Sanguo Yanyi Biography Thread (Preparation)

[James]

This thread can be used by authors of San Guo Yan Yi biographies to correlate their work, get feedback from each other on style, presentation or layout, and for feedback related to the project as a whole. Also, if you plan to attempt an ongoing SGYY biography project, please list your intentions here just in case another author was considering it, but wishes to focus on unseen content instead.

Here is a Google Search which can be used to browse all chapters at threekingdoms.com which contain reference to a specific general. Replace ‘Sun Jian’ with the term you wish to search threekingdoms.com with, focusing on actual novel chapters in initial results.

[Morg]

I'm currently working on Sun Ce's SGYY bio and should have it done in a few weeks.

The google search is one way of finding which chapters characters appear in but it also includes the notes which can often be irrelevant. Below is a rough list of characters with their chapter number debuts and deaths which may help any SGYY bio writers (please note that the list is a rough draft and may not be 100% accurate).

Cao Cao 1-78
Huang Zhong 53-85
Guan Yu 1-77
Jiang Wei 92-118?
Liao Hua 27 -
Liu Bei 1-85
Lu Meng ?-77
Ma Chao 10-?
Meng Huo 86-91
Pang Tong 47?-63
Sima Yi ?-110?
Sun Ce 7-29
Sun Quan 7-108
Xiahou Dun 4-78
Xiahou Yuan 4-71
Xu Huang 13
Xu Zhu - 12
Yuan Shao 1-26
Zhang Fei 1-81
Zhao Yun 7, 28-97
Zhang Liao 11 -
Zhou Tai - 15
Zhou Yu - 15
Zhuge Liang 38-104

Yellow Turbans 1, 10, 11, 12, 14, 26

[James]

The google search is one way of finding which chapters characters appear in but it also includes the notes which can often be irrelevant.

The google search I posted there should filter out the notes, and those that I couldn’t remove should be moved after the chapter results. I noticed how many notes it tossed into the results initiatlly.

[Asellas]

So far, here is what I have done.
What would be the next chapter he appears in?

Ma Chao's SGYY Biography


Ma Chao, the son of Ma Teng was raised in Xiliang Province. His father and Han Sui were trying to capture the rebels: Wang Fang and Li Meng. After the words "Those are traitors! Who will capture them?" a youth dressed in white, carrying a long spear who's eyes shone like shooting stars. Ma Chao was only 17 at this time, Wang Fang didn't think anything of it and set fourth to challenge him. After many bouts, the spear of Ma Chao was thrust into Wang Fang killing him instantly. Enraged, Li Meng persued him to avenge his fallen comrade and Ma Chao was completely unaware of Li Meng's pursuit.

"You are followed!" cried Ma Teng to Ma Chao, Ma Chao now knew he was being followed but pretended to turn a blind eye. The moment Li Meng got in range, Ma Chao just swung his spear, wheeled around and with fierce strength knocked Li Meng off his saddle, so now the troops of Wang Fang and Li Meng were leaderless, then fled the battlefield. Back at Ma Teng and Han Sui's camp, Li Meng was later beheaded.

Ma Chao, in Xiliang recieved a letter from Zhuge Liang about moving to the Tong Pass so then Cao Cao couldn't launch an expedition south. One night in camp, Ma Chao had a dream where he was laying on the white plains and tigers biting him. Unable to interpret what it could mean, he told his generals; and one general said the portent was evil this general was none other than Pang De. "The uncle and his sons are dead!" cried a voice from behind: It was Ma Teng's nephew, Ma Dai. Ma Chao gripped his teeth, his eyes filled with rage and hatred for Cao Cao. The horses were saddled and mounted, the infantry was assembled. Ma Chao was summoned by Han Sui and showed him a letter he recieved from Cao Cao promising to give Han Sui the Lordship of Xiliang as a reward for sending Ma Chao a prisoner to the capital.
Han Sui and his eight commanders whom had eight divisions, both prepared their troops which consisted of around 200,000 troops. In Ma Chao's army, he had generals Pang De and Ma Chao, Han Sui's eight commanders were Yang Qiu, Cheng Yin, Hou Xuan, Liang Xing, Cheng Yi, Li Kan, Ma Wan, and Zhang Han. With this many forces, they marched to Changan. Zhong Yao as the governer, sent a fleet messenger to Cao Cao, Zhong Yao then led his force onto the battlefield. During the 10 days of sieging Changan; the capital of the Western Han, Pang De proposed a plan. Pang De's plan about relaxing, saving supplies rather than keep going with the sieging of Changan and using them up, the plan was executed after Ma Chao gave the thumbs up for it.
Zhong Yao's younger brother, Zhong Jing was leading the forces on the right gate, one night; Zhong Jing saw a moving flame, thinking something was suspicious he investgiated then from out of the blue an attacker came, "Here is Pang De!". Zhong Ying was eventually slain, the gate keeper was dismissed, the gates had been destroyed then like a flood stormed into the camp were the forces of Ma Chao an Han Sui. Zhong Yao fled to the tong pass, leaving Changan to be occupied by Ma Chao.
When Xu Huang and Cao Hong eventually came out of the Tong Pass after Ma Chao's men fired insults about the Cao Family, they all fled and when they both went out to pursue, Ma Dai attacked Xu Huang. Cao Hong and Xu Huang couldn't flee for two bodies of troops had appeared. Barely able to escape, Cao Hong and Xu Huang and some of their forces left the Tong Pass and went to the main camp of Cao Cao, Tong Pass was now lost.

[Morg]

The google search I posted there should filter out the notes, and those that I couldn’t remove should be moved after the chapter results. I noticed how many notes it tossed into the results initiatlly.

All of the results on the first google page are matches from notes...in fact the first non-note appearance from Sun Jian is the 16th match so for some reason Google isn't filtering properly.

[James]

That is just weird... because it is only showing chapters on the first page for me. I wonder if there is some sort of browser dependant element to their code.

[Rhiannon]

Since we started this new thread, I'll again drop that Andy and I have intentions or hopes of doing Huang Zhong or Xu Huang.

However, there's other things going on for both of us, so if someone really wants to get started, go right ahead and let us know. It may be months before I touch an SGYY bio.

[Wizardman]

I am planning on doing Wei Yan's SGYY Bio, if there are no objections. It should be done in 2-4 weeks.

Update:
Wei Yan SGYY- Progressing nicely. Currently at Han Zhong. My guess is 3 weeks, AKA the start of February.

[James]

Your work on Ma Chao so far looks great.

- - - - -

You were right, Morg... and more to the point, it doesn’t even look like it is showing the actual chapter content. What the… I wonder if I could set the HTML up in a remote location with a dedicated search specifically for this…

[Morg]

Now we've established that SGYY bios are to be true to SGYY and feature magic and pheonixes and stuff, I have posted Sun Ce's bio in the Sanguo Yanyi Symposium complete with disppearing magicians and a footnote to explain it.

I will eventually get around to doing that Yellow Scarves essay for Wild-Eyes, but not yet as I've just started Cao Cao's bio. No, I don't know what I'm thinking either....