Note: My blog is not monetized, so I am not making any money from this post. My hope is that the PDF will make this legendary story more accessible to a wider audience. If you enjoyed the digital version, please, please, please support the official release.
Last updated: 04-06-2026
Here I present a PDF of the Foreign Language Press four-volume boxed set of Three Kingdoms (Sanguo yanyi, 三國演義; lit: “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”; fig. 1) translated by Dr. Moss Roberts. Credited to Luo Guanzhong, this 14th-century Chinese military romance follows the rise to power and careers of sworn brothers Liu Bei/Xuande (劉備/玄德), Guan Yu (關羽), and Zhang Fei (張飛) amid the turmoil of the falling Han Dynasty (202 BCE–9 CE, 25–220 CE) and the rising Three Kingdoms (220–280 CE). The tale contains an astounding 1,000 characters, some historical and some fictional. They range from scheming eunuchs and corrupt government officials to powerful warriors and competing warlords vying for power.
I’m archiving this book because it has influenced certain aspects of JTTW. For example, while searching the Southern Jambudvipa Continent (China) for a divine master in JTTW chapter one, Sun Wukong is drawn to a woodcutter because he sings a song full of Daoist imagery taught to him by an immortal. The woodcutter subsequently directs Monkey to the abode of a Buddho-Daoist sage. This was likely influenced by the similar way in which Liu Bei comes to find the Daoist strategist Zhuge Liang (諸葛亮) in Three Kingdoms chapter 37. My thanks to Irwen Wong over at the Journey to the West Library blog for bringing this to my attention. He plans to write an article listing at least ten JTTW concepts drawn from Three Kingdoms. I’ll link it here when published online.
This PDF will complement the translations that I’ve previously archived. These include the Journey to the West (Xiyouji, 西遊記, 1592) story cycle (here and here), the four-volume 2000 Library of Chinese Classics Chinese-English bilingual edition of Creation of the Gods (Fengshen yanyi, 封神演義, c. 1620 CE), and a fan translation of Journey to the South (Nanyouji, 南遊記, c. 1570s-1580s).
Archive Link:
Click to access Romance-of-the-Three-Kingdoms-Trans.-Moss-Roberts.pdf
Fig. 1 – The four covers of the boxed set edition (larger version). Image found here.
Update: 04-06-26
I have archived a translation of the 100-chapter Foreign Language Press four-volume boxed set of Outlaws of the Marsh (a.k.a. Water Margin, Shuihu zhuan, 水滸傳, c. 1400).
Citation:
Luo, G. & Roberts, M. (2001). Three Kingdoms (Vols. 1-4). Beijing: Foreign Language Press. (Original work published 1995)