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Cao Cao, the famed warlord of Wei, was renowned for his policy of “employing talent regardless of background” – a pragmatic approach that allowed him to attract brilliant minds like Xun Yu, Guo Jia, and even Xu Shu, whom he successfully lured away from Liu Bei. Given this track record, a natural question arises:…
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Liu Bei is not the most brilliant strategist, nor the fiercest warrior, nor the most cunning politician of the Three Kingdoms. Yet across centuries – through both historical records like Chen Shou’s Records of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi) and the romanticized drama of Luo Guanzhong’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms – he remains the…
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In the vast tapestry of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Pei Yuanshao appears only briefly—yet his fleeting arc encapsulates a profound theme: the difficulty of escaping one’s past in an era defined by rigid loyalties and violent reckonings.
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Popular memory—shaped heavily by the Romance of the Three Kingdoms—portrays Cao Cao’s invasion of Xu Province in 193 AD as a brutal act of filial vengeance: his father, Cao Song, was murdered in Tao Qian’s territory, so Cao Cao launched a merciless campaign to avenge him.
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The turbulent era of the Three Kingdoms saw the emergence of numerous heroes, and the land of Xuzhou once again became a focal point of conflict. As Tao Qian offered Xuzhou to Liu Bei three times, did Liu Bei accept it? Meanwhile, how would the great battles between Cao Cao and Lü Bu reshape…
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Chapter 10 of Romance of the Three Kingdoms unfolds against a backdrop of escalating chaos following the collapse of central authority in Chang’an.
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When asked who the wisest man in Romance of the Three Kingdoms is, most would instantly answer Zhuge Liang. Yet there exists a figure—mentioned only briefly in the original text—who was not merely a scholar, but a mastermind whose influence shaped the course of history, despite never wielding a sword or commanding an army.