Guan Yu's character

Guan Yu is one of the most sought-after figures in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. This book gave him more praise than any other role. The novel praises him for "disloyalty, never dying", "being brave and daring, and doing whatever it takes", and finally bravely "beheaded and died" for Liu Bei, boasting that a living Guan Yu is a god. Nevertheless, Guan Yu was the most hated character of many fans of the Three Kingdoms, and Jin Shengtan of A Qing Dynasty complained a lot about him. I'm afraid this is because as long as you read the Romance of the Three Kingdoms carefully, you will find that it is really difficult to convince the public that Guan has achieved such a high status and evaluation with his literary skills and moral cultivation. It is not an exaggeration to say that Guan Yu is a wave with a hollow reputation. The evaluation of Guan Yu in past dynasties is nothing more than praising his courage and loyalty. But Guan Yu's works are all so-so, and there is nothing extraordinary. His advantages mainly lie in hypocrisy and good at speculation.

Let's talk about courage first. Guan Yu's martial arts are described many times in the novel, but I don't think he has fought any beautiful battles. This can be compared with Guan Yu's colleagues: Zhao Yun once went in and out of Cao Jun's encirclement in Changbanpo, killing 54 generals in Cao Ying in one breath, and Guan Yu only passed the "five" pass, and beheaded at most "six" generals, which was far from Zhao Yun in number; In the battle of Dingjunshan, veteran Huang Zhong struggled to kill Xia, one of Cao Cao's four generals, and made Cao Cao regret "hurting one of them". Guan Yu always jokes about opponents who are obviously not opponents, so it is difficult to see him when he meets a master. Therefore, most of the people who died under Guan Yu's sword were Han Fu, Meng Tan and Che Zhou, and the highest ranked ones were Yan Liang and Wen Chou, whose gold content was not comparable to that of Huang Zhong. Probably Guan Yu also knows that his martial arts are mediocre, so he always plays tricks at critical moments, so his only victory is victory without the help of force. In the White Horse Battle, Yuan Shao's general Yan Liang was not familiar with Guan Yu's situation, so he underestimated the enemy. Guan Yu violated the rules of exchanging names in ancient battles, rushed to Yan Liang and cut him off with a knife when he didn't respond. Later, Wen Chou was on guard, but Guan Yu did not dare to stand out, leaving Zhang Liao, Huang Xu and Wen Chou to work hard. It is estimated that Wen Chou was exhausted, so Guan Yucai "drank" Wen, beheaded Wen Chou easily, and took it home. Before that, Hulao Pass and Guan Yu were also difficult. First, I am afraid that Lu Bu is courageous and unwilling to fight; Zhang Fei was on the verge of success when he hit Lu Bu, but he was afraid that his third brother would take the lead and lose face. He hurriedly "helped" and hit the villain. Later, Liu Bei was dissatisfied, and he also came to boo, staged three farce of "English" wars against Lu Bu, and was therefore escaped by Lu Bu. There are many examples similar to Guan Yu in the Three Kingdoms. In a word, Guan Yu was like a rogue in the war, letting others take chestnuts from the fire and enjoying his own success.

Let's talk about it A general must be resourceful. Everyone in the Shu generals has a wonderful example of winning by outsmart. For example, Zhao Yun adopted the tactic of "pretending to be a snake", and in the first world war in Hanzhong, Cao Jun was defeated by a large number. Huang Zhong cheated and defeated the enemy soldiers, thus capturing the sky and mountains in one fell swoop. Even Zhang Fei, a brave and good fighter, can outsmart Yan Yan and defeat Zhuge Liang in the battle of entering Shu. In sharp contrast, Guan Yu is poor in this respect except for boasting and joking. Most of his victories were arranged by Zhuge Liang. I didn't leave any brilliant strategies, and I didn't leave any classic examples. Only the "flooded seven armies" can barely make up the number. And you can see at a glance, before the "flooded seven armies", Guan Yu was obviously at a disadvantage in the battle with Wei Jun. Not only did he not beat off the enemy, but he was almost shot by Pound himself. If it weren't for Wei Jun being forbidden to be jealous of talents, fearing that Pound would make great contributions, not listening to Pound's advice, and violating the art of war to station troops in the depression, Guan Yu would never win by luck. Such a trivial victory won Guan Yu the reputation of "a sublime China". Guan Yu, on the other hand, forgot the way he was beaten by Pound and accepted it brazenly. Thus, joy begets sorrow, and soon ushered in the most famous war example in his life-losing Jingzhou-which has now become synonymous with arrogance and failure.

