New Evidence for the Completion of the Novel The Romance of theThree Kingdoms in about the Third Year of Taiding of Yuan Dynasty——A Case Study around the Traditional Opera Righteous Rejection of the GoldGifted by Zhou Xian-wang of Early Ming Dynasty

From Zhou Fan's books collected and Zhu You-dun's social association, we can find the proof that Zhu You-dun once got and read The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The operas concerning the three kingdoms based on Guan Yu's overcoming all the difficulties in his way in Yuan and Ming Dynasties are few in number. And the opera Righteous Rejection of the Gold Gifted was most probably based on the novel instead of opera. Further, the comparison between Zhou Xian-wang's operas and Yuan opera A Thousand-li Travel Alone and his novels can prove that the above conclusion is correct. Zhu You-dun's acceptance of novels and his operas adapted from them show that The Romance of the Three Kingdoms was completed in early Ming Dynasty and this offers a stronger evidence that the novel was formed in about the third year of Taiding of yuan Dynasty.