Records of the Three Kingdoms

Quick Facts: Who was Records of the Three Kingdoms?

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Records of the Three Kingdoms

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A foundational Chinese official history detailing the late Han Dynasty and Three Kingdoms period.

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2Day Chrono-Wiki & Primary Historical Archives

Origins & Early Life

The Records of the Three Kingdoms is a Chinese official history compiled by Chen Shou in the late 3rd century. It covers the end of the Han dynasty and the histories of Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu through the reunification of China under the Western Jin. The work has 65 volumes divided into the Book of Wei, Book of Shu, and Book of Wu, and is organized mainly as biographies. Chen Shou drew on earlier official histories of Wei and Wu and collected surviving materials for Shu, which had no comparable official history. In the 5th century, Pei Songzhi added extensive annotations that preserved alternative accounts, quoted lost works, and commented on discrepancies in the text.

Career & Major Achievements

The Records and Pei's annotations are major sources for the political and military history of the late Han and Three Kingdoms periods. The work also supplied much of the historical framework for the 14th-century novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Large portions have been translated into English, but no complete unabridged English translation has been published. The Book of Han and Records of the Three Kingdoms join the original Han-era universal history Records of the Grand Historian to constitute the first three entries in the Twenty-Four Histories canon, with each work cementing the new genre's literary and historiographical qualities as established by Sima Qian. The Records of the Three Kingdoms consist of 65 fascicles divided into three books—one per eponymous kingdom—totaling around 360,000 Chinese characters in length.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

The Book of Wei, Book of Shu, and Book of Wu receive 30 fascicles, 15 fascicles, and 20 fascicles respectively. Each fascicle is organised in the form of one or more biographies. The author Chen Shou was born in present-day Nanchong, Sichuan, then in the state of Shu Han. After the Conquest of Shu by Wei in 263, he became an official historian under the government of the Jin dynasty, and created a history of the Three Kingdoms period. After the Conquest of Wu by Jin in 280, his work received the acclaim of senior minister Zhang Hua.

Historical Fact-Check Quiz: Records of the Three Kingdoms

True or False: “The Records of the Three Kingdoms was solely written as a comprehensive annalistic account, similar to official dynastic histories.”

Answer (FALSE ❌): While it covers historical events, its structure is primarily biographical rather than strictly annalistic, which required careful compilation.

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