Where is Guan Yu’s Guandao?

Everyone who has read "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" knows Guan Yunchang's Qinglong Yanyue Sword. Guan Yu used this sword to kill Yan Liang and Wen Chou, passed five passes, and beheaded six generals. He shocked China and became famous for a while. However, Guan Yu in history never had the Qinglong Yanyue Sword.

Although there are many references to weapons such as swords in historical records, there is not a single word sword in Chen Shou's "The Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms: The Biography of Guan Yu", and the entire "The Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms" does not mention the ambassador Guan Yun. The matter of Qinglong Yanyue Sword. There is no such record in other notes such as Pei Song's notes and miscellaneous history notes other than official history. This was not said until the Sui and Tang Dynasties.

The sword has a long history in our country, but in the Han Dynasty it was only used as a short weapon. The general length is about 1 meter and the weight is only a few kilograms. According to "Three Kingdoms", "Sword Record" and related information, long-handled swords did not appear until the Three Kingdoms. The long weapon sword used with both hands only appeared in the Sui and Tang Dynasties to accompany the ceremonial guards, and the Qinglong Yanyue sword with a long handle and wide blade similar to that used by Guan Yunchang did not exist until the Song Dynasty. Therefore, it is completely false to say that Guan Yu used the 82-pound Qinglong Yanyue sword as a weapon during the Three Kingdoms period.

So what kind of weapons did Guan Yu use? According to the Record of Ancient and Modern Swords by Tao Hongjing of the Southern Liang Dynasty: "Guan Yu was valued by his ancestors, and he did not hesitate to take his own life. He collected iron from Wudu Mountain and made two swords, which were inscribed on ten thousand people. When Yu was defeated, he cherished the sword and threw it into the water." This is more believable. Because at this time, it was very common to use short knives as weapons and became the main weapon in the army. They were cast in large quantities in the three countries.

The idea that Guan Yu used the Qinglong Yanyue Sword probably dates back to the Song Dynasty. Yue Fei once painted a portrait of Guan