Kongming’s Archives: 2007 Updates

January 2007

Site-wide updates to Kongming’s Archives made during January 2007.

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1/4/07 (James): Romance of the Three Kingdoms Officer Encyclopedia!
Today I’m introducing something very special, very cool. It took us over a year to get here from when the idea was originally conceived and at times I wondered how long it would really take for it to launch. But there is no need to wonder any longer.

Introducing the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Officer Encyclopedia!

I’m sure you will discover, upon viewing it, that this is truly an excellent piece of work filled with useful information and links. You can search through our database of over 1,000 officers to view all the information we have recorded on them along with other handy bits like links to articles and biographies, differences between history and fiction, family relations, introductory biographies and more. Like most database-based sections of this site you can also search by custom text, category, or kingdom. You can also click on an officer’s name to hide most of the navigation tools and display only that entry—ideal for sharing links to specific information.

But here’s what makes the encyclopedia so special. It isn’t just a small project maintained by me—it is based on the upcoming Kongming’s Archives Development Project. Anyone in the Three Kingdoms community, having requested authorization (we’re not Wikipedia—standards and accuracy will be maintained) can update and edit information viewed through this tool (and elsewhere across the site)! When complete, this encyclopedia, while already very useful, will continue to grow at a steady pace until it becomes a truly phenomenal resource for Three Kingdoms information!

Would you like to participate in this project? Please read about it at our forum (no registration necessary to view) and, if you want to share your knowledge, all you have to do is thoughtfully fill out our Development Project Participation Form. A number of people in our community are already participating (in some cases for over a year now) and it is with great thanks to them that you can already enjoy what you see in the encyclopedia. Soon we will flesh this process out into a much more user-friendly explanation and introduction and we will re-announce it when the time comes.

Oh, and one more thing. Mozilla and Firefox users, as you may know we’ve already created a Kongming’s Archives search plugin which you can use to search our site directly from your browser. Well, we’ve now created a second plugin specifically for this Three Kingdoms Encyclopedia! Need some information on an officer? Enter their name into your browser and read up in only a few clicks!

We’ve also got several other goodies to introduce. Member Dong Zhuo has prepared new Sanguo Yanyi Biographies for Zhang Ren and Jiang Xu (Boyi). Moses Kong (aka Jiang Zhi) has also shared with us his essay on the Rise and Fall of the Han Dynasty, now added to our Three Kingdoms Writings page. We’ve got other things we want to do, that people are looking forward to, and want to announce, but time is short. We hope to get around to them soon.

We hope you are as excited about this as we are!

April 2007

Site-wide updates to Kongming’s Archives made during April 2007.

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4/2/07 (James): April Fools' 2007
Welcome back, and I hope you enjoyed our April Fools’ 2007 joke! Let not your heart be troubled, for Kongming’s Archives is still online—and I have no plans to take it offline at any point in the foreseeable future. Nor would I dream of taking it offline over something like this! My reward for maintaining Kongming’s Archives is, and always will be, seeing the way in which this humble jumble of information has touched so many lives, sometimes quite profoundly. Your emails never go unread.

I’ll be back soon with more details, and with a complete explanation of yesterday’s April Fools’ joke. I’ll also soon reply to the long list of email waiting for me in my inbox. For now, I have some business to take care of in our most excellent forum of scholars, and some sleep to savor before I wake up early this morning to take my kids to school and continue writing my book. Check back soon!

July 2007

Site-wide updates to Kongming’s Archives made during July 2007.

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7/4/07 (James): Adrian's Ancient Chinese Coins
Adrian, the wonderful forum member and friend who made our Ancient Chinese Coins section possible and wrote for you an excellent guide on buying coins online, has found himself in a financial pinch. Consequently, he is selling some of his own coin collection over eBay. If you would like to own an authentic piece of Chinese history—perhaps even a coin from the Three Kingdoms era—this is your opportunity. Not only will you know your coins are authentic, you will be helping a person who means a great deal to our site and community.

Currently Being Sold
Specific featured coins are no longer being listed, but Adrian continues to list new authentic coins for sale. Please check his eBay store for updates!

