introduction
Guan Yu was a famous general in the Shu Han camp during the Three Kingdoms period, and the Ming Dynasty scholar Li Zhen praised his martial arts in the poem "GuanZhu Guan Sheng Ti Dao Prancing Horse Statue": "Actually surrounding the white horse, I want to cut off Yan Liang." It is not expected that a thousand people will have to see the king of Guan. "Guan Yu is not only able to fight good battles, but also has unparalleled loyalty and righteousness, so he is respected by posterity as a martial saint."
When it comes to the famous generals of the Three Kingdoms, guan Yu is generally not circumvented. Through the praise of the emperors of successive dynasties, Guan Yu was repeatedly crowned until he was listed as a martial saint alongside the Wen sage Confucius. With official respect and publicity, the folk will be Guan Yu mythology, the legend of Guan Yu is spread everywhere, and the people worship him. Everyone can see from many Hong Kong films that whether it is a black road or a white road, the worship is the same god statue - The statue of Guan Gong. If you want to conclude a golden orchid, then you must also worship Guan Gong, in addition, even if you open a shop to do business, most of them have to invite back a martial god of wealth. Stories about him scraping bones to cure poison, reading Spring and Autumn at night, and flooding the Seventh Army are already familiar folk talk in China.
▲Guan Yu stills
01
However, Guan Yu's birth and family lineage are recorded in many classic documents, but most of them are not recorded. In the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, only a few contents are explained: Guan Yu's character Yunchang, his original character is Changsheng, was born in Xie County, Hedong, he had two sons Guan Xing and Guan Ping, Guan Ping and Guan Yu were killed by Sun Quan in Jingzhou together. Another son, Guan Xing, did not live long and died at a very young age.
However, Guan Xing had a concubine named Guan Tong, and since Guan Tong had no descendants, after his death, Guan Xing's son Guan Yi inherited Guan Yu's title. However, the entire Guan family did not last long, and after Pang Hui and Deng Ai entered Shu, the Guan family was completely destroyed.
▲Stills of Guan Yu and Guan Ping
However, in these records, there is no information on Guan Yu's date of birth and his father's and grandparents' generation, so there are still many mysteries in Guan Yu' body, and most of his related deeds are derived from renditions and folklore. Including the folk sacrifice according to the date of May 13 as Guan Yu's birthday, there is no conclusive evidence. However, during the Kangxi Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, when the people of Xiezhou repaired an ancient well in the local area, they excavated a stone stele and solved these mysteries according to the records on the stele.
02
On this stone tablet, not only is the basic information about Yu's grandfather and father engraved, but also Guan Yu's family situation is mentioned. At that time, the local official Zhu Dan specially wrote the "Record of guanhou stele" according to the content on this stone stele. According to the records on the stone tablets, Guan Yu's grandfather was born in the second year of the Han Dynasty (90 AD) and was named Guan Zhen (關審), the character Qingzhi. He was a literate reader, and when his children were young, he often taught them to read "Yi" and "Spring and Autumn".
▲Restoration of the scene of the ancient private school
And Guan Yu's father's name is Guan Yi, and the character is far away. Guan Yi was a great filial piety, and after his death, he built a shack next to his father's grave to guard filial piety for three years. Guan Yi's son, Guan Yu, was born on June 24, the third year of Emperor Huan's reign (160 AD). After Guan Yu grew up, he married Hu Shi at about the age of sixteen or seventeen.
On May 13 of the first year of the Reign of Emperor Guanghe (178 CE), when Guan Yu was 18 years old, his wife gave birth to a son, Guan Ping. Experts said that from these materials, some information about Guan Yu's life can be clearly known. Some of this information is very different from the life of Guan Yu that has been circulating in the folk for more than two thousand years.
▲Statue of Guan Yu
03
First, unlike the romance novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Guan Ping was not adopted by Guan Yu, but his biological son. In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Guan Ping's lineage is explained as the son of an old farmer Guan Ding, because Guan Ping was strong in martial arts, so he was adopted by Guan Yu as a righteous son, and only then did he follow Guan Yu around in the battle. But in fact, Guan Ping was guan yu's eldest son, and Guan Yu's wife was a woman with the surname Hu.
Second, Guan Yu's birthday was confirmed. For a long time, people have taken the thirteenth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar as Guan Yu's birthday, and people from many places will go to the Guandi Temple in various places on this day to worship. Although the sayings and customs vary from place to place, some places also hold temple fairs. Some places have: if this day is cloudy, then it is the legend of Guan Yu sharpening the knife. But in general, it is generally believed that Guan Yu's birthday is the thirteenth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, but according to the excavated tombstone records, Guan Yu's birthday should be June 24, and May 13 is actually Guan Ping's birthday.
▲Stills of Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei
Third, in Yanyi and many folklore, Liu Guanzhang's three brothers were married to Liu Bei as the eldest brother, so often Guan Yu was also known as Guan Er Brother. However, according to Guan Yu's date of birth, he was actually one year older than Liu Bei. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms records: "The first lord slept with the two people and slept in the same bed, and enruo brothers." However, there is no mention of the three people once worshipping, so taoyuan yuyi is likely to be just a fictional plot in the novel.
epilogue
The depth of Guan Yu's influence on future generations can only be seen from everyone's investigation of his origins. The image of Guan Yu's long beard, red face, cross-eyebrows and angry eyes, and holding a green dragon crescent knife is also deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. At the cultural and spiritual level, the spirit of loyalty and righteousness represented by Guan Yu has also influenced the concept of dealing with the world in many Chinese. In short, the image of Guan Yu can be said to be one of the symbols of Chinese culture.
Resources:
"Statue of the Prancing Horse of guan sheng ti knife"
Romance of the Three Kingdoms