In 220, Cao Pi usurped the Han Dynasty and proclaimed himself emperor, with the title of "Wei" and the history of Cao Wei, and the history of the Three Kingdoms officially began. The following year, Liu Bei continued the Han Dynasty in Chengdu, known as Shu Han in history. In 222, Liu Bei lost the battle of Yiling, and Sun Quan won most of Jingzhou. When Liu Bei died in 223, Zhuge Liang helped Liu Chan, the son of Liu Bei, reunite with Sun Quan. In 229, Sun of the Eastern Jin Dynasty was formally established, known as Wu in history.
In the following decades, Zhuge Liang and Jiang Wei of Shu Han led troops to the northern expedition of Cao Wei many times, but they never changed the pattern of tripartite confrontation. The real power in the late Cao Wei period was gradually controlled by Sima Yi. In 263, Si Mazhao of Cao Wei launched the war to destroy Shu, and Shu Han perished. Two years later, Si Mazhao died, and his son Sima Yan abandoned Emperor Wei Yuan to stand on his own feet. The founding name is "Jin", which is called the Western Jin Dynasty in history. In 280 AD, the Western Jin Dynasty destroyed Soochow and unified China, thus ending the Three Kingdoms period and entering the Jin Dynasty.
To really understand this history, the best way is through history books, and it must be official history. Although historians often erase or change some history because of those in power, on the whole, the official history is more accurate than other unofficial history's miscellaneous notes and hearsay, and it is often the springboard (not absolute, but most) closest to the historical truth.
There are many historical books that record the history of the Three Kingdoms, such as History of the Three Kingdoms, History as a Mirror, Hero, Wei Lue, Kyushu Chunqiu and so on. If you want to choose a history book that is most suitable for understanding the truth of the Three Kingdoms, the History of the Three Kingdoms compiled by Chen Shou is undoubtedly the best choice.
An important reason is that other historical books are more or less inadequate compared with the History of the Three Kingdoms. Some of them are twisted with age. For example, Zi Tong Zhi Jian was compiled in the Northern Song Dynasty. After nearly a thousand years, Sima Guang's ability is first-class, but it is impossible to record such a long time in detail. Although some of them were written by historians in the Three Kingdoms period, they are too political and unreliable. For example, Wei Lue was compiled by wei ren himself, and many of them praised Cao Cao without any objectivity. Although some of them were written by literati in the Three Kingdoms period, they are not political, but they have been lost. For example, RoyceWong's Heroes Club records heroes in the late Eastern Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, so it is unlikely to be fabricated. Unfortunately, the original text has been lost.
Another main reason is the time when Chen Shou and The History of the Three Kingdoms were written.
Chen Shou (233-297), the word Chengzuo. A native of Han 'an County, Brazil (now Nanchong, Sichuan). A famous historian of Shu and Han dynasties in the Three Kingdoms and Western Jin Dynasty. When I was young, I longed to learn. I studied under Qiao Zhou, a scholar in the same county. When I was there, I used to be the main book of General Wei, the secretary of Dongguan, the history of Guan Ge and the assistant minister of Huangmen. At that time, eunuch Huang Hao was authoritarian, and his ministers followed suit. Chen Shou was repeatedly dismissed because he refused to give in to Huang Hao. After Shu fell to Jin, he worked as a writer, magistrate, scholar and prince. He was demoted and criticized many times in his later years. Yuan Kang died in 297 at the age of 65.
In the first year of Taikang (280), after the division of the Jin Dynasty, Chen Shou went through 10 years of hardships, and completed 65 volumes of 367,000-word biographical historical masterpiece "The History of the Three Kingdoms", which completely described the historical panorama of China from division to unity in the late Han Dynasty and early Jin Dynasty, and compared it with Historical Records, Hanshu and the later Han Dynasty.
There are many praises for Chen Shou in history.
Sima Zhong: Longevity should be true, but it is not long enough.
Qiao Zhou: YWCA is famous for her talent and knowledge. It is not unfortunate to be damaged, so you should be careful.
Times people: good at narration and good at history.
Pei Songzhi: Shou Shu's account is impressive, and many things are judged. A sincere garden visit is a beautiful history in modern times.
From here, two important messages are revealed. One is that Chen Shou has a high ability to compile history books and a gift for good history. The other is that Chen Shou is decent and rigorous, so the historical books he compiled are basically true and reliable (of course, there will be some mistakes, which are inevitable and rare). In addition, Chen Shouben was originally from Shu, and he didn't compile history books until the Three Kingdoms returned to Jin. The time gap is very small, and there is no political position when Wei Shuwu made it up himself. There is only one historian's objective position, and obviously the reflection of the Three Kingdoms is more credible.
If you are sure to see the Three Kingdoms, it is recommended to see the version with Pei Songzhi's comments. Since ancient times, there has been a saying of "Chen Zhi and Zhu Pei" when reading the Three Kingdoms. Chen Zhi is Chen Shou's The History of the Three Kingdoms, and Zhu Pei is Pei Songzhi's Notes on the History of the Three Kingdoms.
The reason for saying this is that although Chen Shou is rigorous, the History of the Three Kingdoms is basically credible, but it is precisely because of his rigor that many ambiguous historical materials that do not rule out the possibility of authenticity have been abandoned by him, while Pei Songzhi has a wide collection of books and complete quotations from beginning to end. In order to annotate the history of the Three Kingdoms, he collected 150 kinds of original materials of the Three Kingdoms period and quoted the original works of various works. The number of words in the annotation is about three times that of the original, which basically lists every possible truth for future generations to judge for themselves. Therefore, reading the notes of the Three Kingdoms can not only be closer to the historical truth, but also expand our thinking ability and have our own thinking and judgment on the historical truth.