The strengths and weaknesses of Guan Yu's personality
Influenced by the concept of "Yang Liu suppressing Cao", Luo Guanzhong portrayed Guan Yu as an ideal figure, and he carefully portrayed the ideal personality of traditional Chinese thought, such as benevolence, righteousness, etiquette, wisdom, faith, loyalty, courage, and elegance. Guan Yu is an artistic image that the people like to see, and as soon as he appears, the author prominently depicts his external heroic image. Throughout his life, he made great contributions to Liu Bei, killing 18 soldiers and killing countless enemies. And he was sentient and righteous, and was mythologized as a martial saint by later generations.
However, people are not perfect, and there are many mistakes made by Wu ShengGuan Yu in his life: First, he surrendered to Xia Pi. The great husband of the loyal and righteous god wu, the "righteousness" of righteousness that is more important than life, is it said that it will fall? The second is the Three Covenants of Tushan. Descend it, and then come a "three covenants", "descend han does not lower Cao". Third, Xu did not surrender Cao. Cao Cao's great favor was both received and not received, and his attitude was ambiguous; the old robe was covered with a new robe, and then he gave the red rabbit. Why didn't Cao cao repay Cao immediately, and cut off the good and ugly? The fourth is the interpretation of Huarong. Great injustice and disloyalty, release of the culprit, endanger the world. Fifth, there is no comrade-in-arms. Meng Qi competed in martial arts and was inseparable; Huang Zhong was an old pawn and did not accompany him. The sixth is to disregard the righteousness of the alliance and eventually let himself perish.
It is precisely this flawed Guan Yu that is more real under the shaping of literature. Literature has its own internal development law, and it is not transferred by the writer's will and concepts. When the writer subjectively imagines, the laws of life and the logic of character development will come out against the writer's imagination. The environment changes and develops, Guan Yu's arrogance and arrogance, self-sufficiency and self-use are gradually strengthened, and eventually lead to the tragic end of self-isolation and disregard for the overall situation. Guan Yu's personality contradictions are not defects, but precisely the success of his character image shaping. People who have flaws and make mistakes are the real people. These shortcomings enrich and develop Guan Yu's personality, and the heroes with shortcomings are cute, making Guan Yu more in line with the reality of life.
Guan Yu's righteousness
Huarong Dao is a moral paradox situation that is difficult for people to understand for a while. If Cao Cao's little trick of making Guan Yu move can be regarded as "grace and righteousness", as Guan Yu said: "Repay it with retribution." How dare we abolish public affairs in today's affairs? "Then killing Cao Cao is righteousness, and letting Cao Cao go is unrighteous, and does not constitute a moral paradox." In fact, if you study the text carefully, you will find the mystery of the paradox. Cao Cao moved Guan Yu not by beauty, titles, and horses, but by the grace of knowing. It is no one else who truly appreciates himself and achieves himself, but Cao Cao.
Wenjiu beheaded Huaxiong, Jieyan Liangwen ugly, cut six generals through five levels, and rode alone for a thousand miles created the myth of Guan Yu Shenwu; Tushan Sanyue, night reading "Spring and Autumn", gold and silver beauties, golden robes and red rabbits, and hanging seals and seals made their own loyalty myths; from tramps to partial generals, to Hanshouting Marquis laid their own aristocratic status. The soldier died for the confidant, so Guan Yu killed Cao Cao unjustly. One or the other. Second, there are still more than 300 innocent lives of the "soulless and frightened", and killing those who have no power to fight back is not the work of the big husband, and taking advantage of the danger of people is not righteous. Of course, it is not justified. Third, Guan Yu is a person with a mountain of righteousness, and what makes Guan Yu move is Cao Cao's sentence that "the big husband values faith and righteousness." This sentence plunged him again into the paradoxical choice between loyalty and righteousness.
It can be seen from the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" that when people take righteousness as the foundation of their lives, they can be disloyal and must not be unrighteous. For example, "adultery" is unfaithful but righteous, and even "righteous renunciation" must be repaid with death. On the contrary, the "three surnames of xiao'er" killed Dong Zhuo and supported the Han room, and they were absolutely loyal subjects, but they were not accepted by the world. In particular, Liu Beiquan did not remember lü Bu's merits to the Han Chamber Sheji and the Yuanmen Shooting To break the siege, and vigorously advised him to kill him, which was a lesson from the past. Guan Yu, who was well aware of the great righteousness of the Spring and Autumn Period, naturally knew that after Cao Cao's death, the newly unified north would once again fall into a scuffle, and the lives of the people would be ruined. Killing Cao Cao is unjust.
Although it is unjust to kill Cao Cao, it is even more disloyal and unjust not to kill Cao Cao. Therefore, the Huarong Dao encounter is a more complex moral paradox situation in which multiple contradictions intertwine. Guan Yu made the wrong choice - "fighting to pay his confidant with one death", betraying his brothers, betraying Shu Han, betraying the Han dynasty, and betraying himself, contrary to "righteous absoluteness", and also achieving "righteous absolute".
Guan Yu beheaded and regretted the loss of Jingzhou
The Tiger Girl Dog Incident, Guan Yu's beheading of Wu Guohe and his relatives, became a hidden danger in various subsequent events. Presumably, this emissary must be the person Guan Yu regretted killing the most. Guan Yu's moral paradoxes caused him to undermine the interests of the greater alliance in order to preserve the brotherhood' righteousness. I guard Jingzhou and look at the portal for my brothers, how can I use my power to seek the selfish interests of my children? At least this suspicion, I can't tell! Coupled with the palpitations in his heart, he surrendered to Cao Aqi for righteousness, and almost became a ghost under the spear of the third brother! As a result, the repetition of the same mistakes as Cao Cao led to serious political mistakes and undermined the basic national policy of "uniting with Wu to resist Cao Cao". The careless loss of Jingzhou became an inflection point for the Shu Han Dynasty to fall.
Guan Yu's contradictory personality is not only the product of moral paradoxes, but also a reflection of the realistic ethical relationship between truth and falsehood, good and evil, and beauty and ugliness.