The Many Similarities Between China’s Three Kingdoms and Britain's Arthurian Legends

Both stories share a number of important elements, surprisingly so.

{Pictured: Zhang Fei, Liu Bei, and Guan Yu swearing enteral brotherhood in the Peach Garden Oath — one of the great moments in Chinese mythic history}

The Three Kingdoms is a specific time period in Chinese history - beginning around ~190 AD and ending in 280 AD.

Only 50 years after the end of the Three Kingdoms, a serious history combining the records from all three states was created. Seventy years later, in 430, a revised and expanded history was written by an eminent scholar-official named Pei Songzhi. As far as ancient events are concerned, the history of the Three Kingdoms rests on very solid grounds.

Almost 1,000 years after the history was written, a scholar in the early Ming Dynasty wrote a modified history of the Three Kingdoms, called the Saga of the Three Kingdoms (misleadingly translated in English as The Romance of the Three Kingdoms - it is not a romance). The author of the Saga is believed to be Luo Guanzhong, but this is not certain. Starting around 1400, the Saga of the Three Kingdoms was widely printed, widely read, and formed the basis of more than 60 major Chinese theater productions and dozens of lesser plays.

By the end of the Ming Dynasty (1645), the Saga of The Three Kingdoms was the best known story in all of China, and it has retained that position up until the present day. Several massive TV productions have dramatized the story. Movies have been made about certain key events. Many computer games have been created around the Three Kingdoms, and millions of pieces of art work have depicted the characters and events from the Saga. The Three Kingdoms has it’s own Wiki on Fandom.com (though I suspect Substack will be functional longer than Fandom…).

Compare this to the Legend of King Arthur

The Sage believes King Arthur was a real man, with many legends added to his life over the next 1,000 years. The debate about Arthur’s true history has been going on for at least 500 years but the Sage had made up his mind and will not be shifted.

The most likely origin for King Arthur dates from the time when the Western Roman Empire collapsed. King Arthur is most likely based on Aurelianus who fought against the invading Saxons in the years following Rome’s retreat from Britain (which started around 395 AD). The Sage assumes that his readers know the basic elements of King Arthur, his Knights of the Round Table, his Queen Guinevere, Sir Lancelot du Lac, Excalibur, the Sword in the Stone, the Quest for the Holy Grail, Merlin, Mordred, Morgan Le Fey, etc.

The stories about and around King Arthur form a common mytho-poetic bedrock for most Europeans. The famous poet-writer Aristo deliberately combined the legend of King Arthur with fantasies about Charlemagne and his Paladins such as Roland, Oliver, and Huon. There are hundreds of thousands works of art relating to King Arthur - from paintings to poems to songs to movies, to computer games.

The Similarities

The similarities start with the time period and the setting. The Three Kingdoms is set at a time when the old order was breaking down and new heroes from humble backgrounds could appear, and rise to the top of society. This is identical to the time of King Arthur. The fall of the Western Roman empire was a time when the old and corrupt Roman civilization was breaking down and new men, in desperate straits, tried to rebuild the world along better lines.

In China, the Three Kingdoms period starts with the fall of the Han Dynasty. In the last 50 years of the Han, the nominal rulers, the Huangdi (Emperors), were figureheads. With the official head of the government no longer in actual control of the government, the provinces became independent states. Over time, these states fought each other to see if one of them could take control over all of China. Eventually the figurehead Huangdi became just a pawn to be used by one of the provincial rulers - Cao Cao.

In both China and in England, all attempts to rebuild the old civilization failed. Although the Saga of the Three Kingdoms ends with the reunification of China in 280, this is completely misleading, as the unified state was soon destroyed and nearly all of the original Chinese homeland along the Yellow River was conquered by northern barbarians (semi-civilized) in 315 CE. China would not be reunited until the Sui Dynasty took control of the major regions of China in 590 CE - a gap of some 400 years (190 to 590 with one brief unified state from 280-305). In England, the attempt by the British-Romans to maintain their civilization failed, and the Angles and the Saxons took control of the land. The first major king of a mostly-united England is Alfred the Great, of Saxon and Angle descent, in 890 AD (a gap of - again - about 400 years, from ~490 AD to 890 AD).

In both stories, the heroes are nearly all warriors, with a few notable genius/wizards mixed in. The women are mostly there as beauties to be prized, with the occasional active female character.

Parallel characters

There are a number of major characters in both stories who are roughly equivalent. The details are different, but the similarities are real.

• King Arthur = Liu Bei : Both men are portrayed as paragons of rulership. Both men have humble beginnings, yet claim a noble ancestry despite their poor condition at birth. Arthur is an orphan, plucked from obscurity by Merlin who tells him You are the son of the former king, Uther Pendragon. As for Liu Bei, he claims descent from one of the early Huangdi (Emperors) of the Han Dynasty. A claim which is only grudgingly accepted by his other rivals - because, Liu Bei has no proof for his assertion. Both Arthur and Liu Bei become kings and rule their lands with wisdom and justice. Both men became exemplars for later rulers.

