Battle of Red Cliffs - Fictionalised Account

Fictionalised Account

The romantic tradition that originated with Luo Guanzhong's historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms differs from historical accounts in many details. For example, Cao Cao's army strength was exaggerated to over 800,000 men. This may be attributed to the ethos of later times, particularly of the Southern Song Dynasty (de Crespigny 2007:483). The state of Shu Han, in particular, was viewed by later literati as the "legitimate" successor to the Han Dynasty, so fictionalised accounts assign greater prominence than the historical records warrant to the roles of Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang and other heroes from Shu. This is generally accomplished by minimising the importance of Eastern Wu commanders and advisors such as Zhou Yu and Lu Su (de Crespigny 2004:xi). While historical accounts describe Lu Su as a sensible advisor and Zhou Yu as an eminent military leader and "generous, sensible and courageous" man, Romance of the Three Kingdoms depicts Lu Su as unremarkable and Zhou Yu as cruel and cynical (de Crespigny 2004:300; 305–306 29n). Both are depicted as being inferior to Zhuge Liang in every respect (de Crespigny 2004:264).

The romances added wholly fictional and fantastical elements to the historical accounts and these were repeated in popular plays and operas. Examples from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms include Zhuge Liang pretending to use magic to call forth favourable winds (that he had in fact predicted by astronomical observation) for the fire ship attack, his strategy of "using straw boats to borrow arrows", and Guan Yu capturing and releasing Cao Cao at Huarong Trail. The fictionalised accounts also name Zhuge Liang as a military commander in the combined forces, which is historically inaccurate (de Crespigny 2004:260–264).