Sangokushi is a Japanese historical manga series written and illustrated by Mitsuteru Yokoyama.

The manga series was serialized in Comic Tom from 1971 to 1987. Its chapters were compiled and collected into 60 separate volumes. This series is based on Eiji Yoshikawa’s retelling of the 14th century Chinese classic ‘Romance of the three kingdoms’. The manga has over 80 million copies in circulation, worldwide. Mitsuteru even won the 1991 Japanese Cartoonist Association Award for Excellence.

An anime television adaptation of the manga was released in 1991, with the 47-episode series adapted by Enoki Films and Dai Nippon Printing.

The story begins with a young guy named Liu Bei, sitting on the brink of a cliff, gazing out at the river. Some passing villagers try to warn him that the gang members of the yellow scarves have lately started showing up in the region and that it isn’t safe here, but Liu says it's alright because looking at the river calms him down.

As the villagers continue on their way, Liu thanks them for the warning. After a while, a pair of soldiers approach Liu and inquire as to why he has been sitting there. Liu explains that he is waiting for a merchant ship to come so that he can buy tea leaves for his elderly mother. The soldiers feel touched by his story and leave him be.

Liu notices the ship and hurries to the harbor. The ship's merchants are selling rare goods from the city, and there is already a large crowd gathered around them. Liu requests to meet with the captain and informs him that he wishes to purchase tea leaves for his elderly mother.

He presents the captain with a bag of silver coins, which he saved up over the year. According to the captain, it isn’t enough to get more than a tiny pot of tea leaves. Liu expresses gratitude for the transaction and departs with his tea leaves.

On his walk back to the hamlet, he notices a star in the sky, which foreshadows the arrival of chaos.

He walks to a nearby inn and requests for a room, but it is already full due to the merchant ship's visit. Liu accepts a tiny room as he is only staying for one night.

As Liu lays down and is almost asleep, the Inn keeper barges in and informs him that the Yellow Scarves, a group of rebels, have assaulted the village in order to steel the merchant’s goods.

When Liu looks outside, he witnesses the yellow scarves spreading havoc in the village. They have set the entire area ablaze, and are mercilessly slaughtering innocent men and children. Liu reaches for his sword, but the innkeeper stops him and tells him to flee. Liu flees to the top of a hill, where he is intercepted by two Yellow Scarves.

The senior Yellow Scarf stops Liu from unsheathing his blade. He makes a deal with Liu that if he carries their luggage, they’ll let him live. They give Liu all of their baggage to carry and set towards the town.

They arrive at a temple and decide to walk inside to get some food, but all they find is an elderly Priest.

The priest tells them that there is no food here and that the Yellow Scarves have already taken everything away. The water well was also poisoned and the pond was filled with the bodies of innocent villagers. The two gang members are put off by this sight and decide to leave the temple.

As they start walk away, the old priest at the temple stops and looks at Liu in awe. He reveals to Liu that he is the chosen one and that he has royal blood coursing through his veins. Liu claims that it can’t be possible because he comes from a peddler's family. When the elderly man looks at Liu's sword, he instantly recognizes it to be a sword belonging to royalty.

The two Yellow Scarves interrupt their chat short as they take Liu away with them. As they leave, the old man tells Liu to remember his words. The senior member of the gang approaches Liu and invites him to join their gang, but Liu stares off in the distance.

He tries to persuade Liu by telling him the origin story of the Yellow Scarves.

He tells Liu that he is mistaken about the Yellow Scarves rebellion. He narrates the account of their leader, Zhang Jiao, who was well-known in his community as a genius.

One day, Zhang was given three scrolls holding the book “The Classic of Great Peace” by a strange sage.

Zhang was ordered by the sage to steer the world away from turmoil and towards harmony. The news of the incident went around the hamlet, but Zhang sealed his doors and remained inside all day. He sat within for months, perusing the scrolls. Out of the blue, the community was hit by an epidemic one year.

Zhang unlocked his mansion's doors and delivered the residents a mystical medicine that instantaneously cured them. The news quickly spread, and people from all over the country began to come to Zhang, hoping that he would be their saviour. His followers immediately grew in numbers, and in an attempt to imitate their leader, they tied yellow scarves over their heads.

People soon began referring to them as the Yellow Scarves. Their numbers rose to rival those of the country's military. That is how the uprising began. The Yellow Scarves determined that the Han Dynasty could no longer bring them joy. They waged war, but because the emperor was just a kid, he did not send any reinforcements against the rebellion.

Citizens became increasingly concerned as the situation worsened.

And on one ominous day, a snake appeared in the palace. The guards quickly dispatched the snake, but storm clouds suddenly darkened the skies, and it rained incessantly for three days. The streets of Luoyang were inundated. The flood killed thousands of people.

In these troubling times, the people thought that following the Yellow Scarves was simply the way of the Heavens, as more and more people joined them.

In no time, their influence grew across the provinces as they destroyed anything in their path. And that is how the Yellow Scarves came to be feared across nations.

The senior Yellow Scarf now asks Liu which side he would like to join.

What will Liu do now? Which side will he choose?