In 220 AD, Lü Meng secretly attacked Jingzhou, and Guan Yu was defeated and retreated to Maicheng. Reinforcements did not arrive, Guan Yu had to choose to break through, and on the way from Maicheng to Yizhou, he was ambushed by the Eastern Wu general Ma Zhong, and the brilliant life of a generation of famous generals Guan Yu fell. As a famous general of the Three Kingdoms, Guan Yu has a lofty personal image in the folk. Some people believe that Guan Yu is the embodiment of loyalty and benevolence, and the Buddha and Taoism also have great respect for Guan Yu. Folk call Guan Yu "Martial Saint", juxtaposed with "Wen Sheng" Confucius. Guan Yu was even known as "Guan Di" and "Guan Di Jun", which was directly mythologized. However, how did Guan Yu, as a "human", become a "god"? This is closely related to an inscription from the Tang Dynasty.
With the development of folk interpretation, Guan Yu's image has been greatly different from the real image in history. According to the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Shu Shu, Guan Zhang Ma Huang Zhao Biography Vi:
Guan Yu character cloud long, the original word changsheng, Hedong Xie people also. The first lord was in the township to join the disciples, and Yu and Zhang Fei were insulted... The Lord slept with the two of them in the same bed, enjo brothers.
Chen Shou, the author of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, was born in the Shu Han Dynasty and finally entered the Western Jin Dynasty, and this description of Guan Yu is more in line with history. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei first followed Liu Bei and Liu Bei Enruo brothers. In fact, they are just "if" brothers, and there is no real righteousness. Guan Yu was able to fight well, had outstanding military ability, and was a fierce general under Liu Bei. But folk literature also has some misreadings of Guan Yu, such as:
The "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" only records Guan Yu's beheading of Yan Liang, but does not record Guan Yu's "Ugly Writings", "Cutting Six Generals Through Five Levels", "Going to the Meeting with a Single Knife", etc., these are the fabrications of Guan Yu's deeds by folk interpretations.
Chen Shou's evaluation of Guan Yu was also very fair, first of all, affirming the ability, saying that "Guan Yu is brave and righteous, the enemy of ten thousand people, and the tiger of the world." However, Guan Yu's shortcomings are also very obvious: "Yu Is humble and angry, and he is a man." There has been great achievement, and it is meant to be proud and ambitious." It can be seen from here that during the Three Kingdoms period, although Guan Yu was brave and fierce, he was also arrogant, and this personality trait directly led to his defeat of Maicheng.
During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the image of Guan Yu was consistent with history, but in the late Southern and Northern Dynasties, Buddhism developed rapidly, when there were many temples, and there was a "Shouting Hou Temple" in Jingzhou, and the people had the custom of sacrificing Guan Yu. In the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Wen of Sui believed in Buddhism, and in the ninth year of the reign of emperor, the Sui Dynasty wanted to establish the Quan Temple, and Emperor Wen of Sui ordered that the stone statues enshrined in many temples be "invited" to the same large temple, so the statue of Guan Yu was moved to the Guoquan Temple, and Guan Yu was therefore linked to the Buddhist Temple.
In the eighteenth year of the Tang Dynasty, Du Fu's friend and poet Dong Li wrote an inscription called "Jingnan Jiedu Made Jiangling Yin Pei Gong Rebuild the Yuquan GuanMiao Temple", according to this article:
Three hundred steps northwest of the temple, there are Shu generals who are all governors of Jingzhou and the temple of public relics. The general's surname is Guan, the name yu, the Hedong Xieliang people... The Zen master went to the rooftop, feasted under the trees, and suddenly met the gods at night, and the cloud said: "May this place be a monk's workshop, and ask the teacher to come out of the mountain to see its use." 'On the eve of the finger, the ten thousand valleys vibrate, and the wind trumpets thunder...
The gist of this inscription is: After Guan Yu died, because the killing karma was too heavy, his soul fell into the ghost path. Rescued by a monk named Pu Jing. Later, in order to be grateful to Pujing, Liu Bei specially built a Pujing Nunnery for Pujing on the Yuquan Temple, which later became Guan Yu's posthumous temple, but he did not expect that Guan Yu often "appeared" in this Pujing Nunnery, and Dong Li also claimed to have witnessed Guan Yu's apparitions.
First of all, the inscription is real, but the story in the inscription is fictional, and it records many superstitious ideas such as ghosts and monsters. Secondly, by the time of Emperor Dezong of Tang, the Tang Dynasty was no longer prosperous, the people were displaced, and there was a lack of spiritual sustenance, Dong Li introduced Guan Yu's "apparition" at this time, and the people flocked to it, and the worship of Guan Yu was born. Statues of Guan Yu are enshrined in Buddhist temples, and there is a saying that there is a "Garan Bodhisattva" in Buddhism.
In the Song Dynasty, Taoism also began to worship Guan Yu, and Taoism called Guan Yu "Emperor Xietian" and "Yihan Tianzun". Because Emperor Huizong of Song believed in Taoism, Guan Yu's image in Taoism was greatly improved during the reign of Emperor Huizong of Song. Emperor Huizong of Song posthumously awarded Guan Yu the title of "Duke of Zhonghui", "True Prince of Chongning", and "King of Wu'an" five times.
Guan Yu, as a famous general in the Shu Han Dynasty, was greatly shocked because of an inscription by the Tang Dynasty poet Dong Jun that "Guan Yu Xianling" was written. Guan Yu has been successively believed by Buddha, Tao, the imperial court, and the people, and has changed from a mortal to a "god" of "loyalty, courage, benevolence, and righteousness", and is known as a "martial saint". Some scholars said that the reason why Guan Yu's image can be "mythologized" is that this inscription is indispensable.
The author believes that the image of Guan Gong's "martial saint" has been the embodiment of folk "loyalty" for many years, and has played a positive role in promoting traditional indoctrination such as "benevolence, righteousness, wisdom and faith" among the people, and should be affirmed. But while people admire Guan Yu and worship Guan Yu, they also know the difference between the real Guan Yu and history because of the wind. There can be totems, but there must also be historical cognition.