by Kong Wen » Thu Jan 17, 2008 10:54 pm
It depends on which Dong Zhuo you're talking about. The historical Dong Zhuo of course had many great political and military accomplishments in the northwest, so if you're asking whether the historical DZ is as bad as the novel DZ, then no, I suppose not, if only because there are some "virtues" that are dismissed/ignored.
But you also say that the novel is "biased against him" and that makes your question a little more ambiguous. The novel is not biased against him in any practical way, since DZ had been dead for centuries by the time the novel was written. Its "bias" is simply a narrative storytelling decision by the artist. DZ's military accomplishments against the Qiang are not highlighted for the same reason that Luke Skywalker doesn't appear in the book—they are not important to the novel's internal fictional universe. So if you're asking if the novel's DZ has some overlooked merits, then the answer is no, what you see is what you get.
I suspect you're simply seeking a reevaluation of the historical DZ, though, and interpreting the novel's characterization of a figure based on the historical DZ as an injustice, but it's more helpful to maintain the two as distinct entities.
"We spread the time as we can, but in the end the world takes it all back."
— Roland Deschain, Wolves of the Calla