Three Kingdoms about Liu Guanzhang's "Taoyuan Three Knots"?

In folklore and scripts, Liu Guan and Zhang Zeng "Taoyuan Three Knots"

Although people regard it as an example of righteous knot Jin Lan, the truth of history is that the three did not tie the knot. The three-person rebellion was actually made up by the author of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" according to folklore and the content of the plot of the novel.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms:

When Liu Bei gathered his disciples in the township, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei had already joined his disciples. Liu Beihou was the plain minister, and Guan and Zhang "slept in the same bed, Enruo brothers." And the dense people sit widely, stand all day long, follow the ancestors, and do not avoid hardships and dangers." Guan Yu also said: "I am favored by General Liu and swear to die together." ”

When Zhang Fei was young, he served Liu Bei with Guan Yu, "Yu is a few years older, and Brother Fei is in charge." Among them, it was only mentioned that Zhang Fei treated Guan Yu as a brother, and Liu Bei was not mentioned. And treating someone older than you as an older brother and calling someone "brother" does not necessarily mean worshipping a brother.

After Guan Yu carelessly lost Jingzhou and was killed by the Eastern Wu people, Cao Pi, Emperor Wen of Wei, asked the ministers Liu Bei if he would send troops to attack Wu and avenge Guan Yu. Liu Ye described their personal relationship as "Enyu father and son", and did not even use the word "brother".

In the romance:

In the first year of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty (184), the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out, and Liu Bei was "twenty-eight years old" at that time. Subsequently, he met Zhang Fei and Guan Yu on the same day, and they both had the intention of seeing each other late, so the next day, the three of them held the popular "Taoyuan Righteousness".

And among the Three Kingdoms:

Liu Bei was "twenty-eight years old" at the time, which seems to be wrong. Liu Bei died in the summer and April of the third year of Zhang Wu (223), "at the age of sixty-three". Since the ancients calculated the age as a virtual age, according to this backwards, Liu Bei should have been born in 161. Then, in the first year of Zhongping, he should be less than twenty-five years old.

Look at Guan Yu again. Historical records record that Guan Yu's birth year is unknown, and he died in the twenty-fourth year of Jian'an (219). After research, Hu Qi, a scholar of the Yuan Dynasty, believes that Guan Yu was born in 159, two years older than Liu Bei.

During the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, when someone was digging a well in Guan Yu's hometown of Jiezhou (Yuncheng, Shanxi), he dug up the tombstone of Guan Yu's ancestral tomb, which was engraved with Guan Yu's family history. At that time, an official named Zhu Dan wrote a "Tombstone of Guan Houzu", in which Guan Yu was born in the third year of Yanxi of the Han Dynasty (160). According to this statement, Guan Yu is also one year older than Liu Bei.

Zhang Fei's age is relatively easy to define. According to the "Annals of Guan Gong", Zhang Fei was four years younger than Liu Bei.

Based on the above information, it can be concluded that among the three Liu Guanzhang, Guan Yu is the longest, Liu Bei is the second, and Zhang Fei is the smallest.

Because the "Taoyuan Rebellion" not only does not have much historical basis, but also has loopholes, it cannot be fully trusted. The reason why there is a legend of Taoyuan righteousness in the folk may be the imagination and attachment of the "Enruo brothers" in the history books. As for folklore and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Liu Bei is called the eldest brother, because Liu Bei is the king and Guan Zhang is the minister, and from the administrative level, Liu is always greater than Guan and Zhang.

The evolution of the "Taoyuan Alliance" through the ages

The "Taoyuan Rebellion" in the romance is made up by the author according to folklore and the needs of the plot content of the novel. Before the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was written, the story of Liu, Guan, and Zhang Taoyuan's rebellion had been circulated among the people for a long time.

Formed during the Song and Yuan dynasties

At the latest in the Song Dynasty, the folk began to circulate the story of "Taoyuan Three Knots", and at the end of the Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, Hejing had "at the beginning of the Song Dynasty, Wang (Guan Yu) and the general of the chariot cavalry Fei (Zhang Fei) and Zhaolie (Liu Bei) were friends, and they were about brothers". By the Yuan Dynasty, the story became more and more complete, and different versions appeared. Here are two representative versions.

The story is described in the Yuan miscellaneous drama "Liu Guan Zhang Taoyuan Three Knots" as follows:

Yin Zang of Puzhou Prefecture wants to be self-reliant, and asks Guan Yu to be handsome. Guan Yu killed the man and then fled to Fanyang, Zhuozhou. At this time, Zhang Fei was opening a local butcher shop. On this day, Zhang Fei went out and deliberately pressed a knife with a thousand catties of boulders in front of the store, telling the guy that if someone could take out the knife from under the boulder, he would give him the meat without taking a penny, and let the guy remember where he lived. Soon, Guan Yu passed by this shop, heard about it, easily moved the boulder, took out the knife from under the stone, but refused to ask for meat. After Zhang Fei returned to the store, he learned the news, and went to visit the inn where Guan Yu was staying, and worshiped Guan Yu as his brother. The two later met Liu Bei, and when they saw Liu Bei's extraordinary appearance, they invited him to drink together. Liu Bei was drunk and lay down, only to see a red chain snake into Liu Bei's seven orifices, Guan Yu felt that "this person's blessing will be expensive in the future", so he worshiped Liu Bei as his brother. The three of them slaughtered cattle and horses in the peach orchard outside the city, sacrificed to heaven and earth, and vowed to "not seek the same day to live, but only to die on the same day".

