Short answer: No.

Long answer: Red Cliffs was based more on Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a Ming dynasty novel, rather than historical records. And even then the script for Red Cliff took large liberties, especially regarding the female characters, which makes a large percentage of the film fictional.

The only thing that the movie can be given historical credit for is the relative authenticity of the costumes.

Here is a list of major historical inaccuracies:

• Kong Rong did not chastise Cao Cao for starting the battle of Chibi. Instead he had mocked Cao Cao's attack on the Wuhuan tribe (a year earlier) and was put to death for consistent disrespect shown to court (Cao Cao being the premier) not just a single outspoken moment. His family was also sentenced to death.

• The notion that Cao Cao attacked the South due to Liu Bei and Sun Quan is false. Cao Cao wished to conquer Jing province, and its lord at that time (the 7th month of 208 AD) was Liu Biao. When Liu Biao passed away the next month, Cao Cao turned his attack to Liu Cong, Liu Biao's son and successor. Only after Liu Cong surrendered did Cao Cao think of attacking Liu Bei, and possibly following up with an attack on Sun Quan.

• Cao Cao's occupation of Jing province was bloodless Since it was a straightforward surrender by Liu Cong, there hadn’t been any clashes between the two forces. Cao Cao stationed generals at the various cities to keep order, and had Liu Cong enfeoffed as a marquis.

• The purpose of the cavalry attack on Liu Bei at Changban slope was not to destroy Liu Bei. Cao Cao’s aim was to ensure that Liu Bei did not manage to get to the large amount of supplies stored at Jiangling. Therefore the engagement was not an extended bloody battle as depicted, but rather a surprise attack. Cao Cao was successful in forcing Liu Bei to flee to Xiakou, and also managed to gather a large portion of the supplies and refugees that the latter abandoned.

• It was an unnamed soldier who brought up leaving the refugees behind. The reasoning behind it was to quickly get to Jiangling to set up a proper garrison to resist Cao Cao. Liu Bei replied that the support of the people was more essential that a single garrison, so it would not be right to abandon them now.

• Zhao Yun managed to escort both Lady Gan and Liu Shan to safety. And no one was recorded to have committed suicide by jumping into a well.

• Zhang Fei's stand against Cao Cao's troops occurred at Changban bridge. Zhang Fei destroyed the eponymous bridge and then challenged the enemy to cross the river and face him. It was a courageous one man stand, and no reflective shields were used in the process.

• Guan Yu was not present at the battle of Changban at all. He had been tasked with bringing Liu Bei's navy to Jiangling. After Liu Bei lost at Changban, he went on to meet Liu Bei at Hanjin before gathering with the rest of the army at Xiakou.

• Cai Mao and Zhang Yun were never in charge of Cao Cao's navy. Earlier in the year, he had trained his own naval troops at Xuanwu lake, and these were the troops that faced Sun Quan's navy in battle. Naturally, they were not executed during the events of Chibi.

• Liu Bei had never been given the title 'Royal Uncle'. There was no factual proof he was descended from royalty even, since the line he claimed to be descended from had far too many children and grandchildren.

• Zhuge Liang did not debate against the Wu scholars. Instead, it was Zhou Yu's words of confidence (describing how Cao Cao had many variables going against him and how the battle could be won) that gave Sun Quan the basis on which to go to war.

• Sun Quan was never apprehensive about facing Cao Cao. He had made up his mind to battle for Jing province quite a while before. This can be seen from his statements to Lu Su ("the other courtiers disappointed me, but now that you've revealed your intention, I see that it agrees with mine") and Zhou Yu ("It is difficult to gather 50 000 troops, but I already have chosen 30 000 for your use, together with the ships, horses and equipment required ... if circumstances are unfavourable, return to me, and I will personally face off Cao Cao") However, he was faced with a court that were unwilling to fight, and so needed support from Lu Su and Zhou Yu in order to convince the court that the battle was essential. The chopping of the table edge was just for emphasis.

