Yu Sheng (from the 24th issue of “Learning Lamp”)

Homer’s epics describe the Trojan War, which was a historical event that occurred around 1200 BC, during the era of chariot warfare. Homer’s epics, however, were written in the 8th century BC, the era of infantry phalanx warfare, roughly corresponding to the early Spring and Autumn period in China. Homer’s epics blend chariot and infantry warfare in their depiction of the Trojan War, showing both sides arriving at the battleground in chariots, then dismounting and engaging in infantry combat with shields and swords.

Although Homer’s epics and Romance of the Three Kingdoms are respectively an epic and a novel, they are highly comparable. They share the following similarities: 1) Both are works compiled from long-standing oral traditions among the common people; 2) Both use the war experiences of historical figures as their narrative content, revealing ideals of individual heroism; 3) Both are the first such works in Eastern and Western history, and subsequently became widely circulated; 4) Both express varying degrees of historical tragedy, focusing on the defeated side: Homer’s epics depict the fall of Troy, while Romance of the Three Kingdoms depicts the weak and ultimately defeated Shu Kingdom; 5) Both are the first long-form literary works in Eastern and Western history, representing the maturity of long-form narratives from the perspective of subjective consciousness in war.

The story of *Romance of the Three Kingdoms* began to circulate widely in the Song Dynasty, but a roughly finalized version only appeared in the early Ming Dynasty, more than two thousand years after the time of Homer’s epics. This difference represents the level of development of the subjective consciousness at the second level of society, referring here to social collective consciousness, or social consciousness. This relates to the existence of civil society. As mentioned above, the ancient Greek city-state was a society composed of citizens, forming a vast civic discourse sphere encompassing both the state and society; citizens were also farmers. In contrast, China only saw the emergence of a large, independent urban class, separate from the government and farmers, during the Song Dynasty due to unprecedented commercial development and continuous wars with foreign tribes, forming a civic discourse sphere. This Chinese civic discourse sphere never encompassed the entire country like in ancient Greece, nor did it include farmers.

Both Homer’s epics and *Romance of the Three Kingdoms* are works that celebrate the heroic ideals of the upper class, written in the third person, but narrated from the perspective of the common people, meaning that these figures of generals and princes share commonalities with ordinary people, evoking resonance. In Homer’s epics, the Trojan War was caused by a beautiful woman’s elopement and ended by the Trojan Horse. Modern scholars generally believe that the Trojan War did occur, but the elopement and the Trojan Horse are likely fictional. This fictionalization was intended to increase narrative interest, connect with the psychology of ordinary people, and represent the war culture in the minds of the common people. Fighting for a beautiful woman demonstrates heroism—this is a Western moral concept, hence the Greek god Zeus’s constant seduction of women and fathering of children. In *Romance of the Three Kingdoms*, no hero fights for a beautiful woman. On the contrary, the most beautiful woman in the book, Diao Chan, for the sake of the nation and her father’s orders, sows discord between Dong Zhuo and Lü Bu. Although Lü Bu falls for the trap and kills Dong Zhuo, he ultimately does not wage war because of a beautiful woman. It’s worth noting that Diao Chan’s father and Dong Zhuo’s relationship with Lü Bu were both adoptive fathers, not biological fathers, which explains the immoral acts that occurred. This suggests that the author considered social morality when fabricating these events. Conversely, incestuous plots abound in ancient Greek and biblical stories. The Trojan Horse reflects the highly advanced technology of ancient Greek warfare equipment and the rational spirit of meticulous war planning. Consider that building a massive wooden horse capable of holding several people was no easy feat, representing the precocious development of Western engineering. In *Romance of the Three Kingdoms*, the warfare equipment technology is the wooden ox and flowing horse created by Zhuge Liang, which some modern scholars believe was a type of wheelbarrow usable in mountainous terrain. The massive engineering project in *Romance of the Three Kingdoms*, however, is Cao Cao’s Bronze Sparrow Terrace, a symbol of centralized power, unrelated to improving war efficiency.

The author once analyzed Homer’s epics and said that the conflict between the ancient Greek hero Achilles and the commander of the Greek coalition was the main thread of the story, and the cause was the distribution of the plundered women. This kind of reduction of the elegant love in life to a kind of spoils of war distributed under bayonets is by no means something that the original society could achieve. On the other hand, it is precisely because the hero dares to love and hate that the social rules of behavior are generated. The author further pointed out that “the Trojan War described in the Iliad and its subsequent works was actually a war of plunder. At the end of the war, there were scenes of killing children and taking away the queens and other women of the defeated country as spoils of war. The whole poem is full of praise for the plunder of war and detailed descriptions of the distribution of wealth.” It is this distribution of the spoils of war that promotes the establishment of social rules of behavior and the establishment of the belief in social fairness. This social fairness and rules have the nature of a secondary society. They are external to people, or based on the belief in gods, or based on the establishment of laws by citizen referendum. [13]

Jennis proposed the theory of bipolar disorder, saying that bipolar disorder has no moral concept, no long-term memory, only immediate memory enough for them to carry out orders. They use auditory hallucinations to hear God’s commands and act in unison, which is the same as today’s mental patients. [14] According to Jennis’s research, Europe first proposed the concept of morality in the fifth century BC when bipolar disorder had completely withdrawn from society. Confucianism, which traces back to Yao and Shun and follows the example of Wen and Wu, shows that Chinese civilization has always valued morality. This shows the difference between the social rules of the East and the West. Before the fifth century BC, social moral rules in the West were blindly enforced to the point of mental illness, which shows how powerful and developed they were.

