With the least population and weak economy, Shu Han was the most aggressive kingdom. There is a saying that the way to Shu is harder than scaling the blue sky. Though Chengdu plain is a fertile land, the area around it is the most mountainous area in China. It had good agriculture economy and powerful navy, but it suffered from internal power struggle and infesting by tribes in mountain areas. It finally defeated Shu Han and soon after itself changed to Jin Dynasty, it forced Dong Wu to surrender.ĭong Wu controlled the Yangtze delta and its south mountainous area. The area it controlled had been China’s political center for thousands of years. Introduction of Three KingdomsAmong three kingdoms, Cao Wei is the strongest, no matter in territory, population and economy. Thus the country was divided into three parts, historically called Three Kingdoms Period. Later in 221, Liu Bei set up Shu Han at Chengdu and in 222, Sun Quan set up Dong Wu at Jianye (Nanjing). In the year of 220, Cao Pi, son of Cao Cao forced Emperor Xian, last ruler of the Han Dynasty, to abdicate and proclaimed himself Emperor of Cao Wei. The order of the establishment of three kingdoms was Cao Wei, Shu Han and Dong Wu. But when he want to expand his power to the south of Yangtze River, he was defeated by the allied forces of Liu Bei and Sun Quan in the Battle of Chibi (赤壁之战) and had to withdrew to central China. In 201 AD, Cao Cao defeated the strongest warlord Yuan Shao (袁绍) in the Battle of Guandu (官渡之战) and gradually unified the northern area of China. Its last emperor, Liu Xie had become a mere puppet under the control of Dong Zhuo (董卓) and later Cao Cao. The Three Kingdoms period is one of the bloodiest periods in history of China, in which wars had never stopped.Įstablishment of three kingdomsBy the end of the 2nd century, the Dong (Eastern) Han Empire was disintegrating into chaos. History of the Three Kingdoms PeriodAt the end of Han Dynasty, the country was divided into three regimes (kingdoms) headed by leaders Cao Cao (曹操) who controlled the north of the Yangtze River known as Cao Wei (曹魏) Liu Bei (刘备) who controlled southwestern region known as Shu Han (蜀汉) and Sun Quan (孙权) who controlled the southeastern region known as Dong Wu (东吴).

Here, let’s talk something about the history, stratagems and stories of the Three Kingdom Period. Another way to make the Three Kingdoms so widely known around the world is the computer game, Three Kingdoms Total War. Chinese people learn historical allusions, ancient wars and stratagems from this novel and different kinds of artistic expression forms. An important reason is because of the widespread novel The Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guangzhong, one of China’s four most important pieces of literature. The Three Kingdoms is a short period with only 60 years after Han dynasty, but it is one of the most popular dynasties among Chinese people, nothing less than the most powerful and flourishing Han Dynasty, Tang Dynasty and Qing Dynasty.

Three kingdoms period