In the first ming dynasty novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Guan Yu is described as "nine feet long, two feet long, his face like a heavy date, and his lips like grease." Dan phoenix eyes, crouching silkworm eyebrows, dignified appearance, majestic " "Crotch red rabbit horse, hand green dragon crescent knife", this is the basic impression of Guan Gong in later generations.
However, this image is not based on more real historical data to describe, but through the participation of literati scholars and ordinary people in the past generations, it can be said that the image of the original historical figure Guan Yu has been "unrecognizable". In this article, the author will only discuss the beard of the later Guan Yu.
Above_ Guan Yu mural
The Jin Dynasty historian Chen Shou's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms and The Biography of Guan Yu" records that the prominent feature of Guan Yu's appearance in history was "beautiful beard", so Zhuge Liang once used the word "hair" to call Guan Yu ("Therefore Liang is called Guan Yu (referring to Guan Yu)") when praising Guan Yu's extraordinary Yiqun in his letters.
In ancient times, there were certain modes of description of the appearance of influential people, such as the "History of Gao Zu Benji": "Gao Zu was a man, Long Zhun and Long Yan, beautiful beard, left strands with seventy-two black children", "Hanshu Huo Guangjin Ribao Biography": "Guang is a quiet and detailed reviewer, only seven feet and three inches long, white, sparse eyebrows, beautiful beard." Etc., it can be seen that facial features such as "beautiful beard" follow a certain descriptive pattern, which is indeed a reflection of the historian's attention to the prominent facial features of historical figures.
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, one of the Twenty-Four Histories, was written by the Western Jin Dynasty historian Chen Shou
Later generations of people more and more admired Guan Yu's faith and worship, and constantly beautified Guan Gong's appearance, such as the transformation of Guan's beard, but limited to the lack of historical data, the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" simply left the abstract number of "beautiful beard", because the meaning of the text is vague and abstract, leaving a broad imagination space for future generations.
In the long history of the late Han Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty, the portraits and statues of Guan Gong have not been handed down and there is no trace. The earliest surviving statue of Guan Gong comes from a late Northern Song Dynasty (early Jin Dynasty) engraving and printing work "Yi Yong Wu'an Wang", which is of great significance in the history of Guan Gong statue transformation, which tells us that the description of Guan Gong has been fixed at least at the time of the Northern Song Dynasty. It can be seen from the prints that Guan Yu in the center of the picture has five strands of hair, which is clearly visible, no different from the later Guan Gong statue.
Above_ The print is 60 cm high and 31 cm wide, and is now in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, at this time Guan Gong has been revered as the "King of Wu'an", whose manifest game sits, surrounds the officials, and is majestic
And the literati of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty had many imaginations about Guan Yu's beard, including "虬髯", "三绺", "五绺" and many other sayings, but it is still worth noting that Guan Yu's beard differs in literary descriptions, but in the image (including paintings, statues and theatrical characters, etc.) it is mainly to express the "five strands".
The Yuan Dynasty Zhizhi (1319-1321) edition of the New Magazine of the Three Kingdoms Zhiping dialect describes Guan Yu's appearance as "a god with eyebrows and phoenix eyes, a face like purple jade, and a length of nine feet and two inches". The "beard" in the book refers to the curled beard with two cheeks and sideburns, which is the beard style of the bearded person, and the book further points out that Guan Yu's "hair is over the abdomen", which is obviously unable to pass the abdomen, which can be seen as a self-contradictory statement. However, from the illustrations attached to the pingshu, it can be seen that Guan Yu really has five strands of hair, which is obviously inconsistent with the textual narrative.
