Three Kingdoms is a Chinese television series based on the events in the late Eastern Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period. The plot is based on Luo Guanzhong’s classical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms, and other related stories. Directed by Gao Xixi, the series had a budget of over 180 million yuan and was released in China in May 2010. The series was well received both domestically and internationally, earning an estimated 800 million yuan in total as of May 2012.