The Mystical Number "Three" And The Narrative World Of The Romance Of The Three Kingdoms

The number "three" and its multiples appear frequently in the narrative text of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a name of a classic novel which is the first one with each chapter headed by a couplet giving the gist of its content in China, and also have important roles in building the world of three kingdoms, especially in narrative discourse、figures、plots、rhythm and so on. The essay will pay attention to the number "three", and use four chapters to study its cultural meaning and effects on the narrative world of the novel.The first chapter:the number "three" and the narrative discourse of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms.In the novel’s narrative discourse, the number "three" is found in two ways:words and phrases with the number "three", which are closely associated with traditional Chinese culture; sentences with special modes of narrative discourses, which a sentence includes three simple sentences or three things.The second chapter:the number "three" and the arrangements for the figures of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. On the figures’ arrangements, the number "three" mainly impacts on two aspects:there are dominance and opaque combinations of three men whose fates are similar or different, which relate with the cultural meaning of the number "three", such as containing and solidity; there are common existence and common developing in relationship of three parts, which contact with the implications of the number "three" in the work named The Book of Change.The third chapter:the number "three" and the structures on the plots of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms."three-repeated" plots and "tree-staged" plots, which are concretely changing forms of the number "three", are obviously showed in the novel’s context. This chapter will discuss the traditional culture about the number "three" and its special narrative effects in designing the novel’s plots by analyzing clear and unclear "three-repeated" plots, researching the three stages of contradiction’s development, learning the "three-three" layouts of "three-staged" plots.The fourth chapter:the number "three" and the narrative rhythm of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The narrative rhythm of the novel is deeply bound up the cultural mind which dividing almost everything into three parts, and emerges in two main patterns of "three-staged" narrative rhythm:one is the "three-overlap" narrative rhythm, the other is the "two-plus-one" narrative rhythm. The former is a kind of narrative rhythm produced by the circulation and composition of multiple layers, which every layer has "three" embodies something, such as three stages, three stratums, three kingdoms and so on. The later can be divided into two types by telling different forms of the number "three":"sudden-typed" and "tortuous-typed" of the "two-plus-on" narrative rhythm.The ending:the relationship between the narrative pattern depending on the number "three" of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms and folk literature. Literature can well reflect the social life of people. It is common that there are many distinct using of the number "three" appearing in folk literature, such as novels、 dramas、fair stories and so on, which can not separate from the folk culture of the number "three". The success of the work, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, is the absorption and succession of the traditional custom of the number "three" in folk culture.