Three Kingdoms 1994 fansubs Foreword + Background Trivia (episode 59-67)

Thank you for downloading the Gentlemen of the Hàn translation of Romance of the Three Kingdoms 1994!
Apologies for taking so much time with this release. This is part 1 of the "Battles in the South and North"-arc! We are now properly within the later half of the Three Kingdoms, where now Zhuge Liang takes the reins as the principal character of the story.
Thank you for all the support and we hope you enjoy the translation. If there are any issues you notice, kindly let us know. Our Discord is available here: https://discord.gg/b45QuBGfS9. We are always looking for new contributors, so anyone with a knack for translating, editing, proofreading, or creative writing would be more than welcome to join us!
As before, please read our previous Foreword for extra context on the history of this production, the novel, and of the history it is based on:
https://pastebin.com/u/GentlemenOfTheHan

CONTENT WARNING (Animal cruelty):
On episode 67, there is a scene where live yaks are depicted being set on fire at around the 13 minute mark, during Zhuge Liang's battle against King Mulu.
Viewer discretion is advised.

HISTORY VS. ROMANTICISM

- 		[SPOILERS]
		This is the part of the story where we formally say goodbye to Guan Yu and Cao Cao. Of the many, many talented people behind the 1994 Three Kingdoms series, Lu Shumin and Bao Guo'an's iconic performances as Guan Yu and Cao Cao respectively are among the standouts. To many generations, they are the premier and definitative takes on these iconic characters, bar none. We've spoken of the acting talent of Bao Guo'an before, so we will not repeat here. While Cao Cao has had many actors before or since, each bringing something unique to the table, to this day no one has surpassed Lu Shumin in his performance as Guan Yu. Stoic, but not emotionless. Proud, but not obnoxious. Awe-inspiring, but still human. Lu Shumin as Guan Yu truly embodies the popular imagination of the most honorable, thoughtful warrior of the Three Kingdoms.

RIP Lu Shumin.
		[SPOILERS END]


-		Beginning here, we see another historically anachronistic habit of many Romance related media; referring to Liu Bei's "Shu-Han" 蜀汉 as just "Shu" 蜀 or "Shu-kingdom/nation" 蜀国.
In reality, Shu-Han always referred to itself as the Han dynasty, or "Han" 汉, as it saw itself as the natural, unbroken successor state of the Han dynasty [1], similar to how Byzantine Empire would have referred to itself as the Roman Empire in actuality. Only its enemies and later historical records would choose to refer to it as Shu, thus as an illegitimate state.
The 1994 series made the conscious decision to refer to the faction as Shu in its narration as well as on some of the dialogue and prop banners. This is done for ease of audience comprehension, as people then would've known and referred to Shu-Han more popularly as Shu instead of Han.
However, some certain design cues seem to imply that within the narrative, Shu-Han does still refer to itself as the Han dynasty, which is technically more sensible.
Hence in these subs, a subtle difference is made between Shu-Han, the land of Shu, and the Shu army (meaning, military originating from the land of Shu), and varying in context, as it often would be.
For example, Deng Zhi's dialogue during his meeting with Sun Quan still refers to his side as Shu, to play up his role as envoy who knows how to speak to Sun Quan.

-		In episode 64, Zhang Wen and Qin Mi have a minor battle of wits involving quotations from Classics of Poetry. Most of the allusions is pretty straightforward enough, so don't need too much explaining. The quote "The crane cries in the ninth pool of the marsh, And her voice is heard in the sky" (鹤鸣于九皋，声闻于天。) may need some explaining. The crane, in Chinese culture, is considered a holy animal, and often symbolizes great men/great sages. The line itself is a reference to the ambitions and willpower of great savants.

