"Ten thousand enemies" before birth, "martial saint" after birth

In Chinese history, a very few outstanding professionals have been honored as "saints", such as "medical saint" Zhang Zhongjing, "chess saint" Yan Ziqing, "poetry saint" Du Fu, "tea saint" Lu Yu. Unlike these cultural giants, Guan Yu, a famous Shu Han general in the Three Kingdoms period, was also revered as a "saint" behind him, and with his exclusive status as a "martial saint", he was as tall as the "Wen sage" Confucius, which was enough to be amazing.

During the Three Kingdoms period, guan yu and Zhang Fei were known for their "ten thousand enemies", and Guan Yu was especially unique. Guan Yu (A.D.?) –219) was a native of Xie County, Hedong (present-day Yuncheng, Shanxi). Under the description of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", he was nosy when he was young, and when he saw a uneven road, he would roar and draw his sword to help. Because he killed the county commander of the county and his wife and brother-in-law, he fled to Zhuo County (涿郡, in present-day Zhuozhou, Hebei) and became acquainted with the local Zhang Fei. When Liu Bei, who was also a native of Zhuo County, recruited troops to buy horses, he defected to Liu Bei with Zhang Fei and participated in the suppression of the Yellow Turban Rebellion. Liu Bei made the Plain Phase, so he let them be the sima of the other departments and divide the divisions. Many stories occurred during Guan Yu's pursuit of Liu Bei, and in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the colorful rendering became a series of heroic stories such as Guan Yu's wenjiu chopping Huaxiong, Sanying Battle Lü Bu, Tuntushan appointment three things, Guan Yu's night viewing of Spring and Autumn, Feng Hanshou Tinghou, hanging seal and sealing gold, riding a single ride for a thousand miles, cutting six generals through five levels, and Juyi, the lord of the ancient city. During his period of following Liu Bei, his loyalty and righteousness, his special relationship with Liu Bei as a principal subject and a brother, even after Liu Bei invited Zhuge Liang and boasted that he was like a fish in the water, his special position as the second person in Liu Bei's clique was never challenged. Taking advantage of the alliance between Sun and Liu, Liu Bei became the biggest winner in the Battle of Chibi, occupying the counties of Jiangnan and paying homage to the Yuanxun, and Guan Yu was the first to be the general of Xiangyang Taishou and Lang Kou, and sat alone in Jiangbei. Liu Beixi took Yizhou and "worshiped Yu Dong to oversee Jingzhou"; the so-called "Dong Dou" was the commander-in-chief, in charge, and Zhuge Liang was actually his deputy. The military division Zhonglang killed Pang Tong in Shu, and Liu Bei urgently summoned the military division general Zhuge Liang to lead Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun into Shu to reinforce, so Guan Yu was even more in the position of the side, and took charge of half of Liu Bei's clique.

Guan Yu became more and more respected with his official position and his power, and all those who remained had to obey orders, which made his arrogance and arrogance, which was not very obvious before, stand out, and grew into pride and arrogance, with no one in sight. In the nineteenth year of Jian'an (214), Ma Chao sent a "secret letter to Liu Bei to surrender", and led his army from Hanzhong to Chengdu, where the defenders were terrified and confused, and ten days later, Liu Zhang surrendered to Liu Bei. Liu Bei made Ma Chao a general of Pingxi, and Guan Yu thought that he was "an old man of the past" and was displeased with his selfishness, so he quickly wrote to Zhuge Liang and asked "who can compare super talents" to him. Zhuge Liang understood that Guan Yu was arrogant and domineering, and it was not easy to criticize, so he could only carry out spiritual bribery, and replied in a reply, "Meng Qi (Ma Chao's character) is also a scholar and martial artist, a heroic and outstanding person, a master of the first world, a disciple of (Han Chu) And Peng (Yue), when he and Yide (Zhang Fei's character) and drive away the first, they are still not as good as the hair of the extraordinary Yiqun." Guan Yu has always been known as the "Beautiful Hair", so Zhuge Liang is synonymous with the word "hair". Guan Yu was overjoyed, and insisted that he was really a super-first-class celebrity in ancient and modern times, and he was so overwhelmed that he took the letter to the guests to see to satisfy vanity.

