Three Kingdoms: Rebirth of Liu Bei, the Zhaolie

In the darkness of night.

Everyone was startled when they heard Liu Bei suddenly sit up in bed.

Geng Yong asked in surprise:

"Xuande, what is it?"

Liu Bei silently said:

"I just suddenly remembered an old friend..."

The term "old friends" here refers to both former acquaintances and those who have passed away.

For Liu Bei, who had been reborn, Guan Yu fit the bill perfectly; he was an old friend of his.

Geng Yong asked curiously:

"Which old friend?"

Liu Bei was hesitant to speak directly, and simply veiled the question by saying:

"Friends I used to hang out with. You don't know any of them."

Upon hearing Liu Bei's words, Geng Yong did not press the matter further.

They paused for a while.

Once the excitement subsided...

Liu Bei just asked Zhang Ba:

"What's the name of that young man from Hedong who comes to challenge you to sumo wrestling matches every day?"

Zhangba thought for a moment and said:

"His name seems to be Guan Yu, courtesy name Changsheng. Everyone called him Changsheng."

"Guan Yu, Guan Changsheng..."

Liu Bei muttered something to himself.

He knew that Guan Yu's original courtesy name was "Chang Sheng" (长生), but he felt that the name was not imposing enough and was too ordinary and casual, so he changed it to "Yun Chang" (云长).

At this time, Guan Yu, who was one year older than Liu Bei, was only sixteen years old and probably had not yet changed his courtesy name.

"Since Guan Yu was from Hedong in Sili, why did he come to Zhuo County?"

Liu Bei asked deliberately.

Zhang Ba pondered for a moment and said:

"I heard that he came to Zhuojun to trade horses with someone, but the person he came with went to Liaodong and never came back."

Liu Bei knew that Guan Yu had fabricated the reason, but he still pressed for an answer:

Why didn't Guan Yu go to Liaodong with that person?

Zhangba Road:

"Guan Yu fell ill when he arrived in Zhuo County, so that person allowed Guan Yu to stay in Zhuo County to recuperate."

"So that's how it is."

Liu Bei said silently.

Of course, he knew why Guan Yu had come to Zhuo County.

Historical records state that Guan Yu fled to Zhuojun due to some incident.

Liu Bei once learned from Guan Yu that Guan Yu fled to Zhuo County because he had killed the son of a local powerful man in his hometown of Jie County.

The son of that powerful family, relying on his family's retainers, ran rampant in the village, abusing the villagers and raping women, yet he remained at large because of his family's power and influence.

Sixteen-year-old Guan Yu, out of righteous indignation, took advantage of the chaos when this powerful man's son was bullying the people again and stabbed him.

The son of that powerful man died on the spot.

His men drew their swords, ready to kill Guan Yu.

But Guan Yu at that time was nearly nine feet tall (two meters). He was tall and strong, and he killed several powerful men with his sword. No one dared to approach him for a while, so he left.

Guan Yu had killed someone and offended the local powerful figures, so he could no longer stay in Jie County.

To prevent his parents from being retaliated against, he first moved them to the home of a distant relative in another county, where they lived as refugees, working odd jobs and farming.

He himself completely left Hedong Commandery and the Sili Commandery, and fled all the way to Zhuojun in Youzhou.

Guan Yu was the son of a commoner and grew up among ordinary people, so he was very friendly to peddlers and laborers.

During his escape, he also received help from many ordinary people.

The Guan family was once wealthy and passed down their knowledge of poetry and literature.

However, by the time of Guan Yu's grandfather, the family fortunes began to decline.

By the time of Guan Yu's father's generation, they had completely fallen into the status of ordinary people.

However, the Guan family has always had a tradition of studying and learning.

Guan Yu's father was forced to study little due to the pressure of making a living.

Guan Yu had loved reading the books in his family's collection since he was a child, especially the Zuo Zhuan (Commentary of Zuo) on the Spring and Autumn Annals, to the point that he could recite them almost perfectly.

It is evident that his study of the Zuo Zhuan (Commentary of Zuo) has reached a level where he can largely recite it.

His fondness for it is evident.

It was because he read Zuo Zhuan (a commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals) from a young age that he developed an arrogant personality, and he couldn't stand those pretentious scholars.

This also led to him and Zhang Fei having completely different views on scholars.

Historical records state that "Zhang Fei loved and respected gentlemen but did not care for commoners," meaning that Zhang Fei respected scholars and intellectuals but did not care for soldiers, servants, or ordinary people.

—The “petty person” here does not refer to a person of low moral character, but rather to the common people and the enslaved, who are the opposite of the “gentleman” or the scholar.

Guan Yu was different from Zhang Fei, even the complete opposite – “Guan Yu treated his soldiers well but was arrogant towards the gentry and officials.”

Guan Yu often treated the lower-ranking soldiers and servants kindly and was very friendly to them.

However, Guan Yu displayed an arrogant attitude towards scholars and intellectuals, even showing disdain for them.

In the "Cao Gui's Discussion on War" in the tenth year of Duke Zhuang of the Spring and Autumn Annals, Zuo Zhuan, there is a record: Gui said, "Those who eat meat are base and cannot plan for the long term."

Ordinary people mainly eat grains and do not eat meat often.

Those who regularly ate meat were the ruling class, mainly the so-called scholar-officials. They were what the Zuo Zhuan referred to as the "meat eaters".

Guan Yu, who frequently recited the Zuo Zhuan, had long ago discerned from this book that the "meat-eaters" were short-sighted, lacked political foresight, were detached from reality and politically incompetent, and were hypocritical, pretentious, and indulged in pleasure, leading to the collapse of the social order.

When Guan Yu, who was well-versed in the Zuo Zhuan (a historical text), witnessed the behavior of such a group of "meat-eaters," how could he possibly give them a pleasant look?

Prime ministers must rise from the ranks of local officials, and valiant generals must emerge from the ranks of soldiers.

The capable and competent officials who climbed their way up from the bottom were the ones Guan Yu admired.

Guan Yu treated the soldiers and laborers working on the front lines with kindness and compassion, which naturally led him to the idea of ​​winning their hearts and making them work for him. However, he also did not dare to underestimate the vast masses of people who were creating history.

The different attitudes of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei towards "gentlemen" and "petty men" also contributed to their respective personal tragedies to some extent.

Zhang Fei ultimately died at the hands of a "petty person".

Guan Yu's tragic life was also inextricably linked to his arrogant and aloof nature, characterized by "rigidity and self-importance."

Of course, as a renowned "Martial Saint" in Chinese history, Guan Yu was also very martial, able to be ranked alongside Confucius, the "Sage of Literature".

From a young age, he practiced martial arts with his father in his spare time while studying.

Hearing that someone in the village was skilled in martial arts, he went to ask for their guidance.

Upon seeing someone with a robust physique, Guan Yu wanted to have a match with him, both for entertainment and to test his fighting skills in real combat.

Li Hu, a blacksmith known as "Zhangba" who worked at Shiwulipu, became Guan Yu's target because of his nine-foot height and imposing physique.

After all, Guan Yu, who was nearly nine feet tall, could hardly find an opponent of similar size; only an eighteen-foot-tall man was a suitable match.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the average height of a man was only about seven feet.

Standing eight feet tall, that would be considered "of great appearance".

If someone is nine feet tall, then they are an extremely rare giant.

Even in modern society, a man who is two meters tall, or nine feet in the Han Dynasty, is very rare.

One can imagine what a nine-foot-tall man must have been like at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Being strong and powerful is never a bad thing.

A nine-foot-tall man can roam the martial world and dominate the battlefield with just a little knowledge of martial arts.

Moreover, Guan Yu had practiced martial arts since he was a child.

Liu Bei knew that it was not unjust for Zhangba to lose to Guan Yu in every sumo wrestling match.

Although Zhangba was made by a blacksmith and had impressive strength in his arms, he didn't know how to use it, so it was just brute force.

If you teach Zhangba a little bit of wrestling and judo techniques, he can win in the ring.

Thinking of this, Liu Bei felt a surge of excitement:

"Zhangba, get up early tomorrow, I'll teach you some techniques that will guarantee you defeat that man named Guan Yu."

……

This man (Guan Yu) was tall and studious. He could recite most of the Zuo Zhuan by heart, and his words were bold and heroic.

—From the Biography of Lü Meng in the Records of the Three Kingdoms