Three Kingdoms Questions (You Ask, We Answer)

[Dong Zhou]

Dumb question whats the Biezhuan? I assume some sort of historical record?

Not a stupid question at all. It's an set of annotations in Zhao Yun's SGZ about Zhao Yun's life.

[greencactaur]

Oh that's interesting. Is there a English translation online?

[Dong Zhou]

Oh that's interesting. Is there a English translation online?

Yun's SGZ, search Yún Biézhuàn

[greencactaur]

Thanks!

[Sun Fin]

Do Tian Chou and Tian Kai share the same character for their family name?

[DaoLunOfShiji]

It seems as though they do 田疇 is Tian Chou, and 田楷 is Tian Kai.

[Fornadan]

I don't think there is more than one family name pronounced Tian

[Sun Fin]

I guess there is no hint in the histories that they are related? Just as they have the same surname and were active in the same area at the same kind of time!

[PyroMystic]

Thank you for Dong Zhou and Sun Fin for your help! Greatly appreaciate it!

I also wish to ask some more question:
So I recently get an interesting information from a Dynasty Warriors, which is a very unreliable source, saying that when Sun Jian is young, he defeated a Taoist rebel named Xu Chang. I checked Sun Jian's SGZ and it writes:

The heretic rebel Xu Chang rose at Juzhang and named himself Emperor Yangming. With his son Xu Shao he stirred up various prefectures, and his followers numbered in the tens of thousands. Sun Jian, as the Major of the commandery, recruited the elite and the brave, totalling more than a thousand men and defeated Xu Chang by coalition with the various prefectures of the province. That year was the first year of Xiping.

(*GASP!* ANOTHER PERSON CLAIMING TO BE AN EMPEROR!)
So my question is that is this Xu Chang a Taoist or not? And if anyone read SGZ in chinese, what is the word used for "Heretic" here? Does it refer to someone like Zhang Jiao?

I also would like to know your opinion on Cao Pi overthrowing the emperor. I think what Cao Pi did is right. Incompetent ruler ought to be replaced with a more competent one, and it seems Cao Pi was quite competent. Some said that he's ruthless, but if he, as Cao Xiu's SGZ states, "When Cao Xiu was about to leave, the emperor went to see him off personally with an escort of chariots, and alighted from his carriage to hold Cao Xiu’s hands in farewell" then I think he's quite a good guy. I don't get why both Shu and Wu hated that and now they're declaring themselves emperor. Didn't that just prove that they are, you know, hypocrite? Besides, I think Cao Pi is the best out of the three. Of course, Cao Cao is better but he's never an emperor.
So I think what I want to know is that do you think Cao Pi is wrong for usurping the throne?

[Sun Fin]

In Generals of the South Prof Rafe says the Chinese word used to describe Xu Chang is: yaoze. I don't know what connatations that word brings but he also says:

Sun Jian's appointment as a junior officer came at just about the same time as the outbreak of the rebellion of Xu Chang, a man who pretended to supernatural powers and made a rising at Juzhang in Kuaiji commandery, now in the region of Ningbo on the south of Hangzhou Bay

It doesn't definitively confirm he was a Daoist but certainly he was a mystic of some description.