/orient/

[Anonymous No.21662083]

I'm about to start the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Have any anons here read it, or other classical Eastern texts? What are your thoughts?

[Anonymous No.21662180]

Butthat

[Anonymous No.21662189]

>>21662083
I read Dream of Red Mansions in the same edition you psoted, and the translation was, at least as English, dogshit. Thin, feeble pages, awful poetry, a near illegible tiny family tree. There's a lot to like about the text, but fuck those cheapass Chinese translated editions

[Anonymous No.21662282]

>>21662083
Seems interesting. Haven't read it but it starts out with the main characters going like:
"man all these eunuchs in government are really fucking everything up"
Which is basically happening to the US right now (trans/gays are just Eunuchs. They hate humanity and always have)

[Anonymous No.21662380]

>>21662282
yea, china to this day has a big eunuch problem. Very effeminate.

[Anonymous No.21662548]

>>21662380
do they?

[Anonymous No.21662554]

>>21662083
Me Chinese!
Me play joke!
Me go pp in your coke!

Such beauty and truth come from the Oriental. What I would give to fully understand the native tongue to fully appreciate it

[Anonymous No.21662636]

>>21662548
yes. China has had an abundance of eunuchs since forever. Read any chinese history, from any dynasty, and there are eunuchs. That didn't just "go away", they still have eunuchs, and they're all over their gov't, which is why China is getting antsy and warlike.
It's the same story over and over and over again. Eunuchs take over the Chinese gov't, then the wars start.

[Anonymous No.21662685]

>>21662636
>they still have eunuchs, and they're all over their gov't, which is why China is getting antsy and warlike.
Proofs or meds, now.

[Anonymous No.21662698]

>>21662685
>eunuchs just magically vanished in China, even though every single history book of theirs talks about them.
don't you have barroons to make? chop chop, get to making more barroons for your eunuch masters, slave.

[Anonymous No.21663258]

>>21662083
Three Kingdoms is a very dry read. I have that translation, which is supposedly the best, and it reads like a bad history book with a few bits of fan-fiction sprinkled hither and thither. The fight scenes are cringe - most of them read like 'And Lord Guan and Zhang Jiao made 50 passes at each other and struck each other 150 times, but none got the better of the other. Then they retreated.' You have the same story of Cao Cao running away disguised as a foot soldier after being defeated in battle several times. The parts like the 'romance' between Diao Chan and Lu Bu are really just very matter of fact, and if you think it is anything like the series from ten years back, be prepared for disappointment; very few characters have any depth. All in all, not particularly enjoyable.

[Anonymous No.21663278]

>>21663258
true, but Chinese are bugmen that love that sorta stuff. They're not capable of the full range of emotion or intellectual subtleties that Westerners are.
Three Kingdoms is an okay read if you're a teenager and still watching Dragon Ball Z, but once you mature out of that childish phase it's pretty dull and repetitive.

[Anonymous No.21663311]

>true, but Chinese are bugmen that love that sorta stuff. They're not capable of the full range of emotion or intellectual subtleties that Westerners are.
>Three Kingdoms is an okay read if you're a teenager and still watching Dragon Ball Z, but once you mature out of that childish phase it's pretty dull and repetitive.

[Anonymous No.21663713]

>>21662636
>That didn't just "go away", they still have eunuchs
Thats interesting if true. How do we know this?

[Anonymous No.21663736]

>>21663311

[Anonymous No.21664539]

>>21663258
Yeah, the Moss Roberts translation can be more than a little dry at times, but it's far and away the most accurate/academic.

If anyone here is looking for something a bit easier to read and are okay with slightly sacrificing accuracy for readability, you might consider checking out the Yu Sumei translation.

[Anonymous No.21665025]

>>21662083
>>21663278
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a text completely unrepresentative of the Chinese literary tradition, if you are interested in East Asian literature you should read the canonical poetry, start with the Songs of Chu or the Tang Shi
>>21662636
Eunuchs don't reproduce and they have to be made so yes they just "go away"

[Anonymous No.21665059]

>>21662083
Volumes 1 and 2 are good. But after Guan Yu dies it completely collapses. You don't give a shit about Wei Yan or Zheng Wen. Volume 3 drags and you just want Sima Zhao to end it already.

[Anonymous No.21665100]

>>21662083
Tried to get into the book when I was a teen, but I found it kinda dull. Tv show is great depending on what you are looking for. Keep in mind I am a midwit

[Anonymous No.21665379]

>>21665025
see
>>21662282
>eunuchs are basically trans/gays
China has gays too, China has "eunuchs". They always have.

[Anonymous No.21666124]

What is the best translation of RotTK?

[Anonymous No.21666173]

Chinese anon here. We usually read it at a young age, and it's taught in school as well. It's quite popular not only because of its shonen manga like plot, but also because its prose is genuinely pretty vivid and doesn't lack energy. It also has lots of very subtle demonstrations of the so called 'Chinese character' ranging from psychology, relationship, strategic culture etc. if you're willing to ponder. Though beware of the tremendous amount of characters, especially near the end, that can make the story pretty hard to follow. It's not easy even when the names are in Chinese, so I can't imagine having to read them in English transliteration.

[Anonymous No.21666684]

Since we're on the subject of translations, what are the best translations for any of the classic Asian novels?