Above_ Illustration of "Yuan to Zhi Ben Three Kingdoms Zhi Ping Dialect"
Some miscellaneous dramas in the Yuan Dynasty often used other terms such as "three silks" and "beautiful hair length" to describe Guan Gong's beard. Zhuge LiangBo Wang, one of the only surviving Yuan-carved miscellaneous dramas in the "Thirty Kinds of Yuanjian Miscellaneous Dramas", said: "He (Guan Yu) was born with a towering and handsome nose, a long stretch of silkworm eyebrows, a red fu fu skin as red as rouge, and a black true three strands of beautiful hair." This general hides a gentlemanly spirit inside, and shows an infiltrating power on the outside. ”
Guan Hanqing, a well-known playwright of the Yuan Dynasty, once created a "Single Knife Society", in which it is said that "he (Guan Yu) was in the battle with three strands of beautiful hair, and the male and female tigers shook their bodies, just like the six gods holding a living Shinto." ”
The "Taoyuan Jieyi" created by the Anonymous Clan in the Yuan Dynasty allowed Guan Yu to introduce himself as "a young and brave, with a phoenix eyebrow and a phoenix," and his hair was hanging down three times." ”
There are many miscellaneous dramas that describe Guan Yu's image, and there are not many examples here.
Above_ Guan Yu in the Yuan Dynasty mural "Past Ancients for the Dead Gods of the Nation" at Qinglong Temple in Jishan County, Shanxi Province
However, the Yuan Dynasty literati described Guan Yu's "three silks", this description is not empty, should be a continuation of the imagination of the previous generation of people's image of Guan Yu, in 2005 Jingzhou Shashi City God Temple site excavated the earliest Guan Gong statue so far, and this Northern Song Dynasty red pottery Guan Yu statue of the beard is "three silks".
The murals of the two ancient temples in Shanxi Province teach us to understand more intuitively and clearly that the five long whiskers have become the standard collocation of Guan Gong, and guan Yu in the Yuan Dynasty mural "Past The Gods of the Dead For the Nation" in the Qinglong Temple in Jishan County, Shanxi Province, has five long beards, green robes and green scarves, and a red face with phoenix eyes, giving people a sense of elegance and dignity, the image in the murals is almost the same as the guan yu in people's impressions today, and the murals of the Jade Emperor Temple in Hongdong County also show the image of Guan Yu with five long beards very obviously.
Above_ Guan Yu in the mural of the Jade Emperor Temple in Hongdong County
As we can see from the cultural relics literature, Guan Yu's beard situation does not have a specific change according to the passage of time, but the creators of different periods have their own subjective ideas, and the performance of Guan Yu's image in the past has a personal choice to continue and transform, so the Yuan Dynasty people have differences in the creation of Guan Gong's image, but this difference is only a small difference in text, because Guan Gong's beard has a similarity in the actual and considerable image, statues and other artistic performances, which are mainly based on five hairs.
The Ariake era inherited and developed the image of Guan Gong in the Song and Yuan dynasties, prints and miscellaneous dramas, and the image of Guan Gong was completely fixed. Luo Guanzhong's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", an exciting historical novel that has a far-reaching impact on later generations, outlines Guan Yu's image as follows: "Nine feet and three inches long, one foot and eight inches long, a face like a heavy date, lips like a smear, Dan phoenix eyes, crouching silkworm eyebrows, a dignified appearance, and awe-inspiring style", this description is undoubtedly inheriting and developing the traditions of the previous generation.
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms was widely disseminated and far-reaching in later generations, making the vast majority of people in ancient times and today deeply impressed by Guan Yu, and from the bottom of their hearts, they recognized and praised Guan Yu's great character and will.
Above_ Guan Yu tackle will figure (Ming Dynasty Shang Xi operation silk color painting)
In painting, Shang Xi, a court painter of the Zhu Ming Dynasty, used a mysterious brush to paint the "Guan Yu Capture General", which was magnificent and showed the divine martial arts of Guan Gong. In this famous picture, Guan Gong, who is obviously much taller than the generals around him, sits on the side of the stone platform in the mountain forest, also with five long beards, full of armor, and calmly watching the enemy be captured. In the Ming Dynasty mural "Diagram of the Gods of the Three Realms" in the Pilu Temple in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, the statue of Guan Yu, who appears as the true king of the Chongning Protectorate, also has five strands of hair.
In the Ming Dynasty, the image of Guan Gong has been officially fixed, and the image of Guan Gong's three-haired hair has disappeared into the long river of history and completely replaced it with five strands of hair, and it is still the same today.
