Guan Yu also has defects: killing Cao Cao for lust

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Guan Yu risked killing Cao Cao for lust

Before the completion of the romance of the Three Kingdoms, Guan Yu’s image had both virtues and defects

Host: Hello, everyone. When I mentioned Guan Yu, I immediately thought of the formatted Guan Yu in Yuan Kuocheng’s storytelling. I remember that Guan Yu’s standard appearance was: I saw a general flashing under the door flag, lying silkworm eyebrows, Danfeng eyes, five long beards on his chest, a red rabbit horse under his crotch, and a green dragon Yanyue knife in his hand. Mao Zonggang listed Guan Yu as one of the three wonders of the romance of the Three Kingdoms, calling him “the first wonder among the famous generals in ancient and modern times”. Now let’s welcome Mr. Zhang Jun, a professor of Beijing Normal University, to tell us about Guan Yu, a loyal and brave general with boundless righteousness.

The records of the Wei, Jin and six dynasties are relatively objective

Speaker: Guan Yu has received special attention in traditional novels and operas and traditional culture. Especially since the 1980s, Guan Yu’s research has formed an upsurge. Today I’m mainly talking about the image of Guan Yu in the romance of the Three Kingdoms. First of all, I’ll talk about the evolution of Guan Yu’s image before the completion of the romance of the Three Kingdoms.

We know that the romance of the Three Kingdoms is a historical romance novel. Before it is completed, there should be an image of Guan Yu. So what was the image of Guan Yu before? There are probably three stages from the Wei, Jin and Six Dynasties to the Yuan Dynasty: one is that Guan Yu, who appeared in the Wei, Jin, southern and Northern Dynasties at this time, is Guan Yu in the historical biography. The main historical books are the annals of the Three Kingdoms, the annals of the Three Kingdoms, peisongzhi’s notes, and a book called the annals of Huayang, which also has more detailed records. The biography of Guan Yu in the annals of the Three Kingdoms and peisongzhi’s notes add up to more than 2000 words of Guan Yu’s historical biography. In these historical records, a total of 16 stories of Guan Yu are recorded, basically recording the merits and demerits of Guan Yu’s life.

Historically, one recorded his ferocity and courage, and talked about his martial arts. In the biography of Guan Yu, it is said that he and Zhang Fei are “enemies of all men”. For example, in the romance of the Three Kingdoms, it is also mentioned in the biography of Guan Yu that he beheaded Yan Liang and scraped bones to cure poison. This is his first characteristic: courage. Secondly, he wrote about his loyalty, saying that he followed Liu Bei all his life and never changed his heart, so the biography of Guan Yu said that he had “the style of national scholars”, saying that he was the best representative of the country. Thirdly, he wrote his strategy, such as flooding the seven armies in the romance of the Three Kingdoms, which was also mentioned in the biography of Guan Yu. Therefore, the history books wrote his basic virtues of bravery, loyalty and resourcefulness. At the same time, the biography of Guan Yu also writes about Guan Yu’s shortcomings, which are arrogance, conceit and contempt for the enemy. For example, Guan Yu despises Huang Zhong and is unwilling to associate with veterans, which is also mentioned in the annals of the Three Kingdoms. Therefore, the history books not only wrote his virtues, but also his shortcomings. In addition, in peisongzhi’s “notes” and “annals of Huayang”, some disgraceful things about Guan Yu are also written, that is, lust for beauty.

According to relevant records at that time, Guan Yu heard that Qin Yilu’s wife under Lv Bu was very beautiful, so he told Cao Cao whether he could give Qin Yilu’s wife to him after he captured xiapi in the future, and Cao Cao agreed. Later, Guan Yu raised the matter again, and Cao Cao was a little curious: is Qin Yilu’s wife really beautiful? As a result, Cao Cao sent for Qin Yilu’s wife first. After seeing that she was really good-looking, she stayed by herself. Guan Yu was very unhappy. Once, when hunting, Guan Yu wanted to kill Cao Cao, and Liu Bei quickly stopped him. In the romance of the Three Kingdoms, in order to mold Guan Yu into an ideal typical image of a military general, of course, this matter must be removed. However, on the whole, in the historical records of the Wei, Jin and Six Dynasties, the description of Guan Yu is relatively objective, mainly writing about his virtues, but also mentioning his shortcomings.

Guan Yu was a terrorist “evil ghost” and an honest and upright official

The second stage is the Sui and Tang Dynasties. In this era, Guan Yu’s image has some religious consciousness, that is, the color of Buddhism and Taoism. Most of the relevant records are in the steles and relevant notes of the temple. At this time, what kind of image did Guan Yu become? There are mainly two kinds: Guan Yu has become a God and a terrifying “evil ghost” who can dominate the rise and fall of the world, the harvest and famine. Why is that? When there is a disaster in the world, people often move a very powerful ghost to protect themselves. Most of these stories appear in Jingzhou and Hanzhong, which may be related to Guan Yu’s defeat to Maicheng and the worship of Yuquan mountain. This is the second stage.

The third stage is song and Yuan Dynasties. At this time, there appeared a very important book called “the annals of the Three Kingdoms, Pinghua”, and opera. There are a total of 20 fragments of Guan Yu’s story written in the annals of the Three Kingdoms, which have a basic scale and evaluation. Like “drowning seven armies” and “beheading Yan Liang”. Some of them have been transformed, such as killing Caiyang. In fact, Guan Yu did not do this. Another example is the doctor who cures Guan Yu’s bones and poisons. “Annals of the Three Kingdoms in Pinghua” is put on Hua Tuo’s head. In the Zaju of the Yuan Dynasty, there are 178 kinds of plays with Guan Yu as the protagonist. It is quite clear, such as Guan Hanqing’s “single knife club”, which describes Guan Yu’s bravery; Some wrote Guan Yu as an honest official. There was a drama called “cut Guan Ping”, which wrote that Guan Yu’s son, Guan Ping, broke the law, and Guan Yu was awe inspiring and wanted to kill Guan Ping. In a word, by the song and Yuan Dynasties, the image of Guan Yu was basically finalized, which was consistent with the image of Guan Yu in the romance of the Three Kingdoms. This was the general evolution process of Guan Yu’s image before the completion of the romance of the Three Kingdoms.

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