N versions of Taoyuan Three Knots: Why is Liu Bei the eldest brother? What does "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" elevate?

Southern Weekly

2024-05-16 02:00Posted on the official account of Guangdong Southern Weekly

Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei Taoyuan formed a rebellion, which is not recorded in the "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms".

In "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms", the year of Liu Bei's death is clear, 223 AD, and it is said that Liu Bei was 63 years old that year. The ancients said that the age is imaginary, so it can be inferred that Liu Bei was born in the fourth year of Emperor Yanxi of the Han Dynasty (161 AD). The ages of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei are not mentioned in "Three Kingdoms".

"The Biography of Guan Yu" emphasizes that Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei have a good relationship, saying that the three of them "sleep in the same bed, and they are brothers"; Liu Ye on Cao Wei's side, emphasizing that Liu Bei and Guan Yu have a good relationship, said "Righteousness is a monarch and a minister, and grace is a father and son", in terms of name, he is a monarch and a minister, but emotionally speaking, it is the same as a father and son, judging from this, Liu Bei is much older than Guan Yu. Some people say that Guan Yu is one year older than Liu Bei, based on the "tombstone record" unearthed in Guan Yu's hometown during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty.

Although there is no Taoyuan rebellion in history, this legend has been very lively very early on. This shows that people who listen to the Three Kingdoms have a great need for such a story.

Before the birth of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the story of the Three Kingdoms was circulated, and there were two particularly important forms: one was the storyteller, who told it to others; One is on the opera stage, where the performance is shown to people. Whether it is storytelling or drama, the people who serve are mainly ordinary people living in the city, and how to tell the story must meet their needs.

There have been many versions of the Taoyuan Friendship story in the past, and it can be found that different versions cater to the different needs of these audiences.

Simulated brotherhood

First of all, why tell the story of righteousness?

The so-called knot is that people who are not related by blood combine into a simulated brotherly relationship.

We know that if people live in a big family, there are enough brothers, cousins, and clan brothers, and this kind of simulated brotherly relationship is not particularly important.

However, the common people living in the city are different. You know, what is the main source of urban civilians? Rural redundancy.

A large number of peasants who had lost their land poured into the cities and became urban nomads. These urban civilians are actually people who have broken away from their original clan ties. In order to avoid being isolated, in this case, they especially need to be together, regardless of whether we are related by blood, or even whether we are fellow countrymen, why should we have known each other, we are brothers. This kind of relationship is particularly important for urban civilians, so they love to listen to the story of righteousness, and love to listen to the story of "not seeking to be born in the same year, the same month, and the same day, but to die in the same year, the same month, and the same day" for the brothers. If such a social relationship can be trusted, they will have a sense of security in their lives.

Therefore, the marriage of brothers with different surnames has always been a theme that was particularly loved by civilians in ancient cities. The Taoyuan alliance of the "Three Kingdoms" is of course a model, the righteousness of the heroes of Liangshan in "Water Margin", and the righteousness of the Wagangzhai brothers in "Speaking of Tang" are all being talked about repeatedly.

Liu Bei sells straw sandals, and Guan Zhang sells something

Secondly, in the folk tales of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei are often given the identity of small businessmen.

Liu Bei sold straw mats and straw sandals, which are recorded in the history books. Have Guan Yu and Zhang Fei ever done business? "Three Kingdoms" did not mention it, nor did it in Pei's note. However, in the folk Three Kingdoms, Guan Yu sells dates, Zhang Fei sells pigs, and Zhao Yun is a merchant who sells horses, and so on.

When the storyteller talks about this, he does not consider whether there is a historical basis, but the point is that the audience loves to listen. Because the audience he is dealing with is a large number of such small businessmen, or at least they are often exposed to such small businessmen. You are telling the story of Taoyuan's righteousness, by the way, how Zhang Fei sells pork, how to avoid pork spoilage when it is hot, and what is the way to cut meat with more fat and lean meat...... This chat, the life of the story comes to the face, and the audience loves to listen to it.

Liu Bei's camp is more popular among the people than Cao Cao's camp, which is actually related to the fact that Liu Bei's camp is generally from a more humble background. It is precisely because of their humble backgrounds that they are easily equipped with all kinds of stories of ordinary people, and then they will do a great career in the future, and it is easy for the audience to substitute themselves into it, which can satisfy their desire to "make a fortune and become a Thai company".

"I Ching" has "Thai hexagram" in it, is a hexagram of great luck, the so-called "Sanyang Kaitai" and "no pole Tailai" these idioms, are related to this hexagram, so in the past, the original mixed badly, and later mixed well, called "become Tai". Emphasizing Liu Guanzhang's identity as a trader can exaggerate their future glory, especially to satisfy the desire to "become a Thai person".

Xun Yu and Zhong Yu in Cao Cao's camp are too good-born, and the audience is not easy to empathize.

Who is Big Brother?

Third, most of the people who listen to books and watch dramas are not very wealthy, because they have really been poor, so their desire for glory and wealth is relatively direct.

According to the Yuan miscellaneous drama "Taoyuan Three Knots", after Guan Yu and Zhang Fei got acquainted, they met Liu Bei again, and found that he was "really noble", and he should be rich and noble in his life, but he was not sure, so he asked Liu Bei to drink, because when people are drunk, their essence will be exposed. Sure enough, Liu Bei was drunk, and strange signs appeared on his body.

This kind of sign, if you are filming film and television dramas now, you must use computer animation to present them, and there are no special effects in the Yuan miscellaneous drama, so you have to rely on the actor to say, the one who plays Guan Yu describes the strange phenomenon that appeared on Liu Bei:

Brother, do you see? He was lying on his side, and a red snake came out of his face, and he looked into his nose. Ahhhh Brother, you don't know, this is the snake drill seven holes, this person's blessing, will be expensive in the future. When he wakes up, regardless of his age, worship him as a brother, what do you think?

