introduction
Bashan Hanshui Benxing Liu, Zhuge Caihua Beizanliu. But guan shi guangwu, northern state Han xin in nanzhou - "Yong Shixia Guan Yu Four Songs"
The Qin Dynasty was extremely important to our country, not only in unifying this land for the first time, but also in unifying the weights and measures of the world. During the Warring States period, almost every country had its own set of measurement systems, which formed a natural closed loop, which was very unfavorable to mutual communication. However, when the new dynasty changes, it often changes in the unit of measurement with the previous dynasty. It is as if now we have three feet equal to one meter, but in ancient times, it was not such a unit of measurement.
1. The length of one foot in the Han Dynasty
In the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" we can see that Guan Yu is nine feet tall, if we use our current unit to convert, then Guan Yu's height must not be three meters? This is clearly unreasonable. Before unearthing a Han ruler, the truth of Guan Yu's height was finally revealed, so do you know how tall Guan Yu is now? In the Shang Dynasty, one foot was about 16.9 centimeters, during the Sui Dynasty, one foot was about 27.3 centimeters, in the Ming Dynasty it reached about 32 centimeters, and in the Qing Dynasty, it was about the same length as it is now.
We can see from the length of the dynasties and dynasties that with the passage of time, the length of the ruler is also increasing. So we use the current length to measure the height of the ancients, which is obviously unrealistic. A Han ruler has been unearthed before, and after measurement, experts learn that in the Han Dynasty, the length of one foot was about 23 centimeters. Later, in the Mancheng Han tomb, a metal ruler with higher accuracy was also excavated, and after measurement, the length of one foot was about 23.2 centimeters. Through these unearthed rulers, it can be roughly inferred that during the Han Dynasty, the length of one foot should be about 23 centimeters.
Second, how tall is Guan Yu?
We can calculate by this length, we can know that Guan Yu's height should be around 2 meters 1. Seeing this height, I think many friends understand why Guan Yu can become a fierce general for thousands of years, imagine it. A person 2 meters 1 tall, wielding a large knife on the battlefield, who can stop it? However, whether this height of Guan Yu is real or not remains to be considered, in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", in addition to Guan Yu being described as "nine feet long", Hua Xiong, Wang Shuang and other fierce generals are also described as "nine feet long". There is only one possibility that the average height of everyone during the Han Dynasty is extremely high, so there will be so many "nine feet long" warriors.
Seeing this, I think many friends will definitely have such a question, is his height really so high? It is also very normal to have such doubts, after all, the height of more than two meters, even now, it is a rare existence. In ancient times, the productive forces were not developed, and the grain that the ancients were able to obtain was far less abundant than we have now. To answer this question, we must start with the development of biology.
If you have carefully studied the development of the animal kingdom, you will find a very interesting phenomenon, in the process of population evolution, the animal body shows a trend of continuous enlargement. For example, today's largest land animal elephant, according to experts, more than 50 million years ago, the archaeopteryx, only the size of a pig. Other animals are no exception, such as us humans, who were able to live more than 2 million years ago, with an average height of only 1 meter 2, while the ape people of hundreds of thousands of years ago were only about 1 meter 5 in height.
3. Guan Yu's height
According to the research of experts, during the Qin and Han Dynasties, the average height of men in China was about 1.65 meters. From this height, it can be concluded that his height should be very high, but it will not be more than two meters, and it should be Luo Guanzhong who artistically processed it. If we look at some of the data recorded in the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, we can find that the height of those famous warriors is generally about 1 meter 8, while Lü Bu's height is about 1.9 meters. In the Book of Han, it is also recorded that Xiang Yu is about 8 feet 2 inches, and the calculation is also about 1.9 meters.
Therefore, his height should not be more than two meters, and the probability should be similar to Lü Bu's height, which is about 1.9 meters. It is also understandable that such a record error occurs, after all, Luo Guanzhong was a person of the Ming and Qing dynasties, more than a thousand years away from the Three Kingdoms era, and it is normal for errors to occur in a long period of time, plus art comes from life, but it is higher than life, and it is understandable that art processing appears. epilogue
Everyone usually has such a wrong impression in their minds, thinking that those fierce generals in ancient times were basically tall and tall, in fact, such ideas are somewhat one-sided. It is undeniable that many martial artists are indeed very tall, but generally do not exceed the limitations of that era, for example, in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, when the average height of men was about 1 meter 6, it was difficult to appear a fierce general with a height of 1 meter 9. However, everyone also needs to understand, art needs to be processed, if every author in writing things, are honestly written according to the actual data, then it will bring a sense of appreciation, so everyone should not be too entangled in these data. Resources:
"Four Songs of Guan Yu under the History of Wing Shi"
Romance of the Three Kingdoms