Loyalty is Guan Yu's most vulnerable place. He is the only one of the five LTTE members in Shu Han who defected. And under the banner of "protecting sister-in-law", I didn't forget to put gold on my face when I surrendered. Although he claimed to be "not Cao, but to show his bluff, he still tried to solve the siege of a white horse for Cao Cao. After tossing Cao Cao for a long time, he was treacherous and rode thousands of miles to find Liu Bei. He seems to be loyal enough. But a few days later, Cao Cao, who had become Liu Bei's enemy, ran away in Huarong Road, making Cao Cao grateful. When he went back, he pretended not to forget the old feelings. It can be said that right and wrong are indistinguishable, extremely hypocritical and full of two sides. More seriously, he was arrogant and lost Jingzhou, a strategic place, which caused serious losses to Shu. I didn't know the situation myself, so I dreamed of Liu Bei again and again to avenge myself. As a result, Liu Bei was impulsive and did not listen to people's discouragement, and finally defeated Wu. Not only did he kill Zhang Fei, Huang Zhong and Liu Bei, but Shu was never recovered. It can be said that the revolutionary cause initiated by Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang was destroyed by Guan Yu. To say loyalty, where is Guan Yu's loyalty?

Besides, Guan Yu still has many shortcomings. Apart from his well-known arrogance, his other major weakness is his poor psychological quality. Guan Yu is the only senior general captured twice in the Three Kingdoms (second only to Meng Huo in number), which has strategic reasons, but also related to Guan Yu's psychological quality. The first time he was captured by Cao Cao, the book explained that he could not fight with all his strength because of the protection of Mrs. Liu Bei. However, the same dilemma Zhao Yun can repeatedly save the day: in the encirclement of Changbanpo, he rushed out with a single soldier and exhausted fighting spirit; In the battle of Hanzhong, Zhang Zhu and Huang Zhong were single-handedly rescued from Cao Cao's million-strong army; And always lead troops when the army retreats to protect the main force. In contrast, Guan Yu is much inferior in this respect. Every battle has not yet reached the last moment, either "fidgeting" or "utterly confused". First of all, he lost his fighting spirit and "numb his paws". The general is the backbone of the army. When Guan Yu was in chaos, the combat effectiveness of the army naturally declined, and failure was inevitable.

Courage and loyalty are not enough, so we must find another way. So Guan Yu's advantage of being good at speculation is even more obvious. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were the first to follow Liu Bei, but Guan Yu was not as reckless as Zhang Fei and often contradicted Liu Bei. He knew that Liu Bei was the supreme ruler of Shu, so he wouldn't worry about being promoted to a higher position. So he followed Liu Bei's instructions and firmly supported him. Liu Bei's instructions ordered him to obey unconditionally and carry it out to the end, and he has always been a "big brother". "Big brother" is short, but fortunately he is loyal to Liu Bei after his predecessors. Liu Bei also reciprocated. First, he sheltered Guan Yu from the severe punishment of Huarong Road, released Cao, and then urged Guan Yu to be the commander of Jingzhou Military Region. So who dares not flatter Guan Yu when selecting the "Five Tiger Generals"? Therefore, Guan Yu's ability to take credit is obviously higher than his own Zhang, Zhao, Ma and Huang, ranking first among the "Five Tiger Generals". Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun have great opinions, but they are helpless. Worst of all, with the popularity created by Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Guan Yu finally got mixed up with the titles of "Great Conqueror" and "Guan Fuzi", which was widely admired by later generations, and it can be described as infinite scenery. If Guan Yu has a spirit underground, I really should thank Luo Guanzhong. Unfortunately, after a long struggle, Guan Yu finally failed to live up to expectations, lost Jingzhou and hurt Shu Han. This is the evil result of knowing that you can't do it, but you are reluctant to do it.

May there be one less modern Guan Yu in today's society!