List of fictitious stories in Romance of the Three Kingdoms

The following is a chronologically arranged list of fictitious stories in Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguo Yanyi), one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. Although the novel is a romanticised retelling of the history of the late Eastern Han dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, due to its widespread popularity, many people falsely believe it to a real account of the events that happened during that era. Some historians have also used the novel as a source to study the history of the Han dynasty and Three Kingdoms period, regardless of factual basis. The authoritative source for the history of the Three Kingdoms period is Chen Shou's Records of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi), which includes annotations by Pei Songzhi from other historical texts such as Yu Huan's Weilüe and the Jiang Biao Zhuan (江表傳). Other sources covering the history of that period include Fan Ye's Book of the Later Han (Houhanshu) and Fang Xuanling's Book of Jin (Jin Shu). Since Sanguo Yanyi is a historical novel, many stories in it are either fictitious or based on folk tales and historical incidents that happened in other periods of Chinese history. What follows is an incomplete list of the better known fictitious stories in the novel, each with accompanying text that explains the differences between the story and historical accounts.

An inspector is sent to survey Liu Bei's county after he has assumed office as a minor county-level magistrate for his efforts in helping to suppress the Yellow Turban Rebellion. The inspector hints to Liu Bei that he wants bribes, but Liu does not understand what he is driving at. Later, even after his assistant has explained it to him, Liu Bei still refuses to give bribes. When the inspector is unable to find any fault with Liu Bei's administration so he attempts to force the locals to file a complaint against Liu. Zhang Fei is furious when he hears about this and he barges into the county office, drags the inspector out, ties him to a post and gives him a severe thrashing. Liu Bei shows up and stops Zhang Fei. When Guan Yu suggests they kill the inspector and seek their fortune elsewhere, Liu Bei refuses, resigns and returns his official seal to the inspector before leaving.

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