The "Taoyuan Three Knots" in the Yuan Dynasty's "Tales of the Three Kingdoms" is more realistically described:

Guan Yu is a good person in Puzhou, Pingyang, born with eyebrows and phoenix eyes, beard, face like purple jade, nine feet two inches long, like to watch "Spring and Autumn" and "Zuo Chuan", every time he sees a chaotic minister and thief, he is angry. Later, because the county officials were greedy for money and bribes, and brutalized Li Min, Guan Yu killed the county commander in a fit of anger, and then fled for his life and ran to Zhuo County.

There is a local in Zhuo County, surnamed Zhang Mingfei, who is more than nine feet long, and his voice is like a giant bell, and he is a wealthy local family. On this day, he was standing in front of his house, just as Guan Gong walked by. Zhang Fei saw that this man was born with an unusual appearance, so he greeted him with a salute. Guan Gong told Zhang Fei about himself, and after listening to Guan Gong's words, Zhang Fei felt that Guan Gong had the ambition of a husband, so he invited him to the hotel to talk about it. The two enjoyed each other and spoke like old friends.

At this time, it happened that Liu Bei was selling straw sandals on the street, and after selling them, he also came to the hotel to buy wine and eat. Guan and Zhang saw that Liu Bei was born in an unusual appearance, and they had indescribable blessings. So, Guan Gong toasted Liu Bei with a glass of wine, and Liu Bei was not polite and drank it all. After chatting a few words, the three of them simply sat down at a table. After drinking for a while, Zhang Fei said that it was inconvenient to talk here, and asked Liu and Guan to go to his home for a while. In the peach orchard of Zhang Fei's house, the three of them set up wine and drank freely in the pavilion. During the banquet, the three of them were in their own order: Liu Bei was the longest, Guan Gong was second, and Zhang Fei was the youngest. So, the three of them became brothers, the eldest one was the elder brother, and the younger one was the younger brother, and they slaughtered the white horse to sacrifice to the sky, and killed the black ox to sacrifice to the earth. Don't ask to be born on the same day, only want to die on the same day, the three of them sit and sleep together, and swear to be brothers.

"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" reached its peak

There is no doubt that it was "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" that carried forward the story of Taoyuan's rebellion and pushed it to the highest peak of morality. Time entered the Ming Dynasty, the story of Taoyuan Yiyi has been circulated among the people for a long time, and there are many versions. Luo Guanzhong removed the coarse and refined "knotting stories" of the past dynasties, deleted some absurd elements, and wrote a classic version of "Taoyuan Three Knots". In "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Liu, Guan, and Zhang became brothers under the premise that they wanted to join the army and break the thieves, protect the country and the people, and jointly carry out major events. In this way, the idea of the story is higher than that of other versions, and the friendship is also elevated. In addition, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" itself is a great work, and its background is real, therefore, "Taoyuan Righteousness" is also more convincing.

Why do people talk about it?

In the official history dominated by "Three Kingdoms", Cao Cao is actually a heroic figure with great talent. Liu, Guan, Zhang, Zhuge Liang, etc., led by Liu Bei, were not the embodiment of justice and loyalty, but only one of the three regimes at that time. But in the following dynasties, the images of the two sides were dramatically reversed, Cao Cao gradually became a traitor, Liu Bei became the embodiment of justice, especially Guan Yu and Zhuge Liang were gradually deified, and were given the status of the same level or even higher than the emperor. Until today, there are thousands of Guandi temples in various parts of our country, more than Confucius Temple. This dramatic reversal occurred mainly during the Tang and Song dynasties, with the Southern Song period being the main turning point.

At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, after experiencing the "shame of Jingkang", the Northern Song Dynasty regime was destroyed by the Jin soldiers, and its remnants were unable to resist the war. At that time, the people of the Southern Song Dynasty hated the Jin people who occupied the north. In the Three Kingdoms era, Cao Cao's Wei State occupied the north, and Shu and Wu States occupied the south, so during the Southern Song Dynasty, whenever the story of the Three Kingdoms was mentioned, Cao Cao became people's imaginary enemy. Both the incompetent government and the innocent people unanimously transferred their hatred of the Jin people to Cao Cao. Therefore, people will further elevate the righteous image of Liu, Guan, and Zhang.

In addition, Chinese have always admired loyalty and moral thinking, and the stories of Liu, Guan and Zhang just meet this psychological need. In addition, Liu Bei has always been regarded as an orthodox Han clan in Chinese history, and Cao Cao is regarded as a traitor who usurps power, so people are also willing to let Liu Bei have two brothers who are strong in martial arts and brave and loyal. And "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" obviously supports Liu Bei and belittles Cao Cao.

Knowing this historical background, it is not surprising that Liu, Guan, and Zhang Jieyi appear in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".