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 Zhang Ren (3)

Thursday

Nov282013

The Sanguo Yanyi - Chapter 64

Thursday, November 28, 2013 at 1:06PM

The Sanguo Yanyi - Chapter 64:

Zhuge Liang Plans For The Capture Of Zhang Ren;;

Yang Fu Borrows Soldiers To Destroy Ma Chao.

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: THE GUY MAKING THIS AUDIOBOOK HAS BEEN DRIVEN INTO FINANCIAL RUIN BY HIS GENEROSITY IN ALWAYS GIVING HIS ART AWAY FOR FREE. HIS ART WILL REMAIN FREE HOWEVER...HE WILL NOT CHARGE YOU FOR IT, BUT IF YOU WANT HIM TO STILL HAVE THE ABILITY TO MAKE THESE AUDIOBOOK CHAPTERS FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT, IT IS HIGHLY SUGGESTED THAT YOU MAKE A FREE WILL DONATION TO THE CAUSE. YOU CAN DO SO AT THE TOP-LEFT SIDE OF THE SCREEN BENEATH THE SITE BANNER, WHERE IS LOCATED A DONATE BUTTON. I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH...WHEN I'M TOO POOR TO AFFORD ELECTRICITY TO POWER THE COMPUTER, OR A ROOF OVER MY HEAD, OR ANYTHING ELSE THAT IS REQUIRED FOR ME TO BE ABLE TO MAKE THESE AUDIOBOOK CHAPTERS, THIS AUDIOBOOK WILL DIE AND I WILL NOT THEN BE ABLE TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT. YOU CAN HELP KEEP IT FROM DYING, BY DONATING WHAT YOU MIGHT OTHERWISE HAVE SPENT ON A CUP OF COFFEE OR A VIDEO FROM NETFLIX. YOU HAVE THE ABILITY TO SAVE THIS AUDIOBOOK...I HOPE THAT YOU CHOOSE TO DO SO BY YOUR GENEROSITY. REGARDLESS, THOUGH, I WILL CONTINUE TO PUT THESE EPISODES UP FOR FREE ON THIS WEBSITE FOR YOU TO DOWNLOAD WHETHER OR NOT YOU DONATED. BECAUSE ART SHOULD BE FREE TO THE PUBLIC. THANKS.

So now it's Chapter 64, and Liu Bei is dealing with the fallout from what happened in the last chapter. What happened in the last chapter? Well, it's been a while since I released that one from the vaults but you might remember that in the last chapter, Pang Tong was assassinated by Zhang Ren, and quite suddenly Liu Bei found himself not only bereft of his primary advisor in the invasion of Shu, but also now surrounded by enemies, his retreat cut off, and his entire dream in danger of being destroyed. (My oh my, how I can totally relate to that. I know that feel, Liu Bei. I know that feel.)

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D.J. Raspe |

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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tagged

Battle of Luocheng,

Liu Bei,

Liu Bei's Entry into Shu,

Liu Zhang,

Pang Tong,

Romance of the Three Kingdoms,

Sanguo Yanyi,

The Death of Pang Tong,

Zhuge Liang in

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:

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: 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 |