Guan Yu

Guan Yu the Chinese general of the late Han and Three Kingdoms period (c. 160-220 AD), a celebrated warrior and the sworn companion of Liu Bei, who came to be venerated as a deity of loyalty, righteousness and war. He is one of the most widely worshipped figures in Chinese religious and popular culture.

Early Life and Meeting Liu Bei

Guan Yu was born around 160 AD in the region of Hedong in present-day Shanxi. According to the traditional account, he was forced to flee his home district after killing a man, and he made his way to the region of Zhuo, where he met Liu Bei and Zhang Fei. The three are said to have formed a bond of brotherhood that endured for the rest of their lives.

The image of the three companions, sleeping in the same bed and treating one another as brothers, became one of the most famous friendships in Chinese history. Though the dramatic ceremony of the peach garden oath belongs to later fiction rather than to the historical record, the closeness of the bond between Guan Yu and Liu Bei is well attested and became the foundation of his legend.

Guan Yu followed Liu Bei through the long years of wandering and defeat that preceded the founding of Shu Han. He shared his lord's hardships, remained loyal through reverses that might have tempted a less steadfast man to change sides, and became one of the most trusted commanders of the small force that Liu Bei gathered around him.

Military Career

Guan Yu was renowned as a warrior of exceptional strength and courage, and his exploits in battle became legendary. In one famous episode, recorded in the historical sources, he rode out alone among the enemy and killed the general Yan Liang, an act that broke the morale of the opposing army and helped to win the engagement. His personal valour was a decisive factor in several of Liu Bei's early victories.

He served for a time under the warlord Cao Cao, who admired him greatly and tried to win his lasting allegiance with honours and gifts. Guan Yu accepted the favours but made clear that he would return to Liu Bei when he learned where his lord had gone. When the opportunity came he left Cao Cao's service and rejoined Liu Bei, an act of fidelity that Cao Cao is said to have respected rather than resented.

In the years after Liu Bei established himself in the west, Guan Yu was entrusted with the defence of Jing Province, the strategically vital region on the middle Yangzi that formed the eastern flank of Liu Bei's territories. He commanded this frontier for years, holding it against the rival state of Wu and maintaining the pressure on the north, and he became the most senior of Liu Bei's generals in the field.

The Loss of Jing and Death

The defence of Jing Province proved to be Guan Yu's undoing. His position required a delicate balance between the alliance with Sun Quan and the hostility toward Cao Cao, and his blunt and sometimes contemptuous treatment of the Wu rulers strained relations. When he marched north in 219 AD to attack the forces of Cao Cao, he left his rear exposed to the very ally whose goodwill he had done little to cultivate.

The Wu commander Lu Meng took advantage of the opportunity. He launched a surprise attack on Jing Province, capturing the cities and winning over Guan Yu's subordinates, while the main Wu army cut off his retreat. Guan Yu, abandoned and isolated, was captured and executed in 220 AD, and Jing Province passed to Wu. His death was a disaster for Liu Bei, who launched a disastrous campaign to avenge him and recover the province.

The loss of Jing Province and the death of Guan Yu changed the balance of the Three Kingdoms. Liu Bei's subsequent defeat at Yiling crippled Shu Han, and the alliance between Shu and Wu was damaged for years. The episode became one of the great tragedies of the period, and Guan Yu's failure of judgment, as much as his courage, became part of his complex legacy.

Deification and Worship

Over the centuries Guan Yu was transformed from a historical general into a god. The process began with the honours granted to his memory by later dynasties, which conferred on him ever more exalted titles and recognised his loyalty and righteousness as exemplary. By the late imperial period he had become one of the most widely worshipped deities in China.

He is honoured as the god of loyalty and righteousness, and as a patron of soldiers, policemen and merchants. Shrines to him, known as guandi temples, were built in towns and villages throughout China and among Chinese communities overseas. He is worshipped by soldiers who seek his courage, by merchants who value the trustworthiness that he embodies, and by all who admire fidelity to a sworn bond.

In art he is depicted as a tall, imposing figure with a long flowing beard, a red face and green robes, often holding the great halberd known as the green dragon crescent blade. He is commonly shown beside his groom and his steed, the Red Hare, and his image appears on altars, in operas and in the popular prints of the New Year. These visual conventions made him one of the most recognisable figures of Chinese culture.

Literary and Cultural Legacy

Guan Yu is a central character in the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which greatly enlarged his legend. The novel supplies many of the episodes most dear to tradition, including the oath in the peach garden, the journey through the five passes after his return to Liu Bei, and his treatment of Cao Cao at the Huarong pass, where his sense of obligation overcame his duty and allowed his old patron to escape.

He embodies the Confucian virtue of yi, right conduct and loyalty to obligation, and he is often contrasted with characters who betray their trusts for advantage. His steadfast attachment to Liu Bei and his refusal to be bought by wealth or office made him the model of the loyal servant, and his worship in later centuries was encouraged by rulers who saw in his cult a support for social order and fidelity.

He is remembered as one of the great heroes of Chinese history and legend, a man of immense courage and unwavering loyalty whose virtues were elevated into religion. From a warrior of limited political judgment he became the patron of a whole system of moral values, and his name remains synonymous in Chinese culture with the honouring of a sworn word and the devotion of a friend to his friend.

The historical Guan Yu was proud, brave and loyal, a gifted commander who was also capable of the arrogance that contributed to his downfall. That this fallible warrior should have become the object of such widespread veneration is itself a striking illustration of how Chinese culture prized loyalty, and it has secured him a place among the most enduring figures of the civilisation.

See also

• Three Kingdoms
• Liu Bei
• Zhang Fei
• Chinese folk religion