Records of the Three Kingdoms

A third-century Chinese historical work by Chen Shou chronicling the rival states of Wei, Shu, and Wu during the Three Kingdoms period.

Chen Shou: A third-century Chinese historian who compiled the Records of the Three Kingdoms. He served Shu Han before compiling accounts of all three states under the Jin dynasty.
Annals-biography structure: A historical format combining chronological records of rulers with biographies of notable people. Chen Shou uses ruler-centered records and biographies to arrange the three states’ histories.
Book of Wei: A historical work on the state of Wei, compiled during the Three Kingdoms period. It was among the earlier histories Chen Shou could draw upon for Wei.
History of the Later Han: A fifth-century history of the Eastern Han dynasty written by Fan Ye. Read alongside Chen Shou, it supplies the preceding dynastic context for the Three Kingdoms.
Legitimacy of Cao Wei: The historical dispute over whether Cao Wei or Shu Han held the legitimate imperial succession after the Han. Chen Shou’s placement of Wei’s rulers in annals gives this succession question textual weight.
Three Kingdoms: The period of Chinese history dominated by the rival states of Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu. The work organizes its narrative around these three competing regimes.
Wei Shu: The section of the Records of the Three Kingdoms devoted to the state of Wei. Its annals grant Wei a status not given to the other two states.
Book of Shu: A historical work on Shu Han written during the Three Kingdoms period. Its material helped preserve records from Chen Shou’s former state.
Zizhi Tongjian: A monumental eleventh-century Chinese historical chronicle compiled under Sima Guang. It later reorganized Three Kingdoms events within a continuous account of Chinese history.
Three Kingdoms historiography: The study of how historical accounts of the Three Kingdoms were produced and interpreted. Comparing source layers helps separate Chen Shou’s evidence from later retellings.

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