Neutral Strategist
Diaochan, the Beauty Who Shamed the Moon
貂蟬in the novel, the 190s5 star
In short
Diaochan is a character of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and one of the Four Beauties of Chinese tradition. In the novel she is a singing girl in the house of the minister Wang Yun, who promises her to both Dong Zhuo and his bodyguard Lu Bu so that one will kill the other. No woman of that name appears in the histories, which record only that Lu Bu had an affair with a maid of Dong Zhuo's.
| Lived | in the novel, the 190s |
|---|---|
| Name in Chinese | 貂蟬 |
| Served | Wang Yun, in the novel |
The history
There is one sentence. In the biography of Lu Bu, Chen Shou writes that Dong Zhuo had Lu Bu guard his inner apartments, that Lu Bu had an affair with one of Dong Zhuo’s maids, and that he was afraid of being found out. The maid has no name. The same passage says Dong Zhuo once threw a halberd at Lu Bu over a small offence, and that the minister Wang Yun used Lu Bu’s fear and resentment to bring him into the plot of 192.
Everything else is literature. A girl called Diaochan appears in storytelling and plays of the Yuan period, sometimes as Lu Bu’s lost wife. The name, sable and cicada, is taken from the ornaments on a court official’s cap.
The novel
Luo Guanzhong gave her the form she has kept. She is sixteen, raised in Wang Yun’s house, and she offers to do anything to repay him. He promises her to Lu Bu, then delivers her to Dong Zhuo, and she plays each man against the other until Lu Bu takes up his halberd. It is called the chain stratagem. After Dong Zhuo’s death the novel loses interest in her: she is with Lu Bu at Xiapi, and then she is not mentioned again.
Later stories gave her other endings, including one in which Guan Yu kills her. None has any more authority than the rest. She stands among the Four Beauties as the one who was not there, and she has outlasted most of the men who were.
Diaochan in the game
In Warlords of the Three Kingdoms Diaochan is the Beauty Who Shamed the Moon: a 5 star strategistwho serves no Kingdom. The game's line for her: “A singer in Wang Yun's house who set Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu against each other, and so ended a tyranny.”
| Kingdom | Neutral, sworn to no Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Role | Strategist |
| Rarity | 5 star |
| Base attack and defense | 45 and 53 |
| Where from | Comes with the Founder's Pack, which is sold for the first 30 days after launch. |
Five star is where she starts. Duplicates become shards, shards add stars, and each star adds a tenth to both numbers.
Questions
Was Diaochan a real person?
No one by that name is in the histories. The Records of the Three Kingdoms say that Lu Bu had an affair with one of Dong Zhuo's serving maids and feared discovery. The novel and the plays before it built Diaochan from that sentence.
What does the name Diaochan mean?
Sable and cicada. They were the ornaments on the caps of high Han officials, a sable's tail and a jade cicada. It is likely a stage name, not a personal one.
Who are the Four Beauties of China?
Xi Shi, Wang Zhaojun, Diaochan and Yang Guifei. Diaochan is the one before whom the moon is said to hide its face.
How do you get Diaochan in Warlords of the Three Kingdoms?
Comes with the Founder's Pack, which is sold for the first 30 days after launch.
Sources
The history follows Chen Shou's Records of the Three Kingdoms, written in the third century, with Pei Songzhi's annotations of the fifth, and Fan Ye's Book of the Later Han for the years before the Han court fell apart. What the page calls the novel is Luo Guanzhong's Romance of the Three Kingdoms, of the fourteenth century. Where the two disagree, the page says which is speaking. For more on her, see Diaochan on Wikipedia.
Written by Gitkonek Studio, .
Keep reading
- Lu Bu, the Flying GeneralHe served Ding Yuan and Dong Zhuo, killed them both, and was surprised when no one else would trust him.
- Dong Zhuo, the Tyrant of LuoyangHe entered the capital to restore order, deposed an emperor, burned the city, and stored grain for thirty years.
- Zhang Jiao, the General of HeavenA healer with a book of the Great Peace, whose followers rose in yellow turbans across eight provinces at once.