Above_ Ming Dynasty mural "Diagram of the Gods of the Three Realms" at Pilu Temple in Shijiazhuang, Hebei
At the time of the Ming Dynasty, with the wide dissemination of the classical novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and the opera about Guan Yu, the image of Guan Yu, who was loyal and courageous, brave and mighty, was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and all levels of society admired and respected Guan Gong more and more, and Guan Gong's faith became more and more intense, and electric photography was popular in the world. People continue to beautify and deify Guan Gong, and even Guan Gong's beard has been deified by posterity as a Dragon, resulting in the story of Guan Gong's loss of a bearded dragon and his death.
Xu Wei, a great talent of the Ming Dynasty, once commented on Guan Yu: "Shang will report his confidant to Cao Gong, not to mention the Han Dynasty Sect." One body of righteousness is deep in the true country, and three points are threatening to shock this hero. A poor red rabbit in the world, a dragon with lost whiskers in the middle of a dream. Rolling only now flow han water, boundless hatred from the east. Among them, the sentence "The Dream of Breaking the Lost Bearded Dragon" is a use of the story of Guan Yu and The Dragon of Su, and the content of this story is more or less.
Jiang Ruizao, a scholar of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Ming Dynasty, quoted mingren notes in his book "Examination of Novels" to briefly record this story: "Guan Yunchanggong has beautiful beards, and the inner whiskers are more than two feet long, and the color is like lacquer, and the rope is strong. If it shakes itself, there will be a great conquest. When Gong was in Xiangyang, he dreamed of a qingyi god at night and said, "I, Oolong also." For a long time, he was attached to the body of the king, with great strength and might. Now that the matter is going to be done, I will go first. After the words were finished, he turned into a black dragon and rode away in the clouds. ”
From this passage, it can be seen that Guan Yu's beard has been deified, one of the long whiskers is the oolong incarnation, and every time a great war comes, this long beard is shaken, and the long whiskers are said goodbye until the death of Guan Gong. And the Jin Dynasty, this dragon still has something to show inspiration.
Above_ Song Guan Yu raised his knife and stood up
The author finally summarizes that the beard of Guan Yu's image has been finally defined as five silks from the early three strands, beards and five silks, which has gradually reached a consensus by the public after a long historical time, and has become the only impression in the hearts of future generations.
In the original history of Guan Gong was only described as "beautiful beard", which provided sufficient imagination space for posterity to create the image of Guan Gong, and from the end of the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, there was no relevant public portrait and statue handed down, at least at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, there was an intuitive and clear Guan Gong portrait, such as the Song Dynasty's Yiyong Wu'an Wang print, according to the prints, we can clearly observe that the Guan Yu statue has been very mature, it has five strands of hair.
The literati of the Yuan Dynasty had many imaginations about Guan Yu's beard, such as "虬髯", "三绺", "五绺" and many other theories, although Guan Yu's beard differed in the description of Yuan Dynasty literature, but in the actual created images (including paintings, statues and dramatic characters, etc.) there were more "five silks", which can be based on the Yuan Dynasty's plain language illustrations, murals, etc.
Above_ Guan Yu in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms
The Ming Dynasty that succeeded the Yuan Dynasty inherited and developed the image of Guan Gong in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, prints and miscellaneous dramas, the popular historical novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Guan Gong paintings and other general influences, so that Guan Gong's image of wuxiu was completely fixed in the common social memory of the people, and the Qing Dynasty, the Republic of China and the current republic were also the same, and people naturally associated with a series of image characteristics such as his magnificent body and red face, five long beards, Dan phoenix eyes, and crouching silkworm eyebrows, and the influence was extremely extensive and far-reaching.
Author: Second from left Correction/Editor: Lilith
Resources:
[1] Chen Shou, Romance of the Three Kingdoms
[2] Thirty Kinds of Miscellaneous Dramas
[3] "Five Kinds of All-Phase Plain Words"
[4] Luo Guanzhong, Romance of the Three Kingdoms
[5] Bangu Book of Han
[6] Jiang Ruizao, "Novel Examination"
[7] Hu Xiaowei, "Tracing the Origins of guan gong worship"
[8] Pu Wenqi, "Guan Yu From Man to God"
[9] Zhou Huabin, "Guan Gong Style and Face"
[10] Lou Hansong 《Guangong Red Face Examination》
The text was created by the History University Hall team, and the picture originated from the Internet and the copyright belongs to the original author