嘉靖本《三國志通俗演義》展現出令人嘆服的藝術表現力，作者不僅熟諳閱讀心理，更具有療癒讀者因某些故事情節而感到失落的寫作本領。劉、關、張三兄弟對讀者而言，實有缺一不可之重要性，然而作者基於歷史演義小說必須尊重歷史結局的前提之下，卻又不得不依據事實，使之相繼離世，也就難以避免造成讀者的失落感。難能可貴的是，作者猶能巧妙運用各種文學手法，逆勢撫平讀者因劉備、關羽、張飛接連驟逝而產生的巨大失落感，或藉由人物形象的創造及各種虛構事件的活用；或透過敘事的大架構，經由時間的淡化，場景的轉移，故事情節的設計等等，適足以讓讀者在失落之餘仍樂觀其後。藉由本文的討論，希望能夠揭示《演義》此一部分隱而未顯的小說美學。

The author of Romance of the Three Kingdoms racked his brain to make the stories following the death of Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, and the endeavor was similar to the one he made to arrange a series of closely-related and twisting stories before and after the death of Zhuge Liang. The author’s efforts to relieve the pain of the subsequent death of the three main characters in the book can be found in the fictitious life stories of Guan Xing and Zhang Bao and in the comparison between the two roles and Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, which were taken as the literary compensation for the death of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. In terms of the narrative architecture of the novel, such chapters as Zhuge Liang’s Southward Expedition and Seven Captures of Meng Huo distract readers from the battlefield in central China to seek a temporary ceasefire among the three kingdoms, shift the attention away from the death of Liu Bei, and relieve the pain of readers caused by the sudden death of Liu, Guan and Zhang. It is obvious that the author of Romance of the Three Kingdoms was deeply aware of the minute change in the psychological status of readers and had the writing skills to comfort readers.