• Sir Lancelot = Guan Yu: Both men are written as the peerless warriors of the age, never beaten in single combat even though they fought many enemies of near-equal renown. Guan Yu is the exemplar of honorable behavior by a warrior in service to his lord, just like Sir Lancelot. Guan Yu is courageous, his word is iron, and while he has a few faults, he represents an ideal to which all men can aspire. Sir Lancelot was portrayed as the near-perfect knight, though with one important albeit forgivable flaw: too great a love for his lord’s wife, the beautiful Queen Guinevere.

• Merlin = Zhuge Liang (AKA: Kong Min). Both men are personifications of wisdom and are able to predict the future. Both men serve the good King by instructing them and guiding them. Both men were said to have super-human powers, Merlin was said to have the power to create illusions and control the weather - Zhuge Liang was said to have uncanny power over fire and once summoned the wind before the climatic battle of The Red Cliffs. Zhuge Liang is famous for his ability to predict exactly what other people will do, weeks or months ahead of time, just as Merlin was said to have the gift of prophesy.

• Sir Gawain = Zhang Fei. Both men are somewhat rash and headstrong warriors, both are blunt spoken but with good hearts. Zhang Fei is an extremely well drawn example of a good Chinese soldier. He gets drunk when there is no fighting. He says what’s on his mind without much care for the consequences. He is almost suicidally brave and yet, he can be crafty upon occasion. Left to his own devices he doesn’t do very well but under direction, he is an inspiring commander of men. Sir Gawain is strong, brave, a bit rash, but a cut above nearly all the other knights when the going gets tough. Both men are very human heroes.

• Sir Percival = Zhao Yun (AKA: Zilong). Both men are superb warriors, especially considering they are portrayed as younger than the more established knights. Both warriors are seen as very romantic figures: young, handsome, brave, and so very very good. They both have their moment of solo glory: Zhao Yun saves the life of Liu Bei’s eldest son, and the future king of Shu Han; Sir Percival attains the Holy Grail.

• Morgan La Fey = Diaochan. These are the only two women who actually play a significant role in the stories. Both women use their feminine charms and intelligence to destroy powerful men. Morgan La Fey effectively kills Merlin while Diaochan brings about the death of the last ruler of China: Dong Zhuo. Morgan La Fey is called a witch while Diaochan is said to be secretly working on behalf of a scheming minister.

• Queen Guinevere = Sun Ren (AKA Lady Sun). Both women are married to the good king (Arthur, and Liu Bei respectively). Both women are portrayed as astonishing beauties but of somewhat uncertain loyalty. Both women cause a great deal of trouble for the King late in his life before they disappear from the story.

More Similarities

• Duals of single combat are key features of both stories. This is blindingly obvious to anyone who reads the stories - the battles generally begin with two heroes fighting it out while the rest of the soldiers cheer their man on. Whichever knight wins the single combat at the start, his army almost always wins the subsequent battle. True, single combat in the Arthurian legends is often not part of a battle but is instead part of some knightly quest. Nevertheless, single combat against a worthy foe is an important elements in both stories.

  — Could it be that the writer of The Saga of Three Kingdoms actually knew about the stories of King Arthur written by Geoffrey of Monmouth? Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain was written by 1140 AD and it was very popular in Europe. We know a number of Europeans traveled to China during the Yuan Dynasty between the years 1270 and 1340. Marco Polo’s father lived in China for at least 20 years. Is it so unlikely that some of the European travelers might have told tales about the famous English knights to their Chinese or Mongolian friends? The writer of the Saga of the Three Kingdoms frequently exaggerates the role of the knightly duals before the main battles, and we don’t know why.

• The main characters and all their named relatives had no known descendant. No one in China by the year 600 could, with certainty, trace their ancestors back to any of the major characters in the Saga of the Three Kingdoms. Just as in England, by the year 900, no one could for certain claim they were related to any of the major characters from the time of King Arthur. This makes for a good myth which everyone in the nation can share in. No one in England could can say I’m the descendant of Sir Lancelot, but equally no one can say for sure they weren’t. The same was true in China. No one could say how many children Zhang Fei had, or Guan Yu, or Zhao Yun, or Sun Ce, or Lu Bu. This was a wild and lawless time when morality was hard to find. Any man in China today can claim to be a descendant of one of the heroes of the Three Kingdoms, it’s entirely possible.

• The Central Quest is long delayed but finally achieved in both stories. In the Three Kingdoms, the central quest is that of Liu Bei’s struggle to gain a kingdom of his own. This quest for a kingdom takes up the majority of the Saga and it has many interesting twists and turns. Really, it’s hard to believe this is a history and not some invented story but, yes, it’s real and Liu Bei does become the Huangdi of Shu Han for two years before his death. The central quest in the Arthurian legends is the search for the Holy Grail. Once the quest for the Holy Grail is achieved, the story halts for a era of peace and prosperity which is so boring there is nothing to say about it. The tale of King Arthur resumes for his final battle, the last gathering of the aged heroes as the knights of the Round Table go out to fight one final battle in which everyone dies but evil is defeated.

There are, naturally, many characters in both stories who do not have good analogs in the other story. As mentioned above, the Saga of Three Kingdoms is largely true and it has more than 500 named characters. The fact is that there are several other major rulers in other parts of China - such as Cao Cao, Sun Quan, and Yuan Shao. The best part of the Saga ends with the three main kingdoms having battled it out to a three-way standoff; this is the situation when Zhuge Liang dies in 234 and it marks the effective end of the Saga of the Three Kingdoms.