Abstract
Tsūzoku sangokushi (A Popularized History of the Three Kingdoms, 1689-91) was one of the first complete translations of Luo Guanzhong’s Sanguozhi yanyi to appear in any language. Its influence on Japanese literature of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was evident across a broad range of genres. This paper examines the context in which Tsūzoku sangokushi was translated and what it can tell us about Japanese readership of Chinese texts just prior to the explosion of interest in vernacular fiction. The paper argues that the translation of Tsūzoku sangokushi was motivated not so much by interest in the work as an exemplar of vernacular narrative but rather for its lively account of a story loosely based on historical events.