The social status of the playwright is not high, and his knowledge and knowledge are often ridiculed, but when it comes to the work of detailed portrayal, there are places that are difficult to achieve. Just a few lines, Shengsheng shows the sense of a horror movie. But what Guan Yu saw from this little snake that drilled around Liu Bei's face was not horror, but his own development prospect.

So Guan Yu decided to follow Liu Bei, and reminded Zhang Fei that we "don't care about age, worship him as a brother", even if he is younger than us, we must recognize him as a big brother.

This is a bit obscene, but it is indeed a common phenomenon when people worship at that time. A group of sworn brothers, one of whom has the highest social status and the richest family, then consider him the eldest brother, and the age is not important.

"Golden Bottle Plum" is a more realistic novel, the first episode of "Golden Bottle Plum", Ximen Qing and a group of scoundrels worship brothers, everyone said in unison: "This is naturally the head of Ximen's big officials." "Ximenqing pretended to be polite, don't, there is a person named Earl Ying present, Ximenqing said, he is older than me, he should be the eldest brother.

How dare Earl Ying agree, and said, "Master, don't kill the villain!" "Earl Ying is a helper, he often plays a harlequin next to Ximenqing, and the harlequin can tell the truth, Earl Ying said, now in this world, sworn brothers, it is recognized that the powerful is the eldest brother, and the age is not important.

"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" did not clearly explain the ages of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, but Liu Bei should be much older than Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. Why is there always a folk legend that Guan Yu is older than Liu Bei, and even sometimes Zhang Fei is older than Liu Bei? It's very simple, because the most important criterion for folk worship is not age, so everyone hopes that Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei don't value age when they pay their respects, and it seems that their practices have a historical basis and a great example.

A hardcore version

Fourth, the story of Taoyuan's righteousness, and some very heavy versions.

Liu Guanzhang and the three of them formed a righteous alliance, and then Liu Bei proposed, you all have wives and children, you have a small family, and you can't go out if you do big things, this is not good. Does this mean that brothers are like siblings, and wives are like clothes, or do they all go and tear their clothes?

Guan Yu and Zhang Fei thought about it, the eldest brother made sense, then let's slaughter the wife and children. But I couldn't bear to do it, so I decided, otherwise, you kill me, and I will kill you.

So, Guan Yu went to kill Zhang Fei's family, and Zhang Fei also went to kill Guan Yu's family, but Zhang Fei's fierce heart was too soft, and in the end he couldn't bear to kill Guan Yu's pregnant wife. So Guan Yu's wife escaped with her life, and later gave birth to a son named Guan Suo. This later became a unique plot in the story of the Three Kingdoms that has no historical basis and has nothing to do with the main line, that is, the legend of Guan Suo.

The values shown in this story are obviously unacceptable to modern people, but in ancient times, whether in China or anywhere else in the world, in some extreme circumstances, a group of men killed their wives and children before deciding to play with their lives, and this kind of thing happened many times. So it's also a shocking story that has a realistic basis.

Cut out the spoof version and raise the level

Fifth, there are also some stories of Taoyuan's righteousness, which are pure spoofs.

For example, Liu Guanzhang climbed the tree to set brothers. The three of them discussed, who climbed the tree the fastest and who was the eldest brother, but Zhang Fei slipped to the top of the tree, Guan Yu climbed halfway, and Liu Bei was still standing under the tree. At this time, Liu Bei said that the tree grows from the bottom to the top, of course, the big brother below, and the younger brother on the tree.

There are also brothers who throw chicken feathers, and whoever throws it far is the eldest brother. Zhang Fei threw a chicken feather, but it didn't fly out as soon as the wind blew; Guan Yu threw a bundle of chicken feathers and threw a little distance; Liu Bei threw a live chicken, and the chicken flapped its wings and flew away.

Therefore, for the author of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the work he has to do is not to create a Taoyuan story that is not in the official history, but to make a choice in the face of many folk Taoyuan story of the Taoyuan Righteousness.

The Taoyuan uprising has too much influence and is too in line with social needs, although it is not in the history books, it is still retained. However, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei followed Liu Bei first for glory and wealth, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei killed each other's whole family, not to mention the mess of climbing trees and throwing chicken feathers, everything that should be deleted was deleted.

Replaced with what? When the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out, Liu Bei saw the list of recruits, sighed, and then heard a roar behind him: "The eldest husband doesn't contribute to the country, why sigh?" Zhang Fei came, everyone is a person with feelings, so they talked speculatively, so they met Guan Yu, who also wanted to serve the country, and the three of them became brothers.

When he prayed, he said, "Work together to help the needy; Report to the country, go down to An Lishu", a sentence did not promote the official to make a fortune. In ancient times, people who wrote comments on "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" also emphasized that the worship here is really high.

Eyebrows: The vows are already different.

Yumei criticism: The book of the Eternal League, is there such a big thing?

Mao Jia Criticism: The Book of the Eternal League, the first strange language.

From the way we write about Taoyuan Jieyi, we can feel where the positioning of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is: compared with the official history, it has a larger space for fiction; Compared with the folk tale of the Three Kingdoms, it is not so capricious, and the main thing is that it does not nakedly express the desires of the nomadic class. Its sense of moral responsibility, even stronger than that of the canonical history, is a book full of moral passion. In fact, the reason why "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has so much influence, and why it has always had a low status among critics who believe that literature should transcend morality, has to do with this quality.

• (This article is the author's personal opinion and does not represent the position of this newspaper)

Liu Bo

Editor-in-charge: Chen Bin