Romance Of Three Kingdoms History
Three Kingdoms:
The two groups that dominated the court during the second half of Later or Eastern Han 東漢 (25-220 AD), were the consort clans (waiqi 外戚) and the eunuchs (huanguan 宦官). After Emperor Huandi 漢桓帝 had ended the power of the consort clans, he and his successor Lingdi 漢靈帝 were only supported by the eunuchs. The second attempt to extinguish the powerful eunuch faction in 189 AD was successful, and the power vacuum was filled by warlords that took over the regency for the weak emperors. The ruthless general Dong Zhuo 董卓 who had sacked the capital Luoyang 洛陽, was eventually defeated by Cao Cao 曹操 who was regent for the minor emperor Xiandi 漢獻帝, who abdicated in 220 in favour of Cao Cao's son Cao Pi 曹丕. Acting as emperor of a new dynasty called Wei 魏, he had ended the four hundred year old Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD). Of the many warlords, only Sun Quan 孫權 was left, and Liu Bei 劉備, who claimed to be the real successor of the house of Han and proclaimed himself emperor of Shu 蜀 in 221. Sun Quan followed only one year later, establishing the third of the Three Kingdoms, Wu 吳 (Sanguo 三國; should better be called "Three Empires"). These three "kingdoms" or rather empires were never able to consolidate the power of the imperial throne against the mighty magnates and military leaders. Sima Yan 司馬炎 of the state of Wei should terminate the dynasty of Cao Cao and reunite China in his Jin Dynasty 晉 . 
Source from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Kingdoms 
The Three Kingdoms period (simplified Chinese: 三国时代; traditional Chinese: 三國時代; pinyin: Sānguó shídài) is a period in the history of China, part of an era of disunity called the Six Dynasties following immediately the loss of de facto power of the Han Dynasty emperors. In a strict academic sense it refers to the period between the foundation of the Wei in 220 and the conquest of the Wu by the Jin Dynasty in 280. However, many Chinese historians and laymen extend the starting point of this period back to the uprising of the Yellow Turbans in 184.The three kingdoms were Wei (魏), Shu (蜀), and Wu (吳). To help further distinguish these states from other historical Chinese states of the same name, historians add a relevant character: Wei is also known as Cao Wei (曹魏), Shu is also known as Shu Han (蜀漢), and Wu is also known as Dong Wu or Eastern Wu (東吳). The term Three Kingdoms itself is somewhat of a mistranslation, since each state was eventually headed not by kings, but by an emperor who claimed legitimate succession from the Han Dynasty. Although the translation Three Empires is more contextually accurate,[1] the term Three Kingdoms has become standard amongsinologists.The earlier, "unofficial" part of the period, from 184 to 220, was marked by chaotic infighting between warlords in various parts of China. The middle part of the period, from 220 and 263, was marked by a more militarily stable arrangement between three rival states, Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu. The later part of this period was marked by the collapse of the tripartite situation: first the destruction of Shu by Wei (263), then the overthrow of Wei by the Jin Dynasty (265), and the destruction of Wu by Jin (280).Although relatively short, this historical period has been greatly romanticised in the cultures of China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. It has been celebrated and popularised in operas, folk stories, novels and in more recent times, films, television series, and video games. The best known of these is undoubtedly the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a novel dealing with the period that draws heavily on history. The authoritative historical record of the era is Chen Shou's Sanguo Zhi, along with Pei Songzhi's later annotations of the text.The Three Kingdoms period was one of the bloodiest in Chinese history. A population census during the late Eastern Han Dynasty reported a population of approximately 50 million,[2] while a population census during the early Western Jin Dynasty (after Jin re-unified China) reported a population of approximately 16 million.[2] However, the Jin dynasty's census was far less complete than the Han census, so these figures are in question.Technology advanced significantly during this period. Zhuge Liang invented the wooden ox, suggested to be an early form of the wheelbarrow, and improved on therepeating crossbow. A brilliant mechanical engineer known as Ma Jun, in Wei, is considered by many to be as brilliant as his predecessor Zhang Heng. He invented a hydraulic-powered, mechanical puppet theatre designed for Emperor Ming of Wei (Cao Rui), square-pallet chain pumps for irrigation of gardens in Luoyang, and the ingenious design of the South Pointing Chariot, a non-magnetic directional compass operated by differential gears.