从三国历史到《三国演义》

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms in History

《三国演义》是中国古典文学中社会影响最大的历史小说,清代史学大师章学诚评之为"七实三虚",大部分有史实依据。《演义》涵盖了从东汉末豪强混战到西晋灭吴,历时九十多年,各路豪强为占夺地盘,争战不断,全国人口低谷时比东汉末减少60%。以约4400万人生命的代价形成三分局面,说不上正义性属于何方。各方逞勇斗智,奇谋百出,尽显武勇、诡略之极致。富有戏剧性和智慧、人性等教育意味的三国史事人物,在流传过程中不断丰富,特别是宋元时期,市民文化繁盛,"说三分"是最受欢迎的说书节目,进而加上皮影戏、演唱并发展为杂剧,故事更丰满,人物特色更突出。说书的话本经加工成"评话",现存元代至治年间所刊《全相三国志评话》回目与《演义》大体相符,罗贯中当是以此为基础,根据史书并杂采野史资料进行创作。现知《演义》的早期刊本为1494年本,距罗氏在世已约百年,学界对其作者和成书年代尚存歧见。

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is one of most influential Chinese classics. The master Zhang Xuecheng once commented that it bases the seven-tenths of its content on historical records. The novel covers a period of 90 years through the Latter East Han Dynasty to the fall of the Wu Kingdom. There is no justice in the war because after years of wars full of tricks, bravery and wisdom, the total population of that time dropped to 40 % of that of the Latter Eastern Han, in a cost of about 44 million lives, leading to the formation of the three kingdoms. The description of those historical figures has been constantly enriched through years of circulation, especially in the Song and the Yuan Dynasty when the relevant story telling was so popular that the leather-silhouette show and drama was added to it, leading to the creation of Za Ju. The exist- ing Quan xiang san Guo Zhi Pinghua evolves from the text of storytelling, whose chapter title fits that of the novel by and large. It is assumed that Luo Guanzhong had based his novel on the Pinghua besides the historical facts and other folk stories. There still remains difference among scholars at the time and the author of the novel in view of the fact that it is about 100 years since the death of Luo that the 1494 version of the novel was published.