The Three Kingdoms, Volume 1: The Sacred Oath

The Three Kingdoms is the epic saga of loyalty and treachery, brotherhood and rivalry-and the deeds of legendary heroes and villains during one of the most tumultuous periods in Chinese history. This classic tale of brotherhood and rivalry, loyalty and treachery, victory and death will appeal as much to modern readers of Game of Thrones as it did to its original Chinese readers over 500 years ago.

The story of the struggles of Liu Bei and his allies against the treacherous attempts of Cao Cao to steal away the throne as the Han Dynasty comes to a close have captivated readers for many centuries. This first volume introduces Liu Bei and his sworn brothers-in-arms Zhang Fei and Guan Yu, whose loyalty and fidelity are sorely tested in a society which is in flux and at war for its very survival.

“"This translation faithfully conveys a native Chinese-speaking person's understanding of this most influential and famous Chinese book. To translate this Chinese classic into modern English is a challenging and difficult job for any language translator. However, this joint effort by Yu Sumei and Ronald Iverson has met the challenge." -- Hua Xin, former advisor and translator for IBM China”

"The Three Kingdoms is considered the ultimate book on strategy, offering keen insights into Chinese culture. Ron Iverson's effort is a great contribution to the understanding of Chinese culture and history." --Xinmin Wang, former Consul for Cultural Affairs for the PRC and advisor to the President of China
"This translation faithfully conveys a native Chinese-speaking person's understanding of this most influential and famous Chinese book. To translate this Chinese classic into modern English is a challenging and difficult job for any language translator. However, this joint effort by Yu Sumei and Ronald Iverson has met the challenge." --Hua Xin, former advisor and translator for IBM China
"One of the greatest and best-loved works of popular literature." --Dictionary of Oriental Literatures

Ron Iverson first visited China in 1984 as the personal representative of the Mayor of Chicago as part of a Sister Cities program. For the past 30 years, he has continued to visit China regularly and has founded joint business ventures with Chinese partners and taught Business Strategy at Tongji University in Shanghai. He also personally arranged the first ever exhibition of Forbidden City artifacts from the Palace Museum in Beijing to tour the US. Early in his visits to China, Iverson discovered The Three Kingdoms and came to realize the enormous cultural significance the Chinese people place in the book. Believing that one needed to be familiar with the principles revealed in the book in order to find business or political success in China, and being dissatisfied with existing translations, Iverson decided to fund and edit a new translation aimed towards delivering the thrill of a contemporary novel while imparting understanding of a key aspect of Chinese culture.

Yu Sumei is a professor of English at East China Normal University. She has translated several English language books into Chinese and is the first native Chinese speaker to translate The Three Kingdoms into English. She invested a total of two years into working on this new translation of The Three Kingdoms, spending the time on sabbatical in New York with her daughter, who typed the translation out as she completed it.

The Three Kingdoms is the epic saga of loyalty and treachery, brotherhood and rivalry--and the deeds of legendary heroes and villains during one of the most tumultuous periods in Chinese history. This classic tale of brotherhood and rivalry, loyalty and treachery, victory and death will appeal as much to modern readers of Game of Thrones as it did to its original Chinese readers over 500 years ago. The story of the struggles of Liu Bei and his allies against the treacherous attempts of Cao Cao to steal away the throne as the Han Dynasty comes to a close have captivated readers for many centuries. This first volume introduces Liu Bei and his sworn brothers-in-arms Zhang Fei and Guan Yu, whose loyalty and fidelity are sorely tested in a society which is in flux and at war for its very survival.

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