Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a 14th-century historical novel, and considered one of the four classics in Chinese literature. This 4-volume picture book series takes the lengthy and somewhat "intimidating" classic, and make it approachable for young readers through tasteful ink illustrations, relatable dialogue, and approachable text!
Cao Cao's (曹操) led this million-strong army in battle at the Red Cliffs against the allied forces of Sun Quan (孫權) and Liu Bei (劉備).
However, Cao's troops were not adept to water warfare. They had to eventually use thick chains to chain their ships together to steady them to reduce the amount to seasickness they were experiencing.
In order to decisively win against Cao Cao, Zhou Yu (周瑜) thought to attack by fire. Except despite all his preparations, they were still missing an eastern wind to complete the attack ("萬事俱備，只欠東風")
Interestingly, Zhuge Liang (諸葛亮) told them that as long as they build an altar, he will find a way to produce an eastern wind.
Despite their skepticism, the men built the altar. Zhuge Liang walked up to it and performed a sword dance ritual three times... will he successfully summoning the eastern wind? Will the Sun-Liu alliance ultimately defeat Cao's forces?
「萬事俱備，只欠東風」is now a well-known Chinese saying fora thing or situation that is missing a tiny, but crucial, item for its success.
Hardcover | 48 pages | 21.5cm x 24cm