And in the climax of the tale of the three oath-brothers and their enmity with Cao Cao, Xuande has the chance to maybe – just maybe – destroy the Cao faction once and for all… China in AD 214 (Liu Bei is Xuande) Three-Way Wrangling The Three Kingdoms are established their three-way battle for supremacy has begun.
And the time comes when Xuande has to choose between his loyalty to his oath-brothers and his chance to save the Empire. He adopted Liu Feng out of the goodness of his heart, but this leads to disastrous rivalry within his faction. Now, in this third part of my Three Kingdoms chapter summary, his other great quality – loyalty – turns out to be a weakness as well. Xuande has already struggled with the fact that his sense of honour and morality are incompatible with the necessary ruthlessness to triumph in such troubled times. In the third quarter of the novel, these tensions come to the fore. Three Kingdoms chapter summary Part 4: Chapters 91-120Īs for their oath-brother, Xuande himself, his “flaws” are the very qualities that make him the only man worthy to save the Empire. Three Kingdoms chapter summary Part 2: Chapters 34-65 Three Kingdoms chapter summary Part 1: Chapters 1-33
As Xuande’s faction falls short of its divine mission to restore the rightful Imperial line and return order to all of China, Lord Guan’s pride and Zhang Fei’s hot temper prove to be more than character traits: they are tragic flaws. This is not prescriptive – luck has a major role as well – but it governs the logic of the story. As I have tried to demonstrate in my Three Kingdoms chapter summary, most leaders’ failures in the novel can be traced directly to clear flaws: arrogance, excessive cruelty, recklessness, naivete. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a historical epic, but there are also strong elements of tragedy.
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