In the twenty-fourth year of Jian'an (219), Liu Bei called himself the King of Hanzhong, Bai Guanyu as a former general, Zhang Fei as a right general, Ma Chao as a left general, Huang Zhong as a rear general, Zhuge Liang had a lesson from his previous car, and even worried that Guan Yu would hear that Huang Zhong was in the same column, "I am afraid that I will not be pleased", Liu Bei had to say "I should solve myself". It can be seen that except for Liu Bei, no one dares to provoke Guan Yu anymore.

Guan Yu began to "Dong Dou" Jingzhou from the sixteenth year of Jian'an (211) when Liu Bei entered Shu, which lasted for eight years, and the problems became deeper and deeper. Shortly after Jian'an divided Jingzhou in the middle of the Xiangshui border in the twentieth year of Jian'an (215), Sun Quan sent an envoy to meet Guan Yu and offered to let Guan Yu's daughter marry his son and engage in another political marriage. At first, Liu Bei could come to the door to marry Lady Sun, but this time, Guan Yu did not understand the general situation, disregarded the overall situation, threatened "how can a tiger girl marry a dog", insulted the messenger who came to hire, and refused to marry. Sun Quan's nose was blue and his face was swollen, and he was furious, so he naturally stepped up the pace of seizing Jingzhou, and when Lü Meng replaced Lu Su to preside over military affairs, he performed the live drama of "Crossing the River in White Clothes".

In the twenty-fourth year of Jian'an, Guan Yu seized the favorable opportunity of Liu Bei's occupation of Hanzhong and took the initiative to send troops to attack Fancheng, besieging Cao Ren, the general of Cao Wei, inside the city. At that time, Cao Cao had just retreated from Hanzhong to Chang'an, and when he heard that Cao Ren was in danger, he immediately sent another general, Ban, to lead the Seventh Army to help. At that time, it was raining heavily, and it continued to fall for more than ten days, causing the Han River to surge and burst the embankment, and submerged the Seventh Army, which could not escape. Yu Ban took refuge in a high place with very few lucky survivors, and Guan Yu arrived by large ship, forcing Yu Ban to surrender. Cao Weiyong fought unyieldingly, the ship was overturned and captured, still standing but not kneeling, scolding and refusing to surrender, and was killed by Guan Yu. Guan Yu took advantage of the water to further besiege Fancheng, and Cao Ren and his thousands of soldiers almost became turtles in an urn. Guan Yu sent another force to encircle Xiangyang, where The Wei general Lü Chang was defending. For a time, Guan Yu's prestige shook Huaxia, and the county magistrates of Liang, Yu, and Luhun (present-day central and western Henan) under Cao Cao's rule rebelled against the water and accepted Guan Yu's restraint. Cao Cao was quite panicked and proposed to move from Xudu to Luoyang. Fortunately, Sima Yi, Jiang Ji, and others offered advice, believing that "If Guan Yu had achieved his goal, Sun Quan would not be willing to do so", he could send someone to promise Sun Quan to "cut off Jiangnan" as a fiefdom, in exchange for Sun Quan sending troops to "step behind him" and achieve "Fan Wei self-liberation", so that there was no hasty move of the capital. Cao Wei's divisive pull was just as Sun Wu's lü meng and Lu Xun had already begun to attack Jingzhou, so they hit it off and attacked Guan Yu on both sides. Lü Meng "crossed the river in white clothes", Mi Fang and Fu Shiren fell without a fight, Jiangling and public security quickly fell into the hands of Sun Wu, and Guan Yu had no support behind him. On the frontal Xiangfan battlefield, the reinforcements led by The famous Cao Wei general Xu Huang also arrived, and Guan Yu could not resist, so he had to ask for self-protection and "lead the army back".

This time the Northern Expedition was the first major battle fought by Guan Yu pingsheng as the commander, personally planned, personally commanded, and personally fought, and the beginning was indeed invincible, pushing his prestige to the peak. Unfortunately, the peak is also a turning point of fate, once the belly and back are attacked, there is no way to retreat, and it falls to the bottom. In November of that year, maicheng (maicheng) (southeast of present-day Danyang, Hubei) was defeated, and yu was captured in Linfeng (present-day Yuan'anbei, Hubei), where he was killed along with Zi Guanping. The hero's end is worse than Xiang Yu's defeat in Wujiang more than four hundred years ago, and the end of his life is marked with a tragic end.

