Traditional Chinese legend, retold in simple Mandarin
Three Kingdoms: Three Visits to the Cottage
三顾茅庐
Three Kingdoms: Three Visits to the Cottage (三顾茅庐, Sān gù máolú) is a story from Three Kingdoms, the Chinese classic by Luo Guanzhong, retold in simple Mandarin as a 4-chapter story with audio for learners at about HSK 2 (Elementary).
Retold from Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Liu Bei rides through snow and spring to a thatched cottage, again and again, to ask the sleeping genius Zhuge Liang for his help.
Meet the voices
- Narrator · 旁白 — A warm old storyteller who sets the scene.
- Liu Bei · 刘备 — A kind, patient leader who believes the right person is worth asking three times.
- Guan Yu · 关羽 — Liu Bei's calm, proud sworn brother with a dry sense of humor.
- Zhang Fei · 张飞 — Liu Bei's loud sworn brother who wants to solve everything with a rope.
- Zhuge Liang · 诸葛亮 — The Sleeping Dragon: a calm, witty strategist who likes his naps.
- Servant Boy · 童子 — Zhuge Liang's honest young helper at the cottage.
- Zhuge Jun · 诸葛均 — Zhuge Liang's polite younger brother.
- Old Scholar · 黄老先生 — Zhuge Liang's wise father-in-law, met by mistake on a snowy bridge.
- Xu Shu · 徐庶 — Liu Bei's clever friend who tells him about the Sleeping Dragon.
4 chapters, one journey
Chapter 1: The Sleeping Dragon
去找卧龙
Liu Bei has swords and horses but no plan. A friend tells him about a genius called the Sleeping Dragon, and Liu Bei rides out to find him.
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Chapter 2: Snow on the Road
大雪天
In a snowstorm Liu Bei makes his second trip to Longzhong. He bows to the wrong man, meets the wrong man again, and the Sleeping Dragon is still not at home.
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Chapter 3: Standing at the Door
站在门外
On the third visit the Sleeping Dragon is at home, but sound asleep. Liu Bei will not let anyone wake him, and Zhang Fei has a rope and some very bad ideas.
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Chapter 4: The Plan on the Map
墙上的地图
Zhuge Liang shows Liu Bei a map and a plan that could save the land: three kingdoms, like the three legs of a pot. Will the Sleeping Dragon finally wake up and go with him?
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Key words in Three Kingdoms: Three Visits to the Cottage
Behind the story
Three Visits to the Cottage (Sān gù máolú) comes from Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Sānguó Yǎnyì), the great Chinese novel of the 1300s about the years after the Han dynasty broke apart. In the story, the warlord Liu Bei visits the young scholar Zhuge Liang three times to ask for his help.
Today the phrase 三顾茅庐 is a common saying for showing great respect and patience when you invite a talented person to join you. Zhuge Liang's plan, the Longzhong Plan, is also famous: the land splits into three kingdoms, like the three legs of an ancient cooking pot.
Did you know?
- Zhuge Liang's nickname 卧龙 (Wòlóng) means 'Sleeping Dragon', for a genius who has not yet shown his power.
- The saying 三顾茅庐 is used in Chinese companies and schools today when someone works very hard to win over an expert.
- Liu Bei is said to have told his brothers that Zhuge Liang was to him like water to a fish.