Reading "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" or listening to the story of the Three Kingdoms, the most talked-about thing is the martial arts ranking of the military generals of the Three Kingdoms.
There are multiple versions of the ranking of the generals of the Three Kingdoms, but most of the versions rank Zhao Yun in second place, "one Lu two Zhao three Dian Wei, four horses, five passes and six Zhang Fei" is the most popular and most recognized by readers, which is very in line with the original appearance of the story of the Three Kingdoms.
Judging from the various versions of the martial arts ranking of the martial arts of the Three Kingdoms, Zhao Yun's ranking is very high, generally second only to Lu Bu.
What is the real Zhao Yun's martial arts in history?
Super high martial arts
In history, Zhao Yun's martial arts ranking should be second only to Lu Bu, stronger than Dian Wei, Ma Chao, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Xu Chu, Zhang Liao, Huang Zhong, Wei Yan, Xu Huang and other generals.
Let's judge Zhao Yun's martial arts through historical records.
Chen Shou briefly described several things about Zhao Yun in the "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms": rejecting Yuan Shao for Tian Kai; In Dangyang Nagasaka, he held a weak son to protect Mrs. Gan, and he was spared; Pingding County and Occupy Jiangzhou in the west of the Yangtze River; From the outer water to Jiangyang, and Liang will meet with Chengdu; In the sixth year of Jianxing, he and Deng Zhi went to reject Cao Zhen's army.
Through these historical facts, Chen Shou believes that Zhao Yun fought bravely and was Liu Bei's right-hand man.
Pei Songzhi's "Notes on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms" set up a biography for Zhao Yun and added several historical facts of Zhao Yun: Zhao Yun has a majestic appearance and understands righteousness; led the righteous soldiers to defect to Gongsun Zhan, and fought with Zhan.
It can be seen from the biography that Zhao Yun not only bravely crowned the three armies, but also had both wisdom and courage and far-sightedness, and was a rare good general of the country.
As a historical classic, Chen Shou's "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms" and Pei Songzhi's "Notes on the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms" cannot specifically describe the martial arts of a military general, and it is impossible to directly rank the generals.
Regarding the martial arts of the generals of the Three Kingdoms, we can see the clues from Luo Guanzhong's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is a historical novel, and the content described in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is basically in line with historical facts.
The most wonderful thing in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is the depiction of the duel scene of the generals, which is not only a battlefield battle, but also a competition of human will, endurance and spirit, full of the magnificence of personality.
Xu Chu, Zhang He, Zhang Liao, Xu Huang and others are famous generals in Cao Cao's camp, and Zhao Yun's combat power can be seen from the comparison of Guan, Zhang, Zhao, Ma, Huang, etc.
Zhao Yun appeared and Wen Chou fought fifty or sixty times, regardless of victory or defeat, considering that Wen Chou was already a famous Hebei general at that time, when Wen Chou defeated Gongsun Zhan, morale was in full swing, Zhao Yun just appeared on the scene and fought with him fifty or sixty times without winning or losing, Zhao Yun successfully rescued Gongsun Zhan, implying that Zhao Yun repelled Wen Chou, and Zhao Yun's combat power should be above Wen Chou.
Xu Chu is the number one general in Cao Cao's camp, and it is difficult for any general in the Three Kingdoms to take advantage of Xu Chu, Ma Chao didn't dare to move when he saw Xu Chu next to Cao Cao.
Zhao Yun and Xu Chu faced off twice, and Zhao Yun and Xu Chu met in a narrow way in the Battle of Runan.
Zhao Yun and Xu Chu met for the first time, and the two fought for 30 rounds, regardless of victory or defeat.
After the first temptation, the second encounter between the two was known, and this time Xu Chu was "fighting" with Zhao Yun.
"Force Battle" writes that Xu Chu tried his best and used all his martial arts or strength, indicating that Xu Chu and Zhao Yun were a little struggling.
Yu Ban and Li Dian rushed to attack, and Liu Bei fled on a single horse, but was stopped by Zhang He and Gao Lan.
