A Complete Translation of Pei Songzhi's Annotations to Records of the Three Kingdoms: Book of Shu

The novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the literary works derived from it have made the deeds of many important figures from the Three Kingdoms period common knowledge. But to learn about the actual history of the era, one can only turn to Records of the Three Kingdoms. Records of the Three Kingdoms was compiled by Chen Shou, a historian of the Western Jin, based on the histories of Wei and Wu, namely Book of Wei, Weilüe, and Book of Wu, as well as materials about Shu that he collected himself. More than a century after its publication, Pei Songzhi, a Palace Secretariat official of the Liu Song dynasty in the Southern Dynasties, was ordered to write annotations for Book of Wei, Book of Shu, and Book of Wu. Pei Songzhi drew on many sources Chen Shou had left out, aiming to fill gaps and preserve differing accounts. Since Pei Songzhi's annotations won widespread recognition, Records of the Three Kingdoms has been passed down in the form of Chen Shou's text with Pei's annotations. Many scholars consider Pei's annotations equal in status to Chen Shou's text and believe they should be treated as part of the main text. Many stories in Romance of the Three Kingdoms come from Pei's annotations. Readers without professional training in history and literature may find Records of the Three Kingdoms difficult to read fluently. Translating it into modern vernacular Chinese can attract more readers, but most existing modern translations either omit Pei's annotations or fail to translate them in full. The translator has used the December 1959 edition of Records of the Three Kingdoms published by Zhonghua Book Company as the base text, and consulted Lu Bi's Collected Annotations on Records of the Three Kingdoms, along with research by scholars including Professor Wu Jinhua of Fudan University and Professor Ni Yongming of Jiangsu University, to produce a complete translation of both Chen Shou's text and Pei's annotations. The translator is not a professional historian or literary scholar. The project began as a personal interest, and over ten years, the translator completed the entire translation independently. It is now being published on the Tomato platform. Readers are warmly invited to offer criticism and corrections. Please comment, rate, like, follow, and ask for updates. The translator is deeply grateful.