As a famous figure in the Three Kingdoms period, Guan Yu has many well-known stories. As a model of loyalty and righteousness in ancient and modern times, the most emblematic deeds of his loyalty are nothing more than a thousand miles of single riding.
The synopsis of this story must be known to everyone: after Guan Yu surrendered to Cao, he beheaded Yan Liang and Wen Ugly in Baima and Yanjin, and then learned that his lost brother Liu Bei was now in Yuan Shao's army, so he hung up the seal and sealed The Golden Farewell to Cao Cao and took the two sisters-in-law to Hebei. Because Cao Cao did not notify the various guan passes in time to release them, Guan Yu broke all the way, and there was a story of cutting six generals through five levels and riding alone for thousands of miles.
But this story has a problem.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="40" > strange route</h1>
Open the map and we can see that Guan Yu's route is very strange. The following map is referenced here to illustrate:
As shown in the picture, Guan Yu originally crossed the river directly north to reach Yuan Shao, but he chose to go west to Luoyang and then along the Yellow River all the way to the east, making a big circle. What is the purpose of this?
For this matter, there are two theories on the Internet: first, Guan Yu was worried about Cao Cao's pursuit, so he took a detour; second, at this time, Cao Yuan was facing off at Guandu, and Guan Yu wanted to avoid the battlefield.
But either of these two statements makes no sense.
First of all, if Guan Yu wanted to avoid Cao Cao's pursuit, then he should go in secret, but Guan Yu was making a big fuss all the way. If it is a strong break, it should choose a closer route, which may make Cao Cao too late to react, and all the people along the way in the later period know the news that Guan Yu broke through the pass and killed the general, how could Cao Cao not know? What is the point of such a roundabout march that exposes the target? This obviously does not make sense.
Second, the idea of avoiding the battlefield is not convincing. If you want to avoid the battlefield, you should choose another place to cross the river, but Guan Yu still took the white horse, which is one of the places where Cao Yuan and Yuan concentrated on confrontation, which is not contradictory to his original intention? If you have to go on a white horse anyway, why not go straight and go in a big circle?
Moreover, observing Guan Yu's route of travel, we can also find a more confusing problem: there are countless crossings on both sides of the Yellow River, especially Luoyang has a famous Mengjin ferry that can cross the river, but Guan Yu stayed overnight after killing the Luoyang defenders, but continued to rampage along the river in cao's army territory, is this a provocation to Cao Cao?
Part of the ancient crossing of the Yellow River
The claim that other crossings are heavily fortified is clearly unconvincing. At this time, it was during the Guandu War, and it was unlikely that other places would be stronger than the front lines of the two armies; it was impossible to say that He was worried about being attacked by Yuan Jun, because at this time Liu Bei had persuaded Yuan Shao to let Guan Yu vote, and Yuan Shao also gladly agreed, as long as the news was reported that the problem would be naturally solved. Therefore, Guan Yu only needs to wait after crossing the river, no matter what, it is safer than on the south bank of the Yellow River.
So there was a third theory: Guan Yu didn't know the road.
This is obviously even more absurd.
Guan Yu followed Liu Bei to zhuozhou, begged the yellow turban to fight in Yingchuan, hu prison guan sanying battle Lü Bu, fenshui guan wen wine beheaded Huaxiong, and later defended the plain and stationed in Xuzhou, and the central plains almost traveled everywhere. As a general who leads troops to fight, how can he be so stupid that he can't even tell where the Yellow River is? It's a slippery slope.
So, how to explain this thousand-mile circle?
This pot may have to be carried by Luo Guanzhong.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="42" > story source</h1>
The first thing to explain is that the story of passing five levels and cutting six generals is not found in the history. In the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Guan Zhang Ma Huang Zhao Biography, it is recorded: "He Yu killed Yan Liang, and Cao Gong knew that he would go, and he repaid the reward." Yu gave his gift, prayed to the book and resigned, and Ben was the lord of Yuan Jun. Left and right want to chase after him, Cao Gong said: "He is his master, do not chase after him." ’”
Guan Yu's killing of Yan Liang was true, and the hanging seal was true (there was no record of hanging the seal), but after that, he defected to Yuan Shao, and there was no record of fighting all the way. In addition, Kong Xiu, Han Fu, Meng Tan, Bian Xi, Wang Zhi, Qin Qi, and even Hu Ban are not found in the history books, and they are all fabricated figures. Therefore, this confused route is definitely not the real Guan Yunchang's walk.
So this route was made up by Luo Guanzhong? Nor is it.
In fact, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", like "Journey to the West", is not a new story original by the author, they are all adapted on the basis of their predecessors.
Su Dongpo, a scholar of the Northern Song Dynasty, once recorded in his "Dongpo Zhilin": "The children in Tuxiang are inferior, and their families are tired of suffering, and they are rich and rich, so that they can sit and hear the old sayings." When it comes to the affairs of the Three Kingdoms, when Liu Xuande is defeated, there are people who have snot; when he hears Cao Cao's defeat, he sings happily. "Tokyo Dream" also mentions an art called "speaking three points" when mentioning the cultural and entertainment projects in Bieliang Castle. It can be seen that the story of the Three Kingdoms during the Northern Song Dynasty has been popularized, and has a tendency to respect Liu and degrade Cao. In the Yuan Dynasty, the vigorous development of Yuanqu made many Three Kingdoms stories become the art of opera. The most important thing is that in the Yuan Dynasty, a book of words appeared, called "Three Kingdoms Zhiping Dialect".