After Guan Yu was captured and killed, Sun Quan gave his head to Cao Cao, who ordered a thick burial. As soon as Liu Bei heard the bad news, he "attacked Guan Yu with anger at Sun Quan and marched east", and no one could dissuade him. Zhang Fei naturally wanted to march from "cutting down Wu" and "when he led an army of 10,000 people, he went from Langzhong (now a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Nanchong City, Sichuan Province) to Huijiang Prefecture (present-day chongqing city center city)". Before the troops were sent, "zhang da and Fan Qiang were killed and flown under his account, and he ran down the river with his head and ran to Sun Quan", and also completed the course of his life with a sad ending. All these circumstances show that Guan Yu's death had a huge impact and implicated the three major groups in the Dingzhi dispute. After the Battle of Yiling, Liu Bei was defeated and died in Yong'an City, although the death of Guan Yu and the death of Zhang Fei were not the same day of the same month in the natural sense, but from the perspective of historical changes, it can indeed be seen as the same day of the same month of the same year in the social sense.

During Liu Bei's lifetime, Guan Yu was not given any kind of extraordinary mourning. It was not until the autumn and September of the third year (260) of the later lord Jing Yao, that is, 41 years after Guan Yu's death, that he was posthumously honored as the Marquis of Zhuangmiao. At the same time, Zhang Fei, Ma Chao, Pang Tong, and Huang Zhong were also posthumously honored, and Guan Yu had nothing special except for ranking first. Until the Southern and Northern Dynasties period, 300 years had passed since Guan Yu's death. The ruling class of the Southern Dynasty was the Han Chinese, who had been weak for a long time, had the intention to drive away the "captives", and were powerless to return to heaven, so they pinned the spiritual appeal of "restoring China" on the worship of heroes and looked for heroes from the history of the Three Kingdoms, which was closest to them. This kind of spiritual sustenance was mixed with orthodoxy, and they decided that only the Shu Han regime was the same order orthodoxy as before, so they chose Shu Han Guan Yu and Zhang Fei as heroic idols, regardless of the fact that they were also in Jiangdong. Later, as in the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties for more than 400 years, the Han ruling class tended to respect Guan Yu more when it became weaker, but the ruling class of ethnic minorities became the backbone of China and paid more attention to Guan Yu, which became a traditional Chinese feature. The idea of domination was integrated into the people and was widely recognized, and the Song and Yuan dynasties became the first general recognized by many ethnic groups in China.

At about the same time as the cult of heroes spawned by the spiritual sustenance of the ethnic group, the two major religions of Buddhism and Taoism successively invited Guan Yu into their own sects to worship, and Buddhism played the role of guiding the way. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Buddhism prevailed, and the shrines in the Jiangling area of Jingzhou, where Guan Yu's blessings and misfortunes intersected, were particularly prosperous. Although Taoism honored Guan Yu later than Buddhism, he came to the top and had a higher level. Concentrated on the use of imperial power to highlight Guan Yu, to raise Guan Yu to a position of respect that is difficult for mortals to reach. The Song Dynasty was weak, successively invaded and humiliated by the Northern Liao and Jin, politically and spiritually there was a need to borrow the ancient metaphor of the present, to preach righteousness and courage, and the need for imperial power and religious spirituality should be combined, and Guan Yu became the best candidate. Emperor Zhezong of Song zhao Xu first named Guan Yu the King of Xianling, and Emperor Huizong of Song successively made Guan Yu the True King of Chongning, the King of Wu'an, and the King of Wu'an, and the divine and wang numbers were attached to Guan Yu. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty painted gourds in the same way, and crowned Guan Yu as the King of Zhuangmiao Yiyong, and Song Xiao song Zhao Xuan changed Guan Yu to the King of Yingji. The Mongols entered the Central Plains and accepted the Han culture, which also wanted to show the spirit of righteousness and courage, and Emperor Wenzong of Yuanwen made a big deal, and named Guan Yu the King of Wu'an Yingji, setting a new high for Guan Yu's title. Emperor Mingshen Zhu Yijun was further promoted to the next level, and in the eighteenth year of the Wanli Calendar (1590), Guan Yu was named the Zhongyi Emperor of the Xietian Protectorate, and he was called "Guan Emperor"; in the forty-second year of the Wanli Dynasty (1614), Guan Yu was named the Emperor of Voldemort of the Three Realms, the Emperor of The Divine Weiyuan Town Tianzun Guansheng, and was called "Guan Sheng" from here. In the meantime, a subtle change occurred silently, that is, "loyalty" replaced "righteous courage". Its political background lies in the fact that at that time, the Ming Dynasty turned from prosperity to decline, internal and external troubles were difficult to return, and the imperial power urgently needed "Voldemort" and "Protector of the Country", and in the Taoist system, Voldemort the Great, Guan Sheng Emperor jun was also known as the True Emperor of the Devil, together with the Huaguang Emperor, Marshal Zhao Gong, marshal Wen Qiong and known as the "Four Marshals of the Protector". He is both a god of martial arts and a god of wealth, and he also has the magic powers of Si Minglu, You keju, dispelling diseases and disasters, driving away evil and avoiding evil, cursing rebellion, picketing meditation, and sheltering merchant Jia Zhaocai into treasure, so he is widely worshipped. Ethnicity, religion and imperial power are three-in-one, intertwined and interacting, and the deep cultural roots lie in Confucianism.