At the critical moment, Zhao Yun arrived, indicating that Zhao Yun had killed Xu Chu and defeated Xu Chu under the situation of Cao's army, indicating that Zhao Yun's combat strength was stronger than Xu Chu.
Zhao Yun was in less than a round, and Gao Ran was one of the four generals in Hebei, which was enough to show Zhao Yun's terrifying attack ability.
After Zhao Yun picked up the high ranks, he came to the front army to fight Zhang He alone, more than 30 times, defeated Zhang He, and defeated Zhang He under the situation of Cao's army.
If the two sides are evenly matched, Zhao Yun should defeat Zhang He within 30 rounds.
And Zhang He and Zhang Fei fought more than 60 times without winning or losing, which shows that Zhao Yun's heads-up ability is stronger than Zhang Fei.
In the Battle of Chibi, Zhao Yun was ordered to ambush on Wulin Road, and Cao Cao ordered Xu Huang and Zhang He to fight against Zhao Yun, and he walked away with smoke and fire.
At this time, Cao's combat effectiveness was still very strong, and Cao Cao let Xu Huang and Zhang He defeat Zhao Yun, indicating that Cao Cao thought that either of Xu and Zhang could not resist Zhao Yun.
When he met Zhang Fei in Yiling, Xu Chu rode a bareback horse to fight Zhang Fei, indicating that Xu Chu was not afraid of Zhang Fei.
Xu Huang and Guan Yu fought for 80 rounds without a win.
Xu Chu and Ma Chao fought for hundreds of rounds, and Xu Chu saw that Zhao Yun had to "fight", which showed that Zhao Yun's combat power was stronger than Ma Chao.
Zhao Yun not only has the ability to fight alone, but also the ability to charge into battle is superb.
"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has repeatedly described Zhao Yun's courage in charging into battle, among which the most famous is the Battle of Dangyang Changsaka.
In Zhao Yun's battle against Changbanpo, most of the more than 50 Cao Ying generals picked by Zhao Yun did not have names, and if they were recorded one by one, they would not be novels, but historical classics.
The novel writes Zhao Yun's invincibility and courage through several classic duel scenes.
A shot stabbed Chun Yudao to show Zhao Yun's momentum, the Qingyu sword set off Zhao Yun's wit, and the duel with Zhang He showed Zhao Yun's bravery, and the four generals such as Ma Yan wrote Zhao Yun's invincibility, and the Zhong Jin brothers showed Zhao Yun's good fighting.
It is worth noting that when Zhao Yun fought against Changbanpo, in addition to Zhang He and others in Cao Ying, other generals such as Xu Chu, Xu Huang, Zhang Liao, Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan, Yu Ban, Li Dian and others did not come out to fight with Zhao Yun.
Xu Chu, Xiahoudun, Li Dian and others have all fought with Zhao Yun, knowing how powerful Zhao Yun is and having suffered from Zhao Yun, they probably want to wait for Zhao Yun to be sleepy and tired before coming out to fight with him, so as to take advantage of it.
Under the circumstances, Zhao Yun held on to his determination to die and wanted to rescue the young lord Liu Chan, and once a person did not die, it would inspire amazing combat effectiveness.
As a general, they knew Zhao Yun's combat power at the moment, and they didn't want to ask for hardship and left.
Zhao Yun has a strong deterrent power among opponents.
Guan Yu was called a hero by Pang De, which was the only time, and Zhao Yun was called a hero by Cao Cao, Li Dian, Xiahou Mao, Guo Huai, Wan Zheng and other opponents.
Lieutenant General Cao Ying dared to say that he was not afraid of Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Ma Chao, such as Xu Chu, Cai Yang, Yang Ling, Xiahoudun, and Xu Huang, who dared to say that they were not afraid of Guan Yu.
Zhang Fei was very brave, and the generals in Cao Yingzhong were also very jealous, but Zhang He said that he was not afraid of Zhang Fei, and Zhang Fei and Zhang He fought dozens of battles in Wakou Pass.