"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" can be said to be the predecessor of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Luo Guanzhong in the creation of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" on the one hand with Chen Shou's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", on the other hand, also borrowed a lot of references from the "Three Kingdoms Zhi Ping Dialect" in the content. But the book is used by street performers to tell the book, and the content is full of strange and chaotic gods (such as cao cao liu bei sun quan is the reincarnation of Han Xin Yingbu and Peng Yue) at the beginning), and there are many geographical errors (such as Dengzhou is the name after the Sui Dynasty). This is because the book was created by folk artists, and the content is also a compilation of folk stories, and ordinary people are limited by the cultural level at that time and cannot have a clear understanding of the real situation in geography and history.
Later, Luo Guanzhong, who was a reader, sorted out some folk tales, including the "Three Kingdoms Zhiping Dialect", and combined them with history books to transform them, so there was the famous "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", referred to as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
As an aside, after the book spread to Japan, the Japanese also felt that the name was too long and also abbreviated it. However, the abbreviation of Chinese is to remove the word "popular" in the middle, while the Japanese simply and rudely omit all the last four words, so now that the Japanese mention the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", most of them are Luo Guanzhong's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" instead of Chen Shou's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
So is the mistake of riding alone in a thousand miles derived from the art of these Yuan Dynasties? Quite possibly.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="44" > author's error</h1>
We can find some clues. The Twenty-seventh Time in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, "The Beautiful Bearded Duke Walks a Thousand Miles and Rides Alone Han Shou Hou Wuguan Slashing Six Generals" writes that Guan Yu hung up the seal and sealed the gold to bid farewell to Cao Cao, but Cao Cao then caught up with him and gave Guan Yu a brocade robe to show friendship. Guan Yu was worried that Cao Cao was deceitful and did not dare to get off the horse, so he sat on his horse and used the green dragon knife to pick up the golden robe and put it on his body to leave, which is the story of "Baqiao Picking the Robe".
Peking Opera "Baqiao Picks the Robe"
Doubts arise here. The original text only uses "on the bridge" and "under the bridge" to describe the bridge, why is this story in the folklore as "Baqiao picks the robe"? In fact, there have been many versions of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and in the early Jiajing version, there was a description of "the Guan Convention returned dozens of steps, and immediately looked at it on the Baling Bridge". The reason for the revision is likely to be that there is something unreasonable in it.
Previously, the Baling Bridge was also mentioned in the "Three Kingdoms Zhiping Dialect", and there was also a song in the Yuanqu called "Baling Bridge Cao Cao Zhi Robe", so this part of Luo Guanzhong is likely to borrow from the previous plot and follow the story of the Yuan Dynasty.
Baling Bridge, Baling Bridge and Baling Bridge all refer to the same bridge. Although Xuchang also has a Baling Bridge, according to research, its original name was Bali Bridge, which was built at the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty and changed its name during the Ming and Qing dynasties.
In the Yuan Dynasty, Xuchang did not have a Baling Bridge, and another Baling Bridge was located in Chang'an.
This is related to the "Three Kingdoms Zhiping Dialect". Because the imperial court of Emperor Xian of Han is described in this book as being in Chang'an, Cao Cao is also the emperor who took Liu Bei to Chang'an to meet him.
Emperor Xian of Han
If Guan Yu had departed from Chang'an, although it was still worth complaining about not crossing north from other ferries, the route was much smoother, because the routes of Luoyang, Fenshuiguan, Xingyang, Huazhou, and Baima were all the way to the east.
But there was a problem with Dongling Pass, because this pass was located in the west of Luoyang, and if you take Dongling Pass first, you are still in a circle.
And this level is a little special, first of all, there is very little record of it, and there is no mention of this place in the novel except for five levels and six generals, which makes this place have a feeling of "temporary rush".
The other is the keeper Kong Xiu.
The other warriors among the Six Generals are original in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but Kong Xiu appears in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In the Pingyu, when Cao Cao wrote to Sun Quan to persuade Eastern Wu to surrender, he mentioned that he "captured Kong Xiu to Luoyang", but this plot is not mentioned in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but Kong Xiu appears in Dongling Pass as a general of Cao Cao's department, which is very suspicious of transferring flowers and trees.
Therefore, I personally believe that although the Five Levels and Six Generals did not appear in the "Three Kingdoms Zhiping Dialect" and the existing Yuanqu, it is likely to be a story that is widely circulated in folklore. Since these Yuan Dynasty stories identified the imperial court as Chang'an, the route of travel was from Luoyang to the west to Baima. Luo Guanzhong discovered this geographical fallacy when creating the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and corrected it, but the story of passing through the pass was too wonderful, he could not bear to give it up, and because Xuchang's road to Hebei was too close to replace these passes with other locations, he created a Dongling Pass, and moved Kong Xiu in "Pingyu" to this place to guard, which made the route barely connected.
Therefore, this route is Luo Guanzhong's pot of flowers and trees, and guan Yunchang's behavior is very confusing.