Therefore, for thousands of years, especially in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the core theme of ideology and culture that ruled China has been the "benevolence" represented by Confucius, the "wenshengren", and the "righteousness" represented by "wushengren" Guan Yu, and the "wushengren" Guan Yu and the "righteousness" represented by him have more extensively and far-reaching influence on the people.

Therefore, it has a broader and more far-reaching impact on the people, from the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, and the intervention and role of gangs cannot be ignored. Many former Ming remnants in the early Qing Dynasty, holding narrow and persistent ethnic prejudices and orthodox concepts, devoted themselves to pursuing "anti-Qing and restoration of the Ming Dynasty", and the Heaven and Earth Society and the White Lotus Sect were two of the major gang organizations. Tao Chengzhang, a revolutionary in the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, said in the "Examination of the Origins of the Church" that the Heaven and Earth Society was also called "Hongmen" and "because of the Name Hongwu of the Ming Dynasty," "it was also called Han Liu, and the initiator was Zheng Chenggong and others." There are several other theories about its origin, which have always been controversial and cannot be said alone so far. However, Tao Chengzhang said that "all the so-called triads, three-point associations, brotherhoods, and so on, as well as all kinds of associations, are no more than the branches of the Heaven and Earth Society." Its activities have spread throughout the north and south of the great river, inside and outside the Great Wall, and the mass base is quite deep, and it is believeable that it has always been revolutionary and destructive. Among them, the Brotherhood of Elders, commonly known as "Brother Robe", originated in Sichuan and spread in Yunnan, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi, Shaanxi, Gansu and other provinces and regions, and traced all over the country, which can represent the rules and customs of the Heaven and Earth Society.

From the beginning of the Qing Dynasty to the end of the People's Republic, the robe brother organization took root in all levels of society, from warlords and politicians, rich gentry and tycoons, down to the peddlers and pawns, the three religions and nine streams, all of which belonged to the five halls of benevolence, righteousness, etiquette, wisdom and faith according to different social identities, and were entangled as gangs in the form of opening mountains and building churches, taking blood covenant oaths, and righteous knots. The main god worshipped by the various robes is guan yu, the "martial saint". Gang organizations are more socially infiltrative than religion and imperial power, so the "jianghu righteousness" is also more folk affinity, and the jianghu "Guan Shengren" is not completely equivalent to the temple "Guan Shengren". Guan Yu, who was "ten thousand enemies" before his death, evolved into Guan Yu who was a "martial saint" behind him, Guan Yu who was a "ten thousand enemies" before his death, and Guan Yu who evolved into a "martial saint" behind him, and the context was generally clear. Obviously, guan yu, a "martial sage" created by the joint efforts of ethnic groups, religions, and imperial powers, although flashes the shadow of Guan Yu, a specific "ten thousand enemies" in the history of the Three Kingdoms, is by no means a prototype and reproduction relationship between the two and two.

Also built later, the temple version of the "Martial Sage" Guan Yu is also identical to the Jianghu version of the "Martial Sage" Guan Yu, because the gang has always been separated from the temple, and the meaning of the same words is not completely consistent. Whether it is ethnic groups, religions, imperial powers, and the ruling classes of successive dynasties and dynasties who are so keen to create a "martial sage" Guan Yu, sanctifying him to a state that has never been seen before, who has never come after him, or even a state that is unmatched in the world, and excluding the inherent special interest components in it, it should be said that even today and even after a hundred generations, moral behaviors such as loyalty to the country, righteousness and benevolence, courage and fortitude, and honesty and vigor are still a precious spiritual wealth. In the past, present or future, on the baseline of national dignity and national interests, rivers and lakes and temples can maintain a common heart.