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The Place Of Classical Chinese Literature In Modern Sino-Japanese Pop Culture: The Case Of Cao Cao In Sanguo Yanyi, Jonathan M. Heinrichs

UVM Patrick Leahy Honors College Senior Theses

There are few works of Chinese literature more popular than Sanguo Yanyi, or The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. And there are few characters more complicated than the warlord Cao Cao. Numerous adaptations of this work have been produced in both China and Japan, many of which interpret Cao Cao in different ways. This paper seeks to determine the differences between Chinese and Japanese interpretations of Cao Cao in various adaptations. It then turns to the question of what reasons, whether cultural or practical, would have caused these differences.