Historical accuracy

LiQiushui said:
First of all, I enjoy this show immensely and am very much looking forward to future episodes. Secondly, I know this is an anime, a fictional work, norlt some historical documentation. Still, for all it's worth, here are some inaccuracies I've found.

Episode 1:

- Kongming thinking he's in hell. The Chinese conception of hell followed the spread of Buddhism,which had only just started at Kongming's time. While he probably was aware of this new foreign Religion appearing, his personal view of the afterlife is More likely to have been traditional Chinese of the time, which was varied and contained the ideas of abiding with deities and ancestors in the heavens; living in a subterranean place very much like the living world called the Yellow Springs 黃泉; or bring confined in a subterranean court 地府 beneath Mount Tai; none of which were places of torment.

- Him claiming making cocktails being easier than cooking tea. While tea was known to the ancient Chinese, it wasn't a popular beverage yet, mainly being used medically. The most common drinks in Kongming's time were water and wine of several varieties of fermented grains. Tea only became popular during the Tang dynasty (618-907 CE), prior to which it was even scornfully called the "Slave of Yogurt" 酪奴 in Northern China, liquid yogurt being the drink of choice of the prior era.

Episode 3:

- The Qipao girl. The origin of the Qipao is the ethnic clothing of the Manchu, a North-East Asian ethnicity which conquered China in early 17th century and established the last recognized imperial dynasty, the Qing dynasty (1644-1912). Furthermore, the Qipao didn't reach the form shown in the anime prior to 1920's Republican China. Thus, it should look just as foreign to Kongming as modern Japanese clothing.

- 36 Stratagems. The first use of this term is in the Book of Qi, a history book covering the time from 479 to 502. Even so, at the time the term was figurative, the "36" signifying "a multitude" instead of its numerical value, with the formulation of the actual list of 36 stratagems having occurred at an unknown time in posterity.

Well, that's all from me for now. Cheers

fearlubu said:
I'm a fan of the three kingdoms period and just found out this show exists. I saw an edit of the OP that had zhuge liang from the 90's ROTK live action show instead and was bewildered, now it makes sense, lol. I'm gonna have to check it out.

Vinicacto said:


LOL I need the link to this vid, please! I've seen some scenes from the 90's live action show and I'm loving this anime :D