiobook

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 Romance of the Three Kingdoms (16)

Tuesday

Apr092013

The Sanguo Yanyi - Chapter 63

Tuesday, April 9, 2013 at 7:12PM

The Sanguo Yanyi - Chapter 63:

Zhuge Liang Mourns For Pang Tong;

Zhang Fei Releases Yan Yan.

Listen:

Download Episode(Click this link. It will bring up a page with an audio player loaded with the file. Right click your mouse and "save as" to download episode.)

WARNING: YUP. YOU GUESSED IT. SPOILERS.

Chapter 63: Pang Tong is assassinated. 1963: John F. Kennedy is assassinated. Coincidence? Or Conspiracy? (If it's a conspiracy, that's one hell of a long-lived conspiracy. About 1800 years or so.)

Anyways, yeah, Pang Tong is skraight up assassinated in this chapter. Of course, the assassin, Zhang Ren, totally meant it to be Liu Bei that fell at Fallen Phoenix slope, but...well, I guess you can't be too picky in such a situation, right? Amiright? SureIam. :p

So it just got real over in Shu. Liu Bei had been told once that if he had both Sleeping Dragon and Fledgling Phoenix to support him, he need have no anxiety about being able to accomplish his great goal of reunifying the Han Empire. Well, now, he's just lost one of those two. I'm sort of curious what "Heaven's" take on all of this was. After all, supposedly, it was "Heaven" that drove Liu Bei to mount this expedition into Shu in the first place. And now it is "Heaven" which appears to be punishing him for doing so? Make up your mind, "Heaven".

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D.J. Raspe |

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Tuesday

Apr092013

The Sanguo Yanyi - Chapter 62

Tuesday, April 9, 2013 at 6:15PM

The Sanguo Yanyi - Chapter 62:

The Taking Of River Fu Pass, Yang Huai and Gao Pei Perish;

The Siege Of Luocheng, Huang Zhong and Wei Yan are Rivals.

Listen:

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WARNING: WHO GOT THE SPOILERS? WE GOT THE SPOILERS! WHO GOT THE SPOILERS? WE GOT THE MUTHATRUCKIN' SPOILERS! BEEYATCH!

So here we are at Chapter 62. And I'm getting pretty tired of writing long, drawn out commentaries for these. Sitting here staring at my computer screen until my eyes glaze over isn't quite all that it's cracked up to be, I guess. But I suppose, it's a labor of love. Or it's a labor of something, at any rate. So, time to get the tedious commentary-writing over with...for this chapter anyways. This is the Chapter, by the way, where the battle for Yizhou and the greater Ba-Shu region begins to heat up. For that matter, it's also the chapter where Wei Yan and Huang Zhong's fledgling rivalry begins to heat up.

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D.J. Raspe |

The Sanguo Yanyi - Chapter 60

Tuesday, April 9, 2013 at 3:03PM

The Sanguo Yanyi - Chapter 60:

Zhang Song Turns The Table On Yang Xiu;

Pang Tong Proposes The Occupation Of Shu.

Listen:

Download Episode(Click this link. It will bring up a page with an audio player loaded with the file. Right click your mouse and "save as" to download episode.)

WARNING: BEWARE THE IDES OF SPOILERS. BEWARE. BEWARE, I SAY.

Annnd, you've waited a long time for this. Thank you for your patience. Your patience is about to be rewarded, because this is the first of several chapters I'm posting to the feed today for your listening enjoyment. Know what else it is, though? It's Chapter 60, also known as, the "Oh my freaking lord, after four years of making these we are FINALLY at the halfway point of the story" Chapter. Phew. I don't know if it's been as tiring for you guys to listen to these, but it's certainly been quite tiring for me to make 'em. Not that I'm going to stop or anything. When you get 60 chapters through a 120 chapter book, it's sort of pointless to turn back, isn't it?

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D.J. Raspe |

The Sanguo Yanyi - Chapter 59

Wednesday, October 10, 2012 at 11:33PM

The Sanguo Yanyi - Chapter 59:

Xu Chu Strips For A Fight With Ma Chao;

Cao Cao Writes A Letter To Han Sui.

Listen:

WARNING: READING AND UNDERSTANDING CLASSICAL LITERATURE CAN CAUSE INTENSE INTELLECTUAL GROWTH, CRITICAL THINKING, SOCIAL DISCONTENT, VOTE-BOYCOTTING, MARIJUANA USAGE, REVOLUTIONARY TENDENCIES, SPOILERS, AND IN SOME CASES, DEATH.

Chapter 59 of the Sanguo Yanyi is a chapter which has much to do with human psychology, and how it can affect the actions of men and armies alike. For in this Chapter, Cao Cao uses his mind, and the minds of his top advisers, far more than he uses swords and axes.

A maxim to remember in the execution of any war, is the maxim that says "Where main force may fail, guile may succeed." If I were the leader of an army, I would probably value my soldiers. To not do so would be a huge blow to morale. But probably even above the soldiers, I would prize a talented, charismatic, and convincing group of spies and diplomats even more, because with a mere word, a good talker might neutralize an entire enemy army, and not even a nuke can do that.

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D.J. Raspe |

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Monday

Jun252012

The Sanguo Yanyi - Chapter 58

Monday, June 25, 2012 at 2:38AM

The Sanguo Yanyi - Chapter 58:

Ma Chao Launches An Expedition For Revenge;

Cao Cao Flees The Field In Disguise.

Listen:

WARNING: TYPING IN CAPS CAN OFTEN LEAD TO PEOPLE THINKING YOU'RE SHOUTING AT THEM. AND THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THE FOLLOWING COMMENTARY.

Annnnnnd, it's Chapter 58 already. Bet you weren't expecting TWO audiobook episodes in one night, were you? Oh, you were? Well....ummmm....hmmmmmm....guess that wasn't as big a surprise as I meant it to be then. :p

At any rate, we've reached Chapter 58. Ma Teng is dead, slain by the soldiers of Cao Cao, and Ma Dai, nephew of Ma Teng, has escaped from the capitol, carrying back to Ma Chao the tale of Ma Teng's ending. Filial Piety was a cardinal virtue in the people of the Han, and Ma Chao was, as could be quite expected, not quite happy with Cao Cao for the murder of his father.

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D.J. Raspe |

2 Comments |

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Monday

Jun252012

The Sanguo Yanyi - Chapter 57

Monday, June 25, 2012 at 2:07AM

The Sanguo Yanyi - Chapter 57:

Sleeping Dragon Mourns In Chaisang;

Young Phoenix Intervenes At Leiyang.

Listen:

WARNING: D.J. RASPE IS PRONE TO BOUTS OF BLEAK DEPRESSION AND HE DISAPPEARS SOMETIMES, AND WHEN HE DOES, HIS CONTENT SLOWS TO A STANDSTILL. BUT HE USUALLY COMES BACK EVENTUALLY...LET THE SHOW GO ON. OH YEAH, AND SOMETHING ABOUT SPOILERS TOO...

So, it's been about a year since the last episode, and you're probably good and ready for a new episode, huh? Well, all right then. Let's get down to it. It is to be recalled that, at a previous point in the story, I mentioned how those who read this story tend to take sides. Some people are Cao Cao fans. Some are Liu Bei fans. Some are Zhuge Liang Fans, and some like Zhou Yu...this chapter, Chapter 57, is for the Cao Cao fans, it would seem.

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D.J. Raspe |