Hey so I'm wondering what would be the best material or something of value to know more about the Three Kingdoms of 14th-Century China. After Total War Three Kingdoms came out, and replaying my guilty pleasure Dynasty Warriors 4, I realize I don't have firm understanding of ancient Chinese history. I just want to try to have a better understanding of that time period.
I would suggest you read (assuming your an English speaker) the book itself! There are many translations available, the one I read was the translation by Robert Moss. Also there is the actual historical text that the novel was based on, Records of the Three Kingdoms by Chen Shou, for that I would recommend checking out any university libraries in your area.
And also I'll ping /u/cthulhushrugged for a better answer.
There are primary sources on the Three Kingdoms... literary Chinese is a must-know since as far as I can tell, very few documents from the Han and the 3 Kingdoms have been extensively translated into English. Secondary sources are much more accessible. I strongly recommend the Cambridge History of China, Vol. 2 which spans 220 AD to 589 AD for a baseline of understanding. You could also look into finding an English translation of the Official Histories (San Guo Zhi for the 3 kingdoms)... but again, as far as I know those don’t exist and only abridged or heavily edited versions of them are available. Some are currently in the works, but god knows how long those will take. If you have access to specialist resources, then maybe you could get some usage out of them. If all else fails, just read Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a 14th century novel that draws upon the official history and which has been translated. Finding source documents from 2,000 year ago is very difficult, so secondary sources will be your friend here. Search library catalogs for bibliographies on books surrounding the “Six Dynasties” era of Chinese history and you should have a good jumping off point from there.