Compared with the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" with strong deductive colors, the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" written by Chen Shou of the Jin Dynasty was favored by scholars and scribes for its brief narrative and informative accounting. Although there are also a large number of "curved pens" in this book, after all, this provides the most valuable first-hand material for future generations to study the history of the Three Kingdoms period. In the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms and the Book of Shu, Guan Yu's status can be described as very high, and his biography ranks first among the Five Tiger Generals after Zhuge Liang.
▲Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Such a world-class warrior known for his high strength in martial arts was even deified as a "martial saint" in later generations, but in everyone's impression, Guan Yu often suffered arrow wounds. For example, the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms clearly records that "yu tasted the middle of the flow arrow and ran through its left arm". During the defeat of Maicheng, Guan Yu was shot in the face by an arrow from Pound. This left a question for those who had hearts in later generations, why did Guan Yu hit the arrow many times in his life, but the rest of the Shu generals rarely hit the arrow? For example, Zhao Yun, who entered the Cao Army's formation seven times and seven out in front of Changshanpo, had never been injured by an arrow. As for Wang Ping, Jiang Wei, and even Ma Mo, who was defeated at the street pavilion, it seems that they have not been hit by an arrow.
▲Guan Yu stills
This issue has triggered a heated discussion, and many loyal fans believe that the reason why Guan Yu is often hit by arrows is precisely because he "must be a pioneer in battle", and on the battlefield, the arrows are blind, and it is very easy to be injured by the arrows. The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms once described Guan Yu's martial courage as follows: "Yu saw liangqi gai, and he was among the multitudes, beheaded, and Shao Zhu generals could not be the ones." "The white horse slope front slash is the glory of Guan Yu's life." Walking on the battlefield for many years, it is naturally impossible to avoid being shot by a stream of arrows.
▲Guan Yu scraping bone healing poison painting
Opponents believe that from Jiang Wei's title of "Marquis of Zhuangmiao" for Guan Yu, it can be seen that Guan Yu is actually a bit unworthy of his name. According to the law, "Wu is not strong, the name and the truth are known as Miao", this nickname is actually Jiang Wei's best answer to Guan Yu's arrow. In fact, Liao Hua, who had participated in the Battle of Jingzhou, experienced the outbreak of the "Yellow Turban Rebellion" and the demise of the Shu Han Dynasty, and was never defeated by arrow wounds. More importantly, Liao Hua has held the position of pioneer many times, and the degree of danger is actually far superior to Guan Yu, who has already served as the manager. Relatively speaking, Guan Yu was not as brave as Lü Bu, and his wisdom was difficult to defeat Zhuge Ge, and his knowledge and employment were far inferior to Liu Bei's, so that when Liu Bei crossed Jiangdong, the military master Zhuge Liang directly crossed Guan Yu and sent Zhao Yun, who was far less senior than him, to meet him, only because the latter was far better than him in terms of improvisation and precautions. Therefore, many people believe that Guan Yu's arrow is the result of the unfavorable result of the command of the army.
▲ Shu Han general Liao Hua stills
Objectively speaking, both of these statements have some truth, but in fact, most of the records of Guan Yu's arrow come from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms rather than the main history. Therefore, the reason why people have the impression that "Guan Yu has been hit by an arrow many times" is actually related to the spread of historical novels. As a novel of a deductive nature, there are a large number of plots in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms that do not conform to historical materials, and some plots are also changed for the needs of the plot - in order to highlight Guan Yu's strength, this military general naturally cannot be defeated by the enemy general in the battle front, so in order to guide the plot, Guan Yu can only be "injured by dark arrows".
▲Stills of Guan Yu and Guan Ping being captured
For example, regarding Guan Yu's defeat and taking Maicheng, in addition to the process of confessing Guan Yu's factors to be proud and to fight with his peers, there are only more than fifty words: "Cao Gong sent Xu Huang to save Cao Ren, Yu could not be overcome, and the army was returned." Quan had already taken possession of Jiangling, and yu shishi's wives were captured, and the Yu army was dispersed. Quan Shu will counterattack Yu, behead Yu and Zi Ping in Linfeng. From this record, it can be seen that the portrayal of characters in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms takes precedence over the direction of the plot itself, and some changes in the historical plot have also become its main means. It was precisely for this reason that in the impression of later generations, Wusheng Guan Yu was often injured by dark arrows.