Confucianism is often described as a philosophy of morality and ethics, and the core concept of Confucius, the founder of Confucianism, is benevolence (仁). Benevolence is humanity itself, meaning that in early society, based on human nature, there was no need to establish a moral system or corresponding social rules external to people. However, during the Warring States period, wars between the states progressed rapidly in terms of de-moralization and brutality, and the Confucian teaching of benevolence as humanity failed to sufficiently restrain this progress. This resulted in the frequency and scale of wars in China’s Warring States period far exceeding those of ancient Greece. This can be illustrated by Alexander the Great’s conquest of Persia with only 30,000 troops, and Qin general Bai Qi’s massacre of 400,000 surrendered Zhao soldiers, while only releasing 240 child soldiers. This powerfully demonstrates that neither the blind moral rules of a dualistic, intellectual system nor the laws for which Socrates sacrificed himself had a greater restraining effect on war than Confucian teachings.

Both Homer’s epics and Romance of the Three Kingdoms idealize their heroes, depicting high-ranking generals engaging in dialogue before battle, followed by mutual slaughter, while downplaying or omitting detailed accounts of the actions of ordinary soldiers. This approach contradicts historical fact but facilitates the creation of heroic figures in the reader’s mind. Romance of the Three Kingdoms features an exception: a hero who doesn’t engage in combat but is a source of wisdom and deception, embodying the principle of “all warfare is based on deception” from Sun Tzu’s Art of War—the strategist Zhuge Liang. Homer’s epics lack a corresponding figure. Here, we mention the scene of Hector, the Trojan hero, bidding a final farewell to his family, wife, and young son before his death in battle:

His wife pleaded tearfully, “Hector, my husband, young and warm, strong and brave. Before you make your child an orphan and your wife a widow, I beg you, have pity on us, please stay within these safe walls and let us stay a little longer!”

Hector replied, “Everything you have said weighs heavily on my mind, but how can I face the men of Troy and the women in their flowing gowns if I cower on the battlefield like a coward? My spirit urges me not to. I know clearly that I must stand bravely, always fighting at the forefront of the Trojan warriors, to win glory for my father and for myself. From my heart and soul, I know clearly: the day will come when sacred Troy must die. My father and all his people must die, my father must hurl his dagger…”

As Hector bent down, his young son, frightened by the metal of his armor, cried out. Hector laughed, and his wife laughed along with him. Hector removed his armor, picked up his son, kissed him, held him in his arms, tossed him into the air, and caught him as if playing. Then, while praying, he placed his son in his beloved wife’s arms, who smiled through her tears. Her husband, Hector, saw this and felt a surge of pity. Hector stroked his wife, trying to comfort her, and softly called her name, saying, “My dear, there’s no need for such despair, no need for such sorrow for me. No one can cast me into the underworld if my fate is not so. Neither hero nor coward can escape the workings of destiny.”

In China, a country renowned for its emphasis on family, it wasn’t until over two thousand years later, in works like *Dream of the Red Chamber*, that such detailed depictions of tender emotions between men and women appeared. None of the heroes in *Romance of the Three Kingdoms* so vividly portray their love and affection for their wives and children. Guan Yu’s affection is revealed in his loyalty to his sworn brothers, with the detailed description of him guarding his sister-in-law’s tent all night, echoing the cliché “brothers are like limbs, wives are like clothes.” *Romance of the Three Kingdoms*, through the lens of the Shu Kingdom, expresses sympathy, reflecting both compassion for the defeated and the author’s moral values ​​of loyalty to the long-extinct Han Dynasty. Guan Yu’s spirit of loyalty and righteousness has made him favored by rulers throughout history, a major reason why Guan Yu temples are so widespread.

In contrast to the spirit of loyalty and righteousness in *Romance of the Three Kingdoms*, Achilles, a minor hero in the *Iliad*, quarrels with his commander over the trivial matter of distributing women plundered during wartime, and even refuses to participate in the battle. This demonstrates the self-will that makes him a hero. In traditional Chinese culture, this would be a serious crime of rebellion and treason, punishable by death. Therefore, the heroes of *Romance of the Three Kingdoms* do not exhibit such behavior.

31. The Differences Between Eastern and Western Warfare Cultures:
(VI) The Impact on Later History – The case of Duke Xiang of Song’s defeat by Chu due to his adherence to wartime rules.

author By Dr. You-Sheng Li

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