There are many gods in China, and in terms of gods alone, there are natural gods, Buddhist gods, Taoist gods, and so on. In the author's opinion, the Full Heavenly God Buddha can be roughly divided into two types:
One is created out of thin air, such as Sun Wukong and the Heavenly Emperor, these gods have no prototype in history;
The other is created by people according to prototypes, which is simply human transformation, such as Kong Sheng, Guan Gong, Yue Fei and so on.
The gods created out of thin air by man often do not eat human fireworks, and are quite far away from human society, and whether they can feel the faith of human beings is still two questions. The gods incarnated by man are very close to human society, and their path to becoming a god has gone through vicissitudes and tasted cold and warm, and these worldly experiences have all affected their divinity.
For example, the emperors of the old society, during their reign, were every son of heaven who was transported by the heavens, and even the gods and Buddhas of the heavens had to listen to their dispatches and serve the dynasty. However, once the dynasty fell, the former heavenly son would roll down from the supreme god's throne, become an ordinary person in the history books, and even be nailed to the pillar of shame for ten thousand years.
The people of our country have developed the habit of worshipping gods in the long-term feudal society. Although in the past hundred years, the people have carried out national reflection and overturned those unrealistic myths.
However, people seem to be destroying the gods, but in essence they are creating gods.
Why did the nearly ten-meter-tall statue of Confucius inexplicably appear in Tiananmen Square? After triggering public opinion, it quietly disappeared? Why does China Post continue to introduce special stamps based on the images of Yue Fei and Guan Yu? After the hit "Guan Yunchang", why did Guan Yu's film and television works hit the screen?
In this era of the rise of anti-hero culture, the emergence of these situations is undoubtedly intriguing.
I believe that the elderly audience has retained the grand situation of the crowded alleys when the old version of the TV series "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was released. At that time, color television sets were not yet a necessary electrical appliance for every household, so whenever the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was broadcast after dinner, people would go to other people's homes to watch TV under the banner of going to relatives.
The popularity of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" TV series has also allowed the actors who starred in the drama to gain unprecedented popularity. Lu Shuming, a Qingdao actor who played Guan Yu at the time, was changed his life by the role he played. At that time, no matter where Lu Shuming went, people always habitually regarded him as "Second Master Guan" and admired him. In the years that followed, Lu Shuming always kept the word "loyalty" in his heart.
In Lu Shuming's view, Guan Yu seemed to be standing behind him all the time. Therefore, Lu Shuming could not play other roles for a long time, let alone take the script of those villain images. Only one role has a huge impact on the actor's life, is this Lu Shuming's acting skills solid, or Guan Yu's image is too deeply rooted in the hearts of the people?
To become a god from a mortal, there are at least two prerequisites.
First of all, there must be a huge personality charm;
Second, there must be achievements worthy of praise.
Whether in the novel or in the main history, Guan Yu's bravery is obvious to all. Although Guan Yu was not a general who always won, every battle he won was quite exciting. Beheading the ugly face, cutting the wine and chopping the Huaxiong, cutting the six generals through five levels, going to the meeting with a single knife, flooding the Seven Armies, each story can be told for three days and three nights. Chen Shou, the author of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, gave Guan Yu a very high evaluation - Wei Zhen Huaxia. According to the research of later scholars, throughout the entire "Twenty-Four Histories", only Guan Yu has received such praise as "Wei Zhen Huaxia".
In addition, Guan Yu's influence did not appear after his death, even before Guan Yu's death, he was a well-known name in society. In the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms we can see such a sentence, "A group of thieves or remotely received the feather seal". The green forest heroes and grass heroes on the rivers and lakes are all happy and sincere to Guan Erye, and are willing to serve him before and after the saddle. This is enough to prove that outside the Bureaucratic classes of Wei, Shu, and Wu, Guan Yu's signboard is still dazzling, and both the common people and the rogue proletariat regard Guan Yu as a myth.
History is wonderful, some things are fake for a while, but they can't be faked for a hundred years, a thousand years. Guan Yu's genius is because he has the ability to do solid work, so the people will think that Guan Yu will protect the loyal and righteous. There is no element of fraud in Guan Yu's achievements, otherwise he will be caught by the tail of later scholars for a long time. But once the "false immortal" who is exposed is pierced, then he will roll off the altar and fall to the dust. Guan Yu became the Marquis of Hanshouting by relieving the siege of Baima, and was also crowned a god by virtue of his lifelong loyalty and righteousness, and experienced the test of the people for more than a thousand years.
In the change of feudal dynasties, one dynasty after another became a thing of the past, but Guan Yu's sign was always the same, and his prestige did not diminish with time, but increased day by day.
In 1102, Guan Yu's loyal fan Emperor Huizong of Song made him the "Duke of Zhonghui", and a few years later, he felt that the title of duke could not match the name of Guan Erye, and then added the titles of "Chongning Zhenjun" and "Righteous Courage Wu'an King".
During the Ming Dynasty, the Wanli Emperor felt that Guan Yu was a bit condescending to the position of "King of Wu'an", so he raised him to the same height as himself and made Guan Yu the "Emperor of Zhongyi of the Xietian Protectorate". Later, the Wanli Emperor felt that Guan Yu's divinity was no less than that of the Four Heavenly Emperors, so he added Guan Yu as "The Three Realms Voldemort Emperor, the Divine Weiyuan Town Tianzun, and the Guan Sheng Emperor".
