author
Shou Chen
233–297
Best known for compiling one of the classic histories of early imperial China, this third-century writer helped preserve the dramatic age of the Three Kingdoms. His work became a lasting source for later historians, readers, and storytellers.
1 Audiobook
三國志
by Shou Chen
About the author
A historian, official, and writer from the late Three Kingdoms and Western Jin period, he is best remembered as the author of the Records of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi). That book became one of the most important surviving accounts of the fall of the Han dynasty and the rival states of Wei, Shu, and Wu.
Born in 233 in what is now Sichuan, he studied under the scholar Qiao Zhou and served in government after the fall of Shu. Later he worked under the Jin dynasty as well, drawing on official sources and earlier documents to compile his history.
His writing is valued for preserving essential political and biographical material from a turbulent era. Even centuries later, the Records of the Three Kingdoms remained a foundation for the way the period was understood in Chinese history and literature.