Why do many females only have 1 name?

[Xodan Rot]

Just wondering: Why do many females in the game only have 1 name instead of 2? For example Lianshi, Zhenji, Yueyjing, ...

But then there are also females with 2 names like Wang Yuanji, Guan Yinping, Zhang Chunhua, ...

Is there a logic behind that?

[Ralen]

Likely due to a lack of historical evidence? It's worth noting that women historically didn't have much of a political/military presence in ancient civilizations, China included. Thus, there is just a lack of information. Lady "Zhenji" Zhen's personal name is actually uknown. Diaochan is a fictional character and there is no evidence she actually existed outside of the fictional "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" novel. Lianshi's full name is actually Bu Lianshi, but she was known as Lady Bu.

Omega Force/Koei takes a lot of creative liberties in the games. There is more knowledge about some figures (Cao Cao, Sun Quan, Liu Bei, etc.) versus some more obscure individuals.

[Burusagi]

You have to realize that the names are (to us Westerners) backwards

Cao Ren would actually be Ren Cao, with Ren being the first/personal name and Cao being the family name. I have no idea what's up with Cao Cao in that regard, lol.

So females with just one name are most likely

a. Fictional such as Diaochan.
b. Have no strong family/clan ties (or as Pax Augusta mentioned; their family name might be lost to history or they were just not important enough to write it down).

[Ecthel_013]

The likely reason is because they simply weren't considered important enough to have their full names recorded (in the case of those that actually existed).

On a side note, Yueying's family name is Huang if I remember correctly. I don't think there's any relation to Huang Gai or Huang Zhong, but I could be wrong.

[Xodan Rot]

Interesting. Thanks for your answers everyone!

[Jeffer'son Airship]

It was actually very rare for women to be recorded in historical texts at all in most ancient Asian cultures, unless they stood out in major ways. Much of ROTK is actually fictional and was created quite a bit after the historical parts of the books actually took place.

Even in ROTK, many of the female characters aren't actually named (for instance, it's mentioned that Lu Bu had a wife and at least one daughter, but they are not named at all.)

EDIT: Yueying Huang has a SINGLE mention in historical texts, and it was added two centuries after the text was written as an annotation. Her father was Huang Chengyan, who is also mentioned in ROTK.

[Flock of These]

I don't know much about actual history, but I have read the novel these games are "based" on. in that Zhu Rong is the only woman who actually fights. Sun Shang Xiang has an all female bodyguard, and is really into military stuff, but never actually participates in any of it. Aside from the ones already mentioned, I don't remember any other women characters from the games being in the novel.

And an off topic comment: The novel isn't super cheezy and dumb like the games cutscenes are. I love the games, but story isn't their strong point.

[Xodan Rot]

You're writing "Zhu Rong", but in the game the name is "Zhurong". Which one is right? :P

This game made me interested in chinese history. I noticed there's a movie about the Battle of Chibi called "Red Cliff". Did anyone watch that? Is it good?

[WingedKagouti]

Originally posted by Xodan Rot:

This game made me interested in chinese history. I noticed there's a movie about the Battle of Chibi called "Red Cliff". Did anyone watch that? Is it good?

It's got 7.4 on imdb and 89% on rottentomatoes, so odds are that it's quite good. Red Cliff 2 also gets good scores on both sides.

[Ralen]

Originally posted by Xodan Rot:

You're writing "Zhu Rong", but in the game the name is "Zhurong". Which one is right? :P

This game made me interested in chinese history. I noticed there's a movie about the Battle of Chibi called "Red Cliff". Did anyone watch that? Is it good?

Never seen it. The only thing I have seen that is loosely based on "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is the ecchi anime: Ikkitousen (Battle Vixens). It's entertaining, at the very least, if you know the stories, the people, and the battles from Dynasty Warriors. It can be a bit confusing knowing which characters correlate to the people in the game as all of their names (Guan Yu, Sun Ce, Cao Cao, Liu Bei, etc.) are translated differently in Japanese.

[Clever Cloaks]

For some reason, Koei is kind of weird with female names. Wang Yi, Lü Lingqi, Guan Yinping, Sun Shangxiang, Bao Sanninang, Zhang Chunhua, Wang Yuanji, and Cai Wenji (more or less, her real name "Cai Yan". Wenji is her style name) are treated properly.
For Zhurong/Zhu Rong, either works, since she's fictional and tribal folk would often have only their given name.
Huang Yueying and Bu Lianshi get the short end of the stick, though; their family names are clearly recorded, yet Koei doesn't want to use them for some reason.
As for the rest, whose names are not recorded, Diao Chan, Da Qiao, Xiao Qiao, Zhen Ji is how their names should be spelt. It makes no sense to mash their names together. In the cases of the Qiaos, Da refers to "bigger" and Xiao refers to "smaller", since their given names aren't recorded. In Zhen Ji's, "Ji" refers to Lady. Diao Chan might get a pass since she's fictional.

Originally posted by Mobius Archer:

I don't know much about actual history, but I have read the novel these games are "based" on. in that Zhu Rong is the only woman who actually fights.

Wang Yi fought too. Dunno about the novel, as I haven't finished reading it yet, but historically-speaking, she has personally taken to battle against Ma Chao's forces.

Originally posted by Xodan Rot:

This game made me interested in chinese history. I noticed there's a movie about the Battle of Chibi called "Red Cliff". Did anyone watch that? Is it good?

It's good as a movie on its own, but it has A LOT of folkloric elements attached to it and is more based around the ROTK novel than history itself. Cao Cao is villified throughout the movie. Another good ROTK-based movie is "The Assassins" (which is a lot more down to earth), and the Three Kingdoms TV series (both the 1994 and 2010 series).

But if you want to learn about the actual history of the Later Han and Three Kingdoms, I recommend you check out the translated Sanguozhi biographies at kongming.net (not all of them are translated yet, though), and Rafe De Crespigny's writings, which you could easily find by looking him up.

[Flock of These]

If you want to see Red Cliff, then make sure you watch the international version (or whatever they call it). The full movie is like 6 hours long or something, but there is an edited version sold as the theatrical edtition or something. Its half the length of the full movie.

Red Cliff is an okay movie. I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't watch it again. The novel is super epic, and that battle takes place quite a ways in. To do that battle correctly would require the viewer to be really invested in the story. That doesn't work well for a one-off movie. So instead of even trying to capture the real impact of the battle, they made the movie a more lighthearted popcorn flick. As a popcorn flick its pretty good, but its no Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

[Kawalorn]

Originally posted by TheOverlyMadHatter:

As for the rest, whose names are not recorded, Diao Chan, Da Qiao, Xiao Qiao, Zhen Ji is how their names should be spelt. It makes no sense to mash their names together. In the cases of the Qiaos, Da refers to "bigger" and Xiao refers to "smaller", since their given names aren't recorded. In Zhen Ji's, "Ji" refers to Lady. Diao Chan might get a pass since she's fictional.

From what I read on Koei wiki that's not true. Those names were divided into 2 parts in earlier games but they were joined together recently as it turned out that it was a spelling error on Koei's part.

[Ralen]

Originally posted by Kawalorn:

From what I read on Koei wiki that's not true. Those names were divided into 2 parts in earlier games but they were joined together recently as it turned out that it was a spelling error on Koei's part.

This is true. The problem is Koei had to come up with names to describe these women whose personal names were never actually recorded in history. Sun Shangxiang, for example, is not actually her real name. She is merely referred to as "Lady Sun." The same goes for Zhenji, whose real name is never recorded, and is referred to as "Lady Zhen." Koei likely didn't realize there was an error or was too careless to know as they are a Japanese publisher and not Chinese.

[Flock of These]

I wouldn't be worried about names being in two parts or one. Translation is an imperfect thing. There are even two (at least) completley different methods of translating chinese names. The original english translation of Romance had a more phonetic way of spelling the names. The edition I have is a newer translation with the same method used in Dynasty Warriors. Its not at all phonetic, which is why the older DW games butchered the names so badly. (Cow Cow) If you want perfect accuracy, then you probably need to learn chinese.

This conversation reminds me that the name Japan is a mispronunciation of a mispronunciation and so on until it became quite different from Nippon. I heard that on the BBC World Service, so it must be true.

[Ralen]

Originally posted by Mobius Archer:

I wouldn't be worried about names being in two parts or one. Translation is an imperfect thing. There are even two (at least) completley different methods of translating chinese names. The original english translation of Romance had a more phonetic way of spelling the names. The edition I have is a newer translation with the same method used in Dynasty Warriors. Its not at all phonetic, which is why the older DW games butchered the names so badly. (Cow Cow) If you want perfect accuracy, then you probably need to learn chinese.

This conversation reminds me that the name Japan is a mispronunciation of a mispronunciation and so on until it became quite different from Nippon. I heard that on the BBC World Service, so it must be true.

You weren't a fan of Cow Cow and Cow Pee? I guess I was the only one...