-		Liu Bei's war against Eastern Wu is per usual, greatly dramatized for storytelling purposes, with some early personal victories written to earn some catharsis such as with the fictionalized death of Pan Zhang, who lived well after this conflict into the year 230s. Liu Bei's flaws in his leadership is perhaps also exaggerated to be more emotional and careless than it is in reality. Liu Bei would obviously not have denied Sun Quan's offer to return the Jing Province, at least quite so strongly, while Sun Quan of course never actually offered to give up the hard won Jing Province to Liu Bei. It is also not known if Zhuge Liang actually opposed Liu Bei's decision to go to war against Eastern Wu and Huang Zhong's death also happened earlier within the historical timeline.
There are also some debates as to whether the linked camps of Liu Bei are as much a tactical blunder as it is depicted in Romance, or whether it was simply a case of hindsight being 20/20.

-		The Eightfold Maze, or Stone Sentinel Maze, is obviously also of questionable historicity, and the story of it originating from Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel, or from popular folklore and stories which inspired Romance.
The "Baguazhen" 八卦阵 (lit. "Eight Trigrams formation"), which the Eightfold Maze is inspired by, was a real defensive military formation Zhuge Liang famously utilized during his campaigns.
The details as well as rough outline of the Baguazhen can be found in many Chinese military treatises such as the "Wubei Zhi" 武備志. It is also famously showcased in the movie Red Cliff (albeit very stylized), and later some episodes of the 2010 Three Kingdoms series.

-		In this batch, we formally introduce the characters of Liu Shan, as well as Cao Pi after his initial appearances. Liu Shan and Cao Pi are perhaps among farthest from their historical counterparts, with their negative traits greatly exaggerated.
In history, Liu Shan was known as a kindly and decently educated ruler, one that had a penchant for falling into excess and hedonism from time to time, especially as the years went on, though still maintaining relative peace in Shu-Han (though many debate whether this is due to his actual competence as a ruler, or the sheer ability of his leading ministers Zhuge Liang, Jiang Wan, Fei Yi, etc.)
In the novel and the TV series, he is depicted as almost a cartoonish caricature, with barely any of Liu Shan's positive traits, all to set up the tragedy that is to befall later. Likely, Liu Shan would probably be the most normal milquetoast person living in the most extraordinary of times. The kind of emperor that probably would eke out a decent reign during times of peace and prosperity and doesn't rock the boat, being mainly a moral guidance and doing just enough to keep basic cohesion while leaving the in-theory capable ministers and officials to do their job (basically, the Ideal Ruler in traditional Confucian values).
Cao Pi is an interesting case, as Cao Pi is the easiest to write into a nefarious miniaturized Cao Cao with even more of Cao Cao's wily streak, to have Cao Zhi serving as a victim of his brother's actions in contrast. Historically though, the real Cao Pi would've been a much more complicated person.
Cao Pi in history, while sharing many of the traits of his father's, also contains many surprisingly sentimental if not even melancholic sides to him. An accomplished poet and literati as well, his writings reflect a contemplative and self-depreciative personality, one who knows his own vicarious position and fears. In contrast, Cao Zhi may have also been a lot more politically ambitious with likely his own schemes, thus more potentially dangerous to Cao Pi than the novel might let on.
Another showcase of how real-life is often more complicated than fiction.

-		Kebineng, the king of the Xianbei [2], is mentioned as one of the forces in alliance with Cao-Wei, who would lead Qiang troops from the northeast. This is another instance of Romance playing loose with geography. In reality, Qiang reside in the northwest regions of modern-day China, around Qinghai and Gansu, while Xianbei occupied much of the northern East Eurasian areas of modern-day Mongolia and Northeastern China. While travel to the west isn't strictly impossible, the Xianbei wouldn't necesarrily have any direct authority over the Qiang at this point to begin with.