Adrian wrote the following: “Currently I find that I have an overstock of coins in my collection, and purchased perhaps a few too many coins of certain types and rarities when income for me was high. Now, when income is low, I'm turning around and transforming these extras and rarities back into money again by selling them. My stock will be changing regularly, usually 4 or 5 new coins go up every week or two. All coins were originally purchased from dealers listed on the 'reputable' listing website I included in my write-up on collecting Chinese coins and soon my eBay username will also be added to that website listing. A lifetime guarantee of both authenticity and free from tooling/alteration comes with every coin I sell.”

September 2007

Site-wide updates to Kongming’s Archives made during September 2007.

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9/1/07 (James): Of Fu, Hufu, Fujie, Jie, Jiajie, and more...
Like any other culture the Chinese used a number of methods to signify and authenticate authority in the military, government and cities—fu 符, hufu 虎符 (tiger tallies), jie 節, jiajie 假節, fujie 符节 and more. While reference is commonly made to the various symbols and concepts of authority and authentication in biographies and other historic texts, the actual appearance and nature of these elements is often confused, and English information on the subject is so difficult to come by. Similarities in usage and names also sometimes lead translators into confusion—and I attempt to allay some of that confusion in our new guide, Chinese Representations of Authority: Han and Three Kingdoms Periods. Please enjoy!

Visit again soon! Updates will be made in weeks to come.

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9/13/07 (James): Fate of a Rebel, Destiny of an Emperor Parody
Some time ago forum member Taishi 2.0 started writing a clever and funny Destiny of an Emperor-based parody which has now been titled ‘Fate of a Rebel’. We are pleased to bring this comic, along with any future updates, to Kongming’s Archives. I hope you enjoy the story as much as I have! And you haven’t played Destiny of an Emperor, do so!

November 2007

Site-wide updates to Kongming’s Archives made during November 2007.

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11/26/07 (James): Simulated RTK V4 Ruler Signups Started!
Are you a fan of the Simulated RTK? Have you been waiting, quite patiently, for the next game to finally start? The rules remake has been months in the making, but your wait has finally ended. Ruler signup for ‘V4’ has started, and now is your chance to dive in as a commander in a game that pits the intelligence of humans against humans in a Three Kingdoms environment. Not familiar with the game and would rather play an officer instead? Head on over to the Simulated RTK forum, sign up, read the introduction, and make yourself comfortable. Player signups open soon!

December 2007

Site-wide updates to Kongming’s Archives made during December 2007.

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12/15/07 (James): Introducing Legend of Cao Cao!
With all the time we’ve spent focusing on older gems such as Destiny of an Emperor it is a wonder that we haven’t properly introduced Koei’s Legends series to you. While none of these five games—Legend of Heroes, Legend of Kongming, Legend of Mori Motonari, Legend of Oda Nobunaga, Legend of Cao Cao—were ever released in English, some of them have very large followings overseas in Asia. Today I’m going to introduce Legend of Cao Cao, perhaps the most successful and the most loved game in the entire series, and also, unfortunately, the last.

Legend of Cao Cao plays like Fire Emblem, which may be more familiar to a western audience. In battle your units are deployed on a grid. You and one (or more) opposing faction take turns giving orders. Each unit can be given certain tasks (use an item, cast a spell, attack), and through these actions you strive to defeat the opposing side. After each round it is possible that storyline events may take place, introducing new threats or units, and during battle duels, double-strikes, and critical hits may also take place.

Legend of Cao Cao is extremely difficult to purchase in an English market as, to the best of our knowledge, no retailer makes it available. You cannot import it through Koei. Check back with us later on this. That said, if you do have it, or have access to it, you’re in luck—Lady Wu has been working for months to translate the entire game into English! She has already finished a beta release of her patch, which you can read more about and download at our forum, Scholars of Shen Zhou.

We’ll talk more about Legend of Cao Cao in months to come, and we’ll offer new goodies to compliment your new old-school adventure. For now, we usher the game in with a new addition: the Legend of Cao Cao Home Page, currently supplied with handy community links, English-patched Windows screenshots, and a game-guide by Taishi Ci 2.0. Check back for more later!