Legendary novels and operas flourished during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and I don't know if they were influenced by literary works, and Guan Yu's prestige reached its peak. In the first year of Shunzhi, the Qing court named Guan Yu the "Emperor Wuguansheng of Loyalty and Righteousness". During the Guangxu period, there were even more titles added to Guan Erye's body, "Loyalty and Righteousness God Martial Spirit YouRen Yong Wei Xian Defending the Country and Protecting the People Sincerely Appeasement praise Xuande GuanSheng Emperor Jun", which is enough to have twenty-six words.
In this way, there were sixteen emperors before and after, and Guan Yu was posthumously awarded twenty-three times, making Guan Yu's status more and more revered. According to literature, by the middle of the Qing Dynasty, there were more than 300,000 Guandi temples in China, and there were 116 in Beijing alone. Whether it is the Land Temple or the Guanyin Temple, its number cannot be compared with the Guandi Temple.
In Guan Yu's life, the word zhongyi was carried out throughout. Even after experiencing setbacks, what he did was worthy of the word "loyalty.". Such as scraping bones to cure poison, carelessly losing Jingzhou, and losing maicheng allude to Guan Yu's noble personality. In particular, Guan Yu's death, although it was a defeat, the common people still felt discouraged and treated him differently from other losers in history.
As for the culprits who killed Guan Yu, instead of fearing guan Yu's death, Sun Quan gave Guan Yu's head to Cao Cao in order to pass on his fear. Subsequently, the two overlords of the Three Kingdoms buried Guan Gong's head in Luoyang, and the other buried Guan Yu's body in Dangyang.
Why would a military general of the Three Kingdoms make Cao Cao and Sun Quan, two superiors, so jealous?
This was enough to prove that Guan Yu already had divinity at that time. Ordinary people do not want to believe that Guan Yu is dead, so Guan Yu frequently appears in many folklore to save the toiling masses from water and fire.
So, why did Guan Yu's divine image become more and more noble?
To put it simply, it is the needs of society, precisely because the common people need Guan Yu, a god close to the people. Need stems from lack, for a long time the ancient people lacked this simple and direct faith, lack of loyalty and righteousness, so Guan Yu's personality quality became a unique divinity.
When China's commodity society gradually rose, mercenaries abounded. Those who can carry out loyalty to the end have gradually become rare. When looseness, cowardice, and selfishness gradually became the norm, the excellent qualities in Guan Yu became something that was missing in the bones of modern people. It is precisely because people feel that Guan Yu's hardness and bravery are only possessed by gods, so it is inevitable that Guan Yu will become a god.
Aren't the core values in Chinese culture exactly what Guan Yu possesses? From a historical point of view, Guan Yu's becoming a god and "getting stronger and stronger" is completely in line with the will of the people. Therefore, "the three religions of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism are respected at the same time, and the four people worship together in the four people of agriculture, agriculture, industry, and commerce", but all the industries that we can contact in our lives, such as: shaving our heads and shaving our faces, painting gold and making leather, slaughtering and peeling, pawning darts, eliminating disasters and curing diseases, warding off evil spirits and exorcising demons, setting up martial arts halls and running schools, opening restaurants to sell pickles, sewing clothes and grinding tofu, and hundreds of industries are willing to put the statue of Guan Gong in the most conspicuous position and make offerings every day. Even though Guan Yu was not the "grandmaster" of these industries, he was capable of being the "protector god" of the three hundred and sixty lines.
Of course, just as the so-called no one is perfect, Guan Yu's life is not perfect, and he also has many shortcomings.
First of all, Guan Yu has the problems that many historical celebrities have, and he is just self-conscious. After Lü Fengxian of the Three Kingdoms, there were no strong generals on the battlefield who were able to single out Guan Yu. It is precisely because Guan Yu is almost invincible in half his life, so his temperament is gradually contaminated with arrogance and arrogance, and he looks down on others. When Ma Chao defected to Liu Bei, Guan Yu immediately approached Zhuge Liang and asked him how he could be used by the lord and the public. If it weren't for Zhuge Liang's cleverness, clever words would have resolved the embarrassment, and Guan Yu would have caused chaos.
Secondly, although Guan Yu was invincible on the battlefield, his performance in the political arena was not satisfactory. The destruction of Sun Liu's marriage is really the failure of Guan Yu's life. If Guan Yu had the political acumen to give his daughter Xu to Sun Quan's son and stabilize Sun Liu's alliance, the result would inevitably develop in a good direction.
Finally, Guan Yu's temperament was too anxious, and the reason why Shu Han lost Jingzhou, Guan Yu had to bear the main responsibility. If Guan Yu had not been too hasty, not to attack Fancheng and choose to hold Jingzhou, Sun Cao's coalition army would not have been able to defeat Guan Yu, who was stubbornly defending in a short period of time.
Even Confucius is not a perfect person. The shortcomings in Guan Yu's human nature can be said to be flawed. It is also because Guan Yu is not perfect, so the people will feel that his existence is more real and more spiritual.
Resources:
【Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms"】