Zhang He and Xu Huang left when they saw Zhao Yun, not daring to fight.
Some folk works such as storytelling, opera, ballads, and children's books about the story of the Three Kingdoms are even more colorful rendering Zhao Yun's super combat power.
In the opera of the Qing Dynasty, there is such a plot, as soon as Zhuge Liang came out of the mountain, Zhang Fei refused to obey the military order, and Zhuge Liang ordered Zhao Yun to capture Zhang Fei.
In Zhang Guoliang's large-scale commentary "Three Kingdoms", Zhao Yun's martial arts are significantly higher than other generals, Cao Ying's first general Xu Chu is most afraid of Zhao Yun, the gun king Zhang Xiu died at the hands of Zhao Yun in Changbanpo, Cao Hong was beaten to the point of spitting blood, Xu Huang and Zhang He did not dare to fight when they met Zhao Yun, and Gan Ning, the general of Eastern Wu, was convinced by Zhao Yun's heart, and Xu Sheng and Ding Feng met Zhao Yun and left without a fight.
In John Woo's movie "Red Cliff", Zhao Yun's combat power is significantly higher than that of other generals.
In history, Zhao Yun's official titles were not as prominent as Guan Zhang Ma Huang Wei, but Chen Shou put Zhao Yun and Guan Zhang Ma Huang together and made a high evaluation, which shows that Chen Shou has begun to notice Zhao Yun's ability and martial arts.
Pei Songzhi's "Notes on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms" set up a biography for Zhao Yun, highlighting Zhao Yun's combat power and achievements.
Luo Guanzhong's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" depicts the duel between Zhao Yun and his opponent, from which it can be seen that Zhao Yun's super martial arts and combat power.
After "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the storytelling, opera, ballads, and disciple books have clearly shown that Zhao Yun's martial arts and combat power surpass other famous generals.
The writing of these texts implies that people recognized Zhao Yun as a great general who surpassed many famous generals of the Three Kingdoms from the texts formed by historical books, literati creations, and folk works.
Later generations excavated and judged Zhao Yun according to historical classics and folk works, and gradually restored Zhao Yun's original appearance, making Zhao Yun a general commensurate with his historical status.
Zhao Yun not only has superb martial arts, but also has lofty political ideals.
High political ideals
Zhao Yun was loyal to the country all his life, loved the people, and helped the weak, he was loyal to Liu Bei, his heart was like iron stone, and his heart could not be shaken by wealth.
Zhao Yun has lofty ambitions, with the idea of serving the country and saving the people in the world, he chose Liu Bei, who implements benevolent government and loves the people like a son, as his lord.
Zhao Yun was a native of Zhending, Hebei Province, and belonged to Yuan Shao, and his fellow villagers all chose Yuan Shao as their lord.
Zhao Yun thought that Yuan Shao did not have the heart to love the people, so he left Yuan Shao and chose Gongsun Zhan, who was far less powerful than Yuan Shao, as his lord.
Obviously, Zhao Yun, who was still young at that time, had the ambition of serving the country and relieving the people from hanging upside down, and he would never give up his political ideals for the sake of immediate interests.
Gongsun Zhan was stubborn and did not listen to Zhao Yunzhong's words, and committed suicide in defeat.
Zhao Yun, who was scattered all over the world, still did not defect to Yuan Shao, regardless of Yuan Shao's many summons, he ran in all directions to find the Ming lord Liu Bei.
Zhao Yun's loyalty to Liu Bei is a national righteousness, in order to save the people of the world.
Zhao Yun's realm is not only higher than all the generals of the Three Kingdoms, but also higher than the average Wenchen.
epilogue
Zhao Yun's righteousness surpassed the popular private righteousness in ancient China and rose to the national righteousness, which has a modern sense of righteousness.
Zhao Yun always insisted on his own righteousness of relieving the people from the upside down, which made Zhao Yun surpass the ordinary generals and have the foresight of a strategist.