How to really enjoy the Three Kingdoms with Google Maps

Many people are fans of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Tam Quốc Chí ). However, a lot of the action in the novel feels distant because of the overwhelming number of characters and localities.  The number of characters is of course one of the charms of the novel, but to you can actually enjoy the novel a lot more if you use Google Maps to deal with the localities.

This is possible only because the Three Kingdoms is based on historical events. Moreover, and this is a tribute to the millenary traditions of China, many localities have not changed their names after these millennia.

Let us start with one example. Go to Google Maps, set up satellite view (with labels) and search for Qishan. If the program wants to know whether you are asking for 'Qishan, Baoji' say yes.  The program should respond in an iffy. If you are in a town-level view, zoom out so you can look at an area let say of ten miles across.

You are looking at hallowed grounds, or at least legendary ones. Qishan is no other than the famed Ky` Sơn as in “lục xuất Ky` Sơn.” Here was a fortified city many times occupied by Khổng Minh in his repeated attempts to attack Wei (Ngụy). Here is the battleground where he and Tư Mã Ý dueled with wits and strategy. Qishan is now a small town. To the North of it is Mt Qishan, núi Ky` Sơn, and to the South of it you can see the horizontal trace of the Wei River (sông Vị). On the southern bank of the Wei directly to the south you may see Wuzhangyuan. This is the mythical Ngũ Trượng Nguyên, the Wuzhang Plains where Khong Minh died. If you zoom in you may actually see a temple to Khong Minh on a hill, maybe the same hill where he tried unsuccessfully to postpone his death by magic.

A litle to the West of Wuzhangyuan you can see Chencang. This is Trần Thường where a famous siege took place during the second invasion of Wei by Khong Minh.

Now to get the flavor of what these military operations involved, go back to the original search for Qishan, then ask for Google Maps directions. You should ask for directions from the city of Hanzhong (Hán Trung). This was Khong Minh’s base. Google Maps will answer with two suggested itineraries, one straight North-South and one toward the Nort-East and Xi’an.

Now present-day Xi’an is the former Changan (Trường An). The N-E route is what was suggested by Wei Yan (Ngụy Diên):  a straight commando raid directly to Changan. KM turned the suggestion down, preferring to occupy Ky` Sơn as a forward base first. Hence the North-South route.  Even today you can see what that involves, crossing a huge mountainous area, the Qinling (Tần Lĩnh) Mountains.

Anyway let me know if you like this kind of stuff and I will tell you more.

DTL