-		This batch covers the very interesting if oddball Nanman chapters of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Most of the events in the Nanman stories are pretty much 80%-90% fiction, such as the poisonous rivers and Zhuge Liang's flamethrowers, depicted 1:1 with how it is in the book, though some of the details remain true.
In history, Yong Kai and Zhu Bao, who were former administrators of the region from Yi-province, were the primary leaders of the insurrection against Shu-Han, with Meng Huo (who in history was never contacted by Cao-Wei, obviously) later joining them, as one of the eminent families of the Nanzhong region (roughly the area of modern-day Yunnan). In the book, this was changed to Meng Huo starting the rebellion as the chief southern tribal leader and warlord, with Yong Kai falling behind, but in the show this was changed back again to reflect the actual sequence of events in history.
In history, Meng Huo would've likely been a local leader or figurehead with indigenous ancestry rather than the popularly imagined tribal chief. In fact, similarly to many western historical depictions on the clashes of civilizations such as the Romans vs. the Celts and Germanics, many or some of the so called "Nanman" tribes, or southern indigeneous peoples, would've likely not dressed or behaved all that different from the Han peoples whom they've mingled with for generations at that point. Far from the popular imagination of "southern barbarian" tropes popularized in media.

-		The costuming of Nanman mixes some traditional dresses of some of the actual southern minorities of China in the Yunnan area, such as the Yi and Bai people which can be seen in the choice of outer wear and headwear, to better tie in with the history of the region. However, the Nanman in the show still do play into the popular imaginations of "tribal societies". Even Meng Huo's weapon, which in the novel was a traditional sword, was made into the twin axes shown in the TV series. Later popular renditions of the Nanman across all other media will lack even this detail in costuming, going farther with the "southern barbarian" imagery, for better or worse.

-		The Nanman across various eras have always been a sort of a reflection of Chinese Mainland racial relations in history, at least one aspect of it.
To cover this sensitive topic would be well outside the scope and capabilities of our little fansubbing group. Suffice to say, the history of the relationships between the Han Chinese and other ethnicities of the overall Mainland continent is a complex one, subject to change in both time and place. To say this history is one of ideal harmony and peaceful co-existence would be a whitewash, but to characterize it as a history of subjugation and proto-colonialism is also perhaps much too reductive.
For the purposes of this project, we shall only focus on their take as depicted in the 1994 series. The 1994 TV version of the Nanman was made with the conscious knowledge of modern sensitivies (modern for 90s standards at least), and one with the ideal of the mainstream Chinese ethnic tolerance and pluralist harmony as the goal.
Hence through considerable rewrites of the original chapters, the characterization of the Nanman conflict within these episodes is more of a redemption of Meng Huo from a would-be invading warlord to a righteous ruler, what can charitably seen as through a Ruist lens of moral legitimacy and consent of the governed,similar to stories like Yi Yin and Taijia, and placing more emphasis on reaching for mutual understanding and better treatment of the southern peoples. The Nanman are also not directly referred to as "蛮" AKA. "Barbarian" in the Chinese dialogue, but rather with the prefix "南" AKA. "South/Southern", such as with "southern soldier" 南兵, rather than the original novel's often used "barbarian soldier" 蛮兵.
Generally to the show's credit, this is all an attempt to make sure that the Nanman story arc doesn't carry the heavy and unfortunate connotations of imperialist conquest and racial divide as it would otherwise (albeit not entirely as much as some would hope, depending on whom you ask).
Though at times it may be clumsy and seem an overcorrection in places, as well as leading to a lot of strange and questionable implications, such as what Meng Huo is exactly rebelling against, if most other southern peoples seemed to have amicable enough relations with Shu-Han? Is he a rebel, or a foreign invader like the show seems to more practically present him as? Who owns what land originally anyway? (which would once again be entering into the demographics history of Sichuan and Yunnan that are much too complex to tackle here) And no doubt some scenes are going to simply come across a lot more negative in modern contexts regardless.
Partially this is also due to the original novel, which invented most of the events of this story arc, so, bar radical rewrites or complete removal, there is little to be done to edit out some of these issues. [3]
Though ultimately, Nanman are supposed to come out of the story not as the subjects of Shu-Han but as equals ruling their own land, deserving to have their own rights and autonomy, but your mileage may vary how well that conclusion is reached.
Thus, viewer discretion is advised.

-		Curiously enough, the positive conclusion of the story arc has basis in history. Rather than being straightforward conquest, Zhuge Liang did utilize Ma Su's plan of psychological and crowd-winning methods to quell rebellions with relatively less bloodshed. After the initial fighting was over, Zhuge Liang would enact key reforms, including a policy of "leaving no soldiers and transporting no grain", to strengthen the regional relations by leaving the area as effectively much more autonomous, letting local peoples to govern themselves, only needing to pay tribute and trade with the greater Shu-Han, while Shu-Han's own representative administrators and military presence of the region were kept to a bare minimum. Thus Zhuge Liang becoming palpaly more merciful and giving towards the southern peoples in the episodes, though obviously idealized, is not entirely without basis (one can only imagine Zhuge Liang trying the same heartwinning tactics during his expeditions in the north, though Zhuge Liang's overall army management method was recorded in history to have been orderly and ethical, with little to no misdeeds or disturbances towards civilian populations even in foreign lands like during the Northern Expedition).
This eliminated many of the large scale local rebellions and the likely fraught cultural relations that dominated the region for much of the Han dynasty. While the troubles never truly stopped (mainly increasing in number after Zhuge Liang's death and Shu-Han's own mounting issues), Nanzhong stayed relatively more harmonious than it has been before. A surprisingly peaceful and friendly resolution for the time, and another example of Zhuge Liang's administrative abilities and his adherence to rule of law and ethics.

-		Fun fact; after Nanzhong, Zhuge Liang would employ an elite vanguard called the "Wudang Feijun" 无当飞军 (lit. "Unstoppable Flying Army"), one of the many known elite armies of the Three Kingdoms. Wudang Feijun was comprised of warriors of the southern peoples from Nanzhong. They are mentioned in Records in many battles, such as rescuing Ma Su in the battle of Jieting and defeating Zhang He of Cao-Wei and his army.
Unfortunately, they don't explicitly appear in 1994 series, as they weren't present in the original novel either (except for maybe one instance in episode 72 later on, during the Northern Expedition arc...).

-		Fun fact; During this point of the story, Guan Suo was supposed to make a brief appearance, his only one in the well known Mao Zonggang's rendition of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Guan Suo is the fictional son of Guan Yu, who has his own story and adventures in "Huaguansuozhuan" 花关索传. We will not go over the events of that story in detail, but suffice to say his fantastical story and character was entirely removed from the TV series, as his presence in the original novel is basically a footnote.

[1] Shu-Han actually has another official title in history, called the "Ji-Han" 季汉, named by Liu Bei himself. The word "Ji" 季 has had various meanings to it across history, so it could be variously translated as "Later Han", "Junior Han", "Third Han" (after the Western and Eastern Han dynasties), "Fourth Han" (counting the shortlived interim reign of Liu Xuan's family as its own middle Han dynasty), or most ironically "Last Han". The name "Ji-Han" does not get mentioned in the 1994 show, though often gets mentioned in historical records, and among people who like this particular time period and faction.
[2] Little known fact is that many of the northern peoples and tribes actually had relatively little excursions to the Chinese Mainland throughout most of the Late Han dynasty to Three Kingdoms period. While conflicts did happen, they pale in comparison to the many well-known examples of northern peoples' conflict against the Han Chinese, such as the Xiongnu wars or the later Sixteen Kingdoms period, after the Jin dynasty fell to civil war. This was due to many internal conflicts and divisions between the northern tribes, much of it facilitated by various factions in the north, most particularly Cao Cao and later Cao-Wei. Kebineng's kingly status was in fact given by Cao Pi. Cao-Wei would later assassinate Kebineng, after his raiding of You and Bing provinces.
[3] The 2010 adaptation of the Three Kingdoms of course skipped the story arc entirely. Though whether this is due to genuine concern, or just part of 2010's general penchant of removing and changing many of the plotlines of Three Kingdoms novel and history is up to you.

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Final Word
A lot of care and hard work went into this release. We hope you enjoy, and look forward to the next one!