• The goose formation was not meant for infantry. The list of formations traditionally used during ancient China warfare had been recorded in Sun Bin’s Art of War and the goose formation’s use was for archers and crossbow support. I had elaborated on the subject here.

• Chibi was not the location of the Wu base of operations. Sun Quan’s troops met up with Liu Bei at Fankou, from whence Zhou Yu then led the navy upstream. However, the meeting with Cao Cao (who was moving downstream) was unexpected, and the fact that it occurred at Chibi was due to happenstance.

• There was no birth of a horse named Meng Meng. Sun Quan had a couple of horses he favoured, but he named them after ships (Kuai Hang, Jing Fan). Neither Zhou Yu nor Zhuge Liang were noted to have any specific horse. And having grown up among the gentry and scholars throughout his life, it is doubtful if Zhuge Liang knows how to birth a horse (remember, he’s note the all-knowing genius in the novels).

• There was no qin battle between Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang. In fact, there were hardly any interactions between the two at all. Zhou Yu was the general commander for the entire battle, and commanded Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, but would have no reason to speak to Zhuge Liang, who was a mere adviser (not a military strategist) and had no command of troops.

• Cao Cao did not really have that large a naval fleet. Although his scare letter recorded his troops numbering up to 800 000, it was quite apparent (especially from Zhou Yu’s detailed analysis) that he could not have summoned that many soldiers. Taking away those that surrendered (which Cao Cao did not use) and those garrisoned in Jing province itself, he would have had at most 200 000 soldiers. And considering the fact that Cao Cao only started training his naval fleet from early 208 AD, the mass of CGI warships are definitely far too many in number.

• Sun Quan did not fear tigers. In fact, he made a hobby of hunting, and tigers were his favourite prey. Against his courtiers’ advice, he often participated in such hunts, building a special chariot from which to shoot tigers and fighting them bare-handed when they came too close. Such was his expertise that Song dynasty poet Su Shi wrote “to hunt tigers, look to Sun Quan”.

• Lady Sun did not participate in the battle of Red Cliffs. And neither did the younger Lady Qiao. No woman was involved whatsoever.

• Liu Bei did not weave shoes for a living. Although that was his mother’s livelihood which was the family’s source of income, he hardly participated in any of it. During his younger days, he loafed about, choosing to skip school and instead play with dogs and ride horses, dabble in music, and buy good looking clothes. However, his looks was said to foretell prosperity, thus he soon earned himself a sponsor and went about making acquaintances with martial people. When the Yellow Turban Rebellion occurred, he gathered a band of troops to fight against the rebellion, and thus started his military journey.

• Cao Cao did not go to war for Xiao Qiao. It is doubtful that he had even heard of her. In the novel, a poem written by Cao Zhi was quoted by Zhuge Liang as evidence of Cao Cao lusting for the Qiao sisters. However, historically the poem was written years after the battle was completed. The theory that the Qiao sisters’ father knew Cao Cao was also debunked, because the one-time mentor of Cao Cao had a different surname (although also spelled as Qiao in pinyin).

• Cao Cao had friends. The closest to him were definitely Guo Jia and Xiahou Dun, but Cao Cao was known to be popular among many in the court, especially because he was very fair in his punishments and generous in his rewards. He also trusted his generals and advisers implicitly, and though that practice did lead to a few betrayals (most notably Chen Gong), he continued to entrust power to others whenever he needed to get things done.

• The entire battle on land at the end of Part I did not occur. The first engagement between both parties occurred on water. The formation used vaguely resembles the Eight Locked Gates formation, a fictional creation in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but otherwise there is no basis for this battle at all.

• The political marriage between Liu Bei and Lady Sun was arranged later. Although nominally allies, Sun Quan had no intention of tying himself down to Liu Bei yet. Only after the battle of Nanjun and Liu Bei had won over the Southern cities of the Jing province did Sun Quan consider strengthening ties.

