演義

to dramatize historical events / novel or play on historical theme

to develop / to evolve / to practice / to perform / to play / to act

surname Yi / (Tw) abbr. for 義大利|义大利[Yi4 da4 li4], Italy

justice / righteousness / meaning / foster (father etc) / adopted / artificial (tooth, limb etc) / relationship / friendship

Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong 羅貫中|罗贯中[Luo2 Guan4 zhong1], one of the Four Classic Novels of Chinese literature, a fictional account of the Three Kingdoms at the break-up of the Han around 200 AD, portraying Liu Bei's 劉備|刘备[Liu2 Bei4] Shu Han 蜀漢|蜀汉[Shu3 Han4] as heroes and Cao Cao's 曹操[Cao2 Cao1] Wei 魏[Wei4] as villains

Dramatized history of Republican China until 1927 by Cai Dongfan 蔡東藩|蔡东藩, and later chapters by Xu Qinfu 許廑父|许廑父

Dramatized History of Sui and Tang, novel by Qing dynasty author Chu Renhuo 褚人獲|褚人获[Chu3 Ren2 huo4]

Investiture of the Gods, major Ming dynasty vernacular novel of mythology and fantasy, very loosely based on King Wu of Zhou's 周武王[Zhou1 Wu3 wang2] overthrow of the Shang, subsequent material for opera, film, TV series, computer games etc

Dramatized history of successive dynasties (from Han to Republican China) by Cai Dongfan 蔡東藩|蔡东藩