A historical text compiled by Fan Ye (398–445 CE) during the Liu Song dynasty of the Southern Dynasties period. The work originally comprised 100 scrolls of Annals (Benji) and Biographies (Liezhuan), but the present standard edition contains 120 scrolls: 10 Annals, 80 Biographies, and 30 Treatises (Zhi).
The assassination of Dong Zhuo in 192 AD was meant to restore the Han dynasty. Masterminded by Wang Yun and executed with the sword of Lü Bu, it was celebrated as a heroic act that liberated Emperor Xian from tyranny.
When discussing the military hierarchy of Dong Zhuo’s regime, it is essential to look beyond the romanticized narrative of Luo Guanzhong’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms and consult the more sober accounts of historical records such as Chen Shou’s Records of the Three Kingdoms and Fan Ye’s Book of the Later Han.
The assassination of Dong Zhuo in 192 AD was hailed as a heroic act that liberated the Han court from tyranny. Wang Yun, the mastermind behind the plot, emerged as the new guardian of the dynasty, standing alongside Lü Bu as the saviors of the realm.
The death of Dong Zhuo in 192 AD triggered widespread celebration across the capital, as the tyrant who had terrorized the Han court was finally overthrown. Yet amidst the jubilation, one man—Cai Yong, a renowned scholar, historian, and musician—publicly sighed at the news. Worse still, he did so within earshot of Wang Yun, the…