(cont'd)

• Cao Cao did not reward people for winning football games. Football was a common form of entertainment and exercise in military camps (Han general Huo Qubing often used it as training for his troops), but Cao Cao was never explicitly stated to have used it with his army, and certainly never rewarded a soldier with higher rank just for performing well in a game.

• Cao Cao never did send corpses across the river to infect the enemy with disease. Although his troops were dying from disease and the inability to acclimatize to the South, Cao Cao never did send boats of dead people to the other bank in hopes of infecting Sun Quan’s soldiers. However, when he was forced to retreat after the fire attack, Cao Cao did order for the dead and the dying to be used to pave the way for the rest of the soldiers to quickly retreat across Huarong path, which had been badly broken up and muddied so much that it was impassable.

• Liu Bei did not set up an elaborate ruse to trick Cao Cao into thinking he had split up with Sun Quan. Liu Bei’s troops were mainly set aside as reinforcements, as well as part of the mission to cut off Cao Cao’s retreat. Therefore they weren’t expected to be at the frontlines at all.

• Cao Cao did not have the upper hand over Sun Quan’s army. Ever since the first engagement, Cao Cao had been on the losing side, with men dying from disease, troops uncomfortable with naval warfare, a lack of proper navy experience and with his best commanders spread out throughout the country (some back in the capital or guarding the borders, others like Cao Ren were stationed in Jing province). Worse still, his time was limited because the battlefront was so far stretched from his capital. Sun Quan, although short on manpower, had ample supplies and could quickly deploy more men if required from the Yang province. But Cao Cao had his supply line stretched out and cannot hope to get quick reinforcements from Xu province, and he still had possible rebellion to worry about. Thus Zhou Yu did not have that much to worry about when the battle got going.

• Jiang Gan did not try to persuade Zhou Yu to defect before the battle. He was only sent to Jiangdong after the battle of Chibi had concluded. And even then, he conducted himself in a very gentlemanly manner. When he saw Zhou Yu could not be persuaded to defect, he just went back to Cao Cao and told him so.

• Zhuge Liang did not obtain arrows from Cao Cao. Sun Quan’s army had ample supplies for battle, including lots of arrows, and had no need to ask Zhuge Liang to procure any. However, there was an incident at Ruxu years later which did involve Cao Cao’s troops shooting arrows at a boat through the mist. The person involved was not Zhuge Liang but Sun Quan himself, and led to Cao Cao praising “if one should have sons, they should be like Sun Zhongmou (Sun Quan’s courtesy name)”.

• There wasn’t any ceremony that involved giving out glutinous rice balls. The dish itself was only invented during the Song dynasty some 800 years later.

• Zhou Yu did not dismiss Huang Gai’s false surrender tactic. In fact, that was the tactic that forced Cao Cao’s retreat. It wasn’t uncommon for people to surrender to Cao Cao (case in point being Liu Cong) and so Cao Cao did not suspect deceit when Huang Gai sent his letter of surrender. However, that turned out to be his downfall as Huang Gai lit up the boats with flames and sent them crashing into Cao Cao’s naval fleet.

• Gan Xing did not use gigantic fire ball explosives to break into Cao Cao’s camp. Gan Xing did not exist. Gan Ning, the Wu general did take part in the battle of Chibi, but was not mentioned to have any special role in the affairs. And fire ball explosives were only invented during the Song dynasty.

• Cao Cao was not caught in a land battle against Sun Quan’s army. Due to his swift escape through Huangrong path, the allied army did not manage to engage Cao Cao in combat, much less threaten his life.

• Zhou Yu and Zhao Yun were not friends. In a statement to Sun Quan, Zhou Yu had mentioned wishing to keep Guan Yu and Zhang Fei as generals working under him (while keeping Liu Bei under house arrest), stating they had good ability as generals. No mention of Zhao Yun was made.

In conclusion: Watch Red Cliff for a fun time, but don't expect to learn anything historical.