In the famous novel "Water Margin", we often see a paragraph describing "less than five feet", which is a description of the figure of Wu Song's brother Wu Dalang. We all know that Wu Song is eight feet long, mighty, and powerful, but his brother is a completely short man, and the difference between this often makes people laugh.
But in ancient times, there was no such way of measuring height as we do today. The "eight feet long" in the literary and historical records also makes people wonder how tall it is, and Guan Yu in the Three Kingdoms period, according to the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, "is nine feet long and has a face like a heavy date." Then why do you say that Guan Yu is actually taller than Yao Ming today? This requires a Han Dynasty ruler that has been unearthed to give the answer.
In ancient times, our ancestors have studied the concept of "ruler" in daily life, that is, the "degree" in weights and measures. According to the "Lü's Spring and Autumn, Jixiaji, And Ancient Music", the ancients established the length by virtue of the musical audio of the instrument named "Yellow Bell", thus having the terms "music ruler" and "law ruler".
At the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, relatively clear units of length appeared. According to the Book of Han and the Chronicle of the Laws, the Zhou Dynasty established five length units of "division, inch, ruler, zhang, and quotation", and "the length of the degree is not lost." ", every ten digits, there are very high requirements for the accuracy of the length.
However, although there was a clear division of units in the Zhou Dynasty, with the change of dynasties, different dynasties had different divisions of the length of the units themselves, such as rulers and zhangs. For example, during the Zhou Dynasty, one foot was equal to 19.91 centimeters today, but in the Tang Dynasty, one foot became equal to 30.7 centimeters.
We often say "eight-foot man", then if it is the Zhou Dynasty, this describes a man who is less than one meter and six meters tall; and in the Tang Dynasty, it is a big man who is two meters and four meters tall. The gap is very large, and even some disparities.
In the 20th century, China mined it in a Han tomb in Luoyang. One of the archaeologists found an ancient ruler from the late Eastern Han Dynasty. This is a ruler from the era of the Heng Emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty in the first year of Yongkang (167), and the whole body is made of animal bones, which is very fine and has a very clear scale.
According to the measurements, this bone ruler has a length of 23.7 centimeters, which shows that in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the length of one foot was about 23.7 centimeters. In the follow-up, a bone ruler from the Three Kingdoms period was found, and this bone ruler actually had a length of 24.2. This is not only a very historical Han Dynasty cultural relic, but also a key that allows us to learn more about the characters of the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
Guan Yu was revered as a martial saint in later generations, and legendary stories such as "WenJiu Chopping Huaxiong" and "Walking Alone in a Thousand Miles" made people revere Second Master Guan to the extreme. Even in the Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties, it was once revered as a belief by the imperial family, and as the embodiment of loyalty, there were many people in the folk who believed in Guan Yu.
So how tall are such legendary figures as Guan Yu? We are already very familiar with his appearance in "Three Kingdoms", Dan Feng's eyes are lying on the silkworm eyebrows, his face is like a heavy date, and his long hair is fluttering, which can be described as a generation of military generals with great talent and dignity.
According to the records in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Guan Yu is more than nine feet long, and the bone ruler shows that one foot in the Three Kingdoms period was about 24.2 centimeters, so Guan Yu, who is more than nine feet, is actually more than two meters tall today. This kind of figure is not much worse than those famous basketball players, and if it is a body of strength, it may be even more. If you take into account the errors left over from history, then Guan Yu's height may exceed Yao Ming's, at least it is a shoulder level, and The martial saint Guan Yu is worthy of being a martial saint.
Two meters and two meters of Guan Yu already belongs to the "giant" in today's society, it can be imagined that in ancient times, when he was carrying the Green Dragon Crescent Knife, he was really unstoppable and brave. This is also fortunately the discovery of the Bone Ruler of the Han Dynasty, otherwise Guan Yu's height may have always been a mystery and could not be known.