A few days ago I posted about my favorite Chinese-language media, and included in that list the Three Kingdoms TV show that can be watched on Youtube. The TV show is heavily based on the “Romance of the 3 Kingdoms” novel written hundreds of years ago, and I remember reading a(n abridged) version of the novel when I was in University.

One of the most interesting conversations I had was with a Chinese friend of mine who had read the book in middle school. I basically told him “I really like this book, and it’s got some cool characters like Cao Cao, he seems to be the main character.” My friend said “really? I remember Zhuge Liang being the main character.” At that point I hadn’t even met Zhuge Liang in the book so was confused. In the sections I read, Cao Cao was in many ways the driving force behind the narrative: he tried to assassinate Dong Zhou, he helped raise a rebel army, many of the plot threads were from his perspective as he warred across the Central Plain.

And yet my friend’s memory was correct, as soon as Zhuge Liang enters the narrative, HE is the clear protagonist of the story. He is very clearly shown as the smartest, wisest, most dedicated general, and anyone who is in any way cool will at some point get shown up by Zhuge Liang to prove that Zhuge Liang is even cooler. Perhaps his only drawback is that he is too smart, I remember a conversation sometime before the Battle of Red Cliffs where someone admonishes him to remember that not everyone understands what he’s saying or doing because they aren’t as smart as him.

But of course the narrative lasts a very long time, many of these characters grow old and die before it is finished. So in a long-running character-spanning narrative, how do you even define who the main protagonist is? I guess in a way you don’t, Three Kingdoms is more an ensemble cast of characters who rise and fall throughout the narrative, and that’s part of what makes it so great.