During the Jin Dynasty  ( 晋朝 ), Chen Shou ( 陈寿 ) compiled Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms ( 三国志 Sanguo Zhi ) , which was the official and authoritative historical text on the Three Kingdoms Period. The work collects the smaller histories of the rival states Wei ( 魏 ) , Shu ( 蜀 ) and Wu ( 吴 ) into a single text and provided the basis for the later more popular historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms ( 三国演义 ) .

Together with the Shi ji ( 史记 ) , Han Shu ( 汉书 ) and Hou Han Shu ( 后汉书 ) , Sanguo Zhi is part of the 'Four Histories', as well as the canon of histories known as the Twenty-Four Histories ( 二十四史 ) . The work contains sixty five volumes in all, broken into three books, one on each kingdom. The Book of Wei ( 魏书 ) contains thirty volumes, the Book of Shu ( 蜀书 ) contains fifteen volumes and the Book of Wu ( 吴书 ) contains twenty volumes. Each volume is organised in the form of one of more biographies. The amount of space a biography takes up is dictated by the importance of the figure.

The original author was Chen Shou, who was a native of Anhan ( 安汉 ) . After Jin conquered Shu, Chen became the Gentleman of Works, and was assigned to creating a history of the Three Kingdoms. After the fall of Wu, Chen Shou's Sanguo Zhi received the acclaim of senior minister, who suggested assigning him to the creation of the history of Jin. It cannot be specified the year the work was completed. At the time Wei and Wu both had their own histories and it was with these works as basis that Chen Shou began work. Since Shu lacked a history of its own, data was compiled by Chen himself. The Sanguo Zhi used the dates of Wei kingdom as standard after the fall of Han. That is, years are quoted by eras set out by Wei rulers. The Wei volumes always name Cao Cao ( 曹操 ) , Cao Pi ( 曹丕 ) and Cao Rui ( 曹睿 ) as emperors whilst rulers of Shu were called lord and rulers of Wu only by their names. This is to uphold the legitimacy of Jin as inheritor of the Mandate of Heaven from Wei.

The romantic and historical traditions of Three Kingdoms have been so confused in the centuries after the period that the Sanguo Zhi is an invaluable resource. Its information, although full of errors itself, is nevertheless much more accurate than the embellishments of later writers. Many of the political, economic and military figures of the Three Kingdoms are included in the work as well as those who contributed to the fields of culture, arts and science. The amount of creative imagination used in ancient Chinese historical narratives - of 'fictionalising', is impossible to estimate precisely; but it is obviously considerable.