The Three Kingdoms “It is said that an empire long divided, must unite; an empire long united must divide.” The Three Kingdoms period officially dates between 220-280 CE. During this time, China was divided into three distinct kingdoms: the Wei, which covered much of northern China, the Wu, which encompassed the southeast portion of China, and the Shu Han, which included the modern-day Sichuan province in southwest China. Interest in the period was popularized by the 14th century novel The Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong. The text is said to be 70% history and 30% fiction, and it follows a variety of warlords and military heroes that struggle to gain control over China after the fall of the Han dynasty; thus, despite the aforementioned periodization, most scholars include the start of the Yellow Turban Rebellion in 184 CE in content on the Three Kingdoms Period. The main figures of the period all made a name for themselves during the Yellow Turban Rebellion and later banded together when the tyrant Dong Zhuo took advantage of the political upheaval it caused. He seized the child emperor and his brother, later killing the former and putting the latter on the throne as a puppet emperor that he controlled. Horrified by his actions, many prominent warlords joined together in an attempt to stop him: led by Yuan Shao, the coalition also included Cao Cao, Liu Bei (and his sworn brothers Guan Yu and Zhang Fei), and Sun Jian. These three men eventually became the originators of the Three Kingdoms: Wei, Shu, and Wu respectively. After Dong Zhuo was defeated in 192 CE, the following two decades saw a series of battles, alliances, and betrayals between warlords as they struggled to solidify their territory. Some figures, like Liu Bei, were dedicated to restoring the Han empire. Others sought power to satisfy their own ambition, like Cao Cao, who had copied Dong Zhuo and taken the puppet emperor for his own gain in 196 CE. Cao Cao then defeated his former ally Yuan Shao at the Battle of Guan Du in 200 CE. The final stand against Cao Cao’s total domination of China was at Chi Bi or the Battle of Red Cliffs in 208 CE, where Liu Bei and Sun Jian’s son Sun Quan, who was now the commander of the Wu after the death of his father and older brother, allied against Cao Cao in a massive naval battle on the Yangtze river. Despite being vastly outnumbered by Cao Cao’s forces, Liu Bei and Sun Quan were able to defeat him due to the strategy of Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu, the famous military advisors: they used fire ships to set Cao Cao’s navy ablaze. After this loss, Cao Cao never managed to conquer any territory south of the Yangtze. Eventually, after the death of Cao Cao in 220 CE, his son Cao Pi forced Emperor Xian to step down. Cao Pi then declared himself Emperor of Wei. This sparked Liu Bei to follow suit, naming himself Emperor of Shu Han in 221 CE, followed by Sun Quan, who named himself Emperor of Wu in 229 CE. The Three Kingdoms period was not a long one: the Wei kingdom was usurped from the Cao family by the Sima clan in 249 CE, eventually forcing the new puppet emperor Cao Huan to abdicate the throne in 266 CE, ending the Wei dynasty and establishing the new Jin dynasty. The Shu Han empire and its ruler, Liu Bei’s son Liu Shan, were conquered by the Sima clan’s Wei dynasty in 263 CE. Finally, the Wu kingdom also fell to the Jin in 280 CE. The period of the Three Kingdoms was over, and the empire was united once more.