Brief Introduction to SGZ
After the fall of Wu, the last of the three kingdoms, China was reunified under the domain of Jin, Chen Shou was commissioned by the government to compile the history of the Three Kingdoms period -- the Sanguozhi (SGZ). It is said that the SGZ was already written as a private work of Chen Shou but only after orders from the Jin government for commentary to be added, that it was officially adopted.

Nearly a hundred and fifty years later, Pei Songzhi of the Liu-Song dynasty edited Chen Shou's SGZ and provided commentaries from other eminent historians such as Xi Zuochi, Sun Sheng, Yuan Zi, Fu Zi as well as texts such as Han Jin Chun Qiu by Xi Zuochi; Dian Lue and Wei Lue by Yu Huan; Yibu Qijiu Zaji by Chen Shou; Hua Yang Guo Zhi by Chang Qu; Wei Shu by Wang Shen; Wu Shu by Wei Zhao; Wei Shi Chun Qiu by Sun Sheng, etc. Pei Songzhi also offered his own comments. Pei Songzhi justified his additions to the original work of Chen Shou in a memorial to the Emperor, where he said (From Records of the Three Kingdoms by Rafe De Crespigny):

"The argument and design of the Shou's book is admirable and in most things well judged ..... but it is rather too short and there are omissions. I have the imperial decree to search into the details and to devote my efforts to discover every source ..... If there is something that Shou did not mention, and if it is something that should be remembered, then I collect all these records to fill in the gaps that are left. Sometimes there are two accounts of the same thing, and there may be errors and irrelevancies in the text; sometimes an incident is descrbied in two quite different ways ..... On occasion, I argue with Chen Shou in his judgment of events or on minor points of fact."

Pei Songzhi's commentary is considered a remarkable historical achievement on its own. Also, all his quotes and commentary are referenced to the source they came from which was quite rare for historians of the time to do. Most of the books which Pei Songzhi had access to have been lost and are only known to exist via Pei Songzhi's referencing. Thus the SGZ with Pei Songzhi's commentary has been included in the 'Official Histories' of China and contains a wealth of information from book that we do not have access to anymore.

The SGZ is arranged in the form of biographies of the sovereigns, generals, ministers, and other notable people, categorised in three chronicles or Shu for each kingdom (Wei, Shu, Wu). The Emperor's biographies are known as Ben Ji while those of other people (including Sovereigns of other kingdoms) were known as Lie Zhuan. In total, the SGZ consists of sixty-five biographies, where there are thirty books of Wei, fifteen books of Shu, and twenty books of Wu. This style of historiography was first adopted by the Great Historian, Sima Qian of Western Han, and used throughout history in the compiling of dynastic chronicles. This style contrasts to the chronological form of the Zi Zhi Tong Jian (ZZTJ) compiled by Sima Guang of Song and other such books later written.

While the original SGZ was considered the most accurate account of the three kingdoms period, there still exist inaccuracies inconsistencies, and bias. Chen Shou worked under the Jin government and together with the fact that he was formerly an official of Shu-Han, it comes to no surprise that he was very careful in choosing the words he used. That is, he had to be politically correct in using terms that would have political context. One of the characteristics of the SGZ is the fact that the Wei kingdom was considered the legitimate successor to Han. This was a crucial point since the legitimacy of the Jin dynasty depended on the legitimacy of the previous dynasty which the Sima family usurped. Therefore, the sovereigns of Wei were referred to as 'Di' or 'emperors' while the sovereigns of Shu-Han and Wu were referred to as 'Zhu' or 'rulers'. The Wei Emperor's biographies were titled as Ben Ji while the Emperors of the Shu-Han and Wu dynasty were titled as Lie Zhuan, again suggesting that the mandate of Heaven rested with the Wei kingdom. Consequently, the Emperor of Shu-Han, Liu Bei, was referred to as Xian Zhu or First Ruler. Cao Cao was referred to as Taizu or Grand Ancestor in the Wei biographies and as Cao Gong or Duke Cao in the other biographies. Sima Yi, grandfather of the first Jin Emperor, was designated as Jin Xuan Di, hence in all the SGZ biographies, he is referred to as Xuan Wang or King Xuan of Jin.

The basis of legitimacy started to turn away from Wei toward Shu-Han during the Eastern Jin dynasty. With the Western Jin crumbling to barbarians, there were legitimacy concerns with the new Eastern Jin dynasty, mirroring that of Shu-Han and its claim that it was continuing the lineage of the previous Han dynasty. This shift in political legitimacy was evident in the writings of the Eastern Jin historian, Xi Zuochi, who was author of the Han Jin Chun Qiu. By the time of Sima Guang of the Song dynasty, Liu Bei was referred to as Han Zhu (Sovereign of Han) rather than Xian Zhu, and Shu-Han was referred to simply as Han. The Song historian, Zhu Xi, was revolutionary in rewritting the ZZTJ (his book was the Zi Zhi Tong Jian Gangmu), expressing his strong Confucian beliefs through the legitimising of Shu-Han and its Emperor as well as adopting its calendar. This new political viewpoint became the standard for historians since then. One example of this in the Song Shi (History of Song) commentaries of the Song high minister, Fan Zhongyan, which was written in the Yuan dynasty. Fan Zhongyan's merits were compared with those of Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei was referred to in this commentary as Han Zhao Lie which was his title as Emperor.

Notes on Translation
This English translation of the Sanguozhi, which includes full commentaries by Pei Songzhi, is intended to be an events-based translation. While all effort has been made to ensure that translation of people's names, ranks, and titles are accurate, the main focus of the exercise was to describe the events with no particular emphasis on translation accuracy. Therefore memorials as well as unimportant conversations have been omitted (eg. the conversation between Dong Cheng and Wang Zifu was summarised only). Also, due to the classical way the SGZ is written in, it was difficult to understand the meaning of some sentences. I am not an expert translator nor am I that proficient in chinese literature. Hence this biography serves to inform the reader of what happened only rather than as a literary source. No guarantee is made that this translation is 100% accurate but every effort has been made to ensure it is as close to the original meaning as possible.

Some of the sentences may seem very simple and short. This was because in the process, each sentence was translated individually and not as a group. Hence sentences were not conjoined to form longer ones. Historians of the time tend to describe events in erratic sentences using the least number of words. Hence the short rhythm of my translations does give the reader an indication of the rhythm of Chen Shou's brush.

The main text is Chen Shou's text while the italicised text highlights Pei Songzhi's contribution and commentaries. I have offered my own commentary in the form of footnotes. My commentary is mostly based on other information I have read such as the Zi Zhi Tong Jian and also commentary from the historian, Rafe De Crespigny.

Acknowledgements
I would like to offer my sincere thanks firstly to my parents for spending the time in helping me in the translation. As I cannot read chinese very well, their verbal translations were incredibly helpful. I would also like to acknowledge my best friend and sister, Zhang Luqing (aka Empress Zhang), for her support as well as advice on the translation of some difficult sentences. Also many thanks go to Vincent Kwok (aka admiral2525) for providing another translational viewpoint on a sentence in Chen Shou's commentary (Thank goodness it agrees with Luqing's translation) as well all the members of the RTK Frontier Palace who I have learnt a lot of knowledge from. And finally, a big thank you goes to the webmaster and administrator of this site, Xianlong, for his tremendous help in getting these biographies online as well as the wonderful job he has done in laying it out in an appealing fashion.