Scott No: 2889-93
Serial number: 1998-18
Values in set: 4
Souvenir sheet:
1
Date of issue: August 26, 1998
Designers: Dai Honghai
Size of stamp:
54*40 mm for Value 1, 3
40*54 mm for Value 2, 4
Size of S/S: 182*65 mm
Size of S/S stamp: 162*40 mm
Perforation: 11
Sheet composition: 20
Printing process: gravure

"The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is a famous literary classic depicting political turmoils, peasant uprisings, dukes, fighting for territory, formation of the Three Kingdoms and unification by the Western Jin Dynasty in the late years of the Eastern Han Dynasty. This group of stamps is the last batch of the series adapted from stories of Chapter 85 to Chapter 120 of the "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms": Liu Bei found a guardian for his heir at the Baidi Town, Zhuge Liang led the army back to the capital, the stratagem of the empty city, the sad autumn at Wuzhangyuan and the Jin unified the Three Kingdoms, most of these stories are tragedies of the Shu Kingdom. Liu Bei launched a war against the Wu Kingdom, but lost 700,000 of his army, thus leading the Shu Kingdom into misfortune. Liu Bei was frustrated by the defeat and entrusted his son, Liu Chan, heir-to -the-throne to Zhuge Liang. Zhuge Liang exerted all his strength. For the purpose of repressing the uprising in the south, he captured Meng Huo sever times, thus stabilizing the base of the entire Shu Kingdom. Zhuge Liang led the Shu army off the Qishan Mountain six times, launching attacks against the Wei army and attempting to take the central plain areas, but he had made a fatal mistake in using a wrong person, the self-willed and conceited Ma Su, leading to the loss of Jieting, a strategic place for the Shu army. Zhuge Liang was forced to practice the "stratagem of the empty City" to deceive Wei general Sima Yi. After several futile attempts, Zhuge Liang got ill, though he was weak, he made arrangement for political and military affairs prior to his own death. The Wei, Shu and Wu kingdoms fell one after another from 263-280 A.D. and eventually Jin Emperor Sima Yan unified the three kingdoms.