The book "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is a strange book, which was written at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty.
As one of China's "four masterpieces", he has been loved by many Chinese.
Many of his chapters have been compiled into many sources of opera, stories, and commentaries, and the wide circulation of this book has formed many unique Cultural Concepts and Cultural Cognitions in China.
Regarding this book, there are many academic studies, and there are also many celebrities who have made various evaluations and explanations of various characters in this book, which makes this book more mysterious.
Among them, there is a famous passage that guan Yu was killed by Lü Meng after his defeat in Maicheng.
In this article, Guan Yu, the embodiment of Loyalty and Martial Saint in the entire "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", ended, which made many people regret it.
Zhang Taiyan once said: "Guan Yu's death was killed by Zhuge Liang through the hand of Sun Quan. "So what is Zhang Taiyan's basis?" Why did Zhuge Liang kill Guan Yu?
Death of Guan Yu
Guan Yu has a very special position in Chinese culture, because the description of the art of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" makes Guan Yu a representative who is respected as "loyal", and at the same time, he conforms to the characteristics of both culture and martial arts.
In order to support the Han Dynasty and help Uncle Liu Huang fight the world, he established a great meritorious service, and was killed by Lü Meng when his life reached its peak.
In Chinese culture, people will love the tragic hero more, and Guan Yu just happens to be such a tragic hero.
Leaving aside the tragic hero, what was the fundamental reason for Guan Yu's death? It was because Liu Bei made Guan Yu the head of Jingzhou County.
At that time, Liu Bei made Guan Yu the head of Jingzhou County, and handed over the back road to Guan Yu, and he could not help but have great trust in Guan Yu.
Liu Bei himself led troops to attack Yizhou with Zhuge Liang, and later Liu Bei became the queen of Han, Lü Meng crossed the river in white clothes, and Guan Yu defeated Maicheng and was killed.
Why did Liu Bei let Guan Yu guard Jingzhou? Because Liu Bei had no one to use at that time, Huang Zhong was too old, and Zhang Fei only liked the middle and upper class of scholars, and scolded the lower soldiers at will, Zhao Zilong had never held an important position in the core, so he could only send Guan Yu to guard Jingzhou.
Guan Yu was born in a very low status, belonging to the most inferior fugitives, Guan Yu's name was his own name, and his real name was not known at all.
As an inferior Guan Yu, he was very close to the soldiers, but he despised the noblemen, so Lü Meng baiyi crossed the river quickly and successfully, because the nobles of Jingzhou did not support Guan Yu at all, so it eventually led to the tragedy of Guan Yu.
In the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", it is said that he is arrogant and arrogant, outstanding, etc., in fact, he is like that to the aristocratic class, but he is very good to Zhou Cang, because Zhou Cang is also not born well.
Zhang Taiyan's discussion
Zhang Taiyan was a historian of the late Qing Dynasty, and in 1900, the master of traditional Chinese studies, Zhang Taiyan, published a book called "Lou Shu", which was a positive criticism of the views and theories of the time, and was a cultural exposition that inspired modern thought.
There is a "Zhengge" in this book, in which he has his own views on the death of Guan Yu in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
He believes that Guan Yu's death was due to a conspiracy by Zhuge Liang, which led to Guan Yu's death.
In fact, Guan Yu was not killed by Sun Quan, but by Zhuge Liang borrowing Sun Quan's hand, which is contrary to the views of many historians today.
The current view is that Guan Yu's death made Zhuge Liang very passive, and Zhuge Liang's plan when he first began to fight Liu Bei's "Longzhong Confrontation" was to occupy Jingzhou and Yizhou, wait for the world to change, and then send troops in two ways to attack Cao Cao, unify the Central Plains, and dominate the industry.
After Guan Yu's death, Jingzhou became Sun Quan's territory, and Zhuge Liang could only go out of Qishan for six years, and could only send troops all the way, and finally died of illness.
The revolutionary ideal of unifying the world and rejuvenating the Han Dynasty has not been realized.
Zhang Taiyan believed that Guan Yu was a person with merit but no fault, and if he killed him explicitly, I am afraid that many people would not be convinced.
However, if he did not get rid of him, Zhuge Liang was very worried about Guan Yu and became his opponent in the middle of the dynasty, so Zhuge Liang killed Guan Yu at the cost of losing Jingzhou.
In fact, Zhang Taiyan was not quite right, Zhuge Liang was a courtier, a courtier trusted by Liu Bei, while Guan Yu was a military general, and there was no argument for merit.
In general, Zhuge Liang issued orders in place of Liu Bei, and Guan Yu and Zhang Fei carried them out.
Guan Yu and Zhang Fei are colleagues who can compete with each other for military merit and merit. Zhuge Liang, on the other hand, was talking about scheming, and the division of labor between civilian ministers and military generals was different.
Guan Yu didn't have to compete with Zhuge Liang, Guan Yu just had to fight according to the instructions.
In addition, if Zhuge Liang really didn't like Guan Yu, there was no need to lose Jingzhou at all.
Just like Zhuge Liang killed Ma Mo with tears, he used the radical method, or like Luo Fengpo, he did not recite the name, and there was no loss at all.
Zhuge Liang killed many people in his lifetime, such as Ma Mo and Pang Tong, but it should be said that Zhuge Liang was certainly not the initiator of killing Guan Yu.
The direct cause of Guan Yu's death was because Guan Yu was too proud and did not pay attention to the good relations with the nobles of Jingzhou, and finally all the nobles of Jingzhou did not side with him, and Lü Meng crossed the river in white clothes, and died as a result.
Zhang Taiyan's reason
Zhang Taiyan believes that Zhuge Liang's original intention in killing Guan Yu was to fear that Guan Yu would fight with him for power in the future, and the second point was that Zhuge Liang took advantage of Guan Yu's death to prepare to take advantage of the opportunity to eliminate Liu Feng.
Liu Feng was Liu Bei's adopted son, and was at odds with Zhuge Liang and guan Yu.
Liu Feng did not save Guan Yu, resulting in Guan Yu's death, and finally was questioned, so that he could kill two birds with one stone and get rid of Guan Yu and Liu Feng at the same time.
Liu Feng is not the main figure in the Liu Bei group at all, Liu Feng is only an adopted son, while Liu Chan is the main lord, and Liu Feng cannot get any real status in the Liu Bei group.
Zhuge Liang could not have been willing to use his heart to kill a person who could not cause any harm to himself, and to kill innocents indiscriminately, which was not good for himself.
epilogue
Zhang Taiyan was very young when he wrote the book, no more than 30 years old, and he revised the book 15 years later.
People's ideas and opinions will change with growth and experience, and Zhang Taiyan later generously admitted his views, and there are many places that are not quite right.
He changed the original signature from "Zhengge" to "Sige", which shows that he reflected on some things.
According to a more correct understanding, the reason why Lü Meng crossed the river in white clothes was because Sun Quan sent him, so why did Sun Quan send Lü Meng to reclaim Jingzhou?
It was because Liu Bei Hanzhong called himself "King of Hanzhong", and it should be known that "King of Hanzhong" was Liu Bang's title when he was not called emperor, and Liu Bei called himself "King of Hanzhong", which attracted sun quan's attention.
As a result, Lü Meng was sent to cross the river in white clothes to kill Guan Yu, and Guan Yu's death was actually because Liu Bei wanted to become emperor.