n the year 208, a decisive battle occurred in which Ts'ao Ts'ao was driven back by the three brothers. This famous event is known as the Battle of the Red Cliffs. Despite this victory, the brother Kuan Yu was divided in his loyalty between Liu Pei and Ts'ao Ts'ao. Because of this, Kuan Yu allowed Ts'ao Ts'ao to escape after the battle. As the novel Three Kingdoms explains, this bit of indiscretion eventually led to Kuan Yu's own death. In turn, the unexpected death of Kuan Yu led to the eventual downfall of the remaining two brothers' efforts. In 220, the Han dynasty came to a formal end and the three kingdoms of the novel's title were established. These were: Wei in the north (controlled by Ts'ao Ts'ao), Wu in the south (controlled by Sun Ch'uan), and Shu Han in the southwest (controlled by Liu Pei). In 223, Liu Pei died, and his son Liu Shan failed to become an effective leader of the Shu Han kingdom. In 234, Liu Pei's military adviser Chuko Liang also died, and the southwest kingdom underwent further decline. Finally, in the year 263, the kingdom of Shu Han was conquered by the kingdom of Wei. In 280, the kingdom of Wu was also conquered, thus ending "the so-called Three Kingdoms era" (Hucker 134). This was followed by a long period of division in Chinese history. The north and south portions of the nation remained divided until the restoration of the Ming dynasty in the late 1300's. At that time, Lo Kuan-chung compiled his great epic which is today known as Three Kingdoms.
When Lo Kuan-chung wrote his novel, the stories of the Three Kingdoms period had already become popular among the Chinese people. By that time, many of the stories had developed the qualities of folklore. Thus, some of the historical facts in the stories were merged with supernatural elements. These supernatural elements can be seen, for example, in the use of magic and the descriptions of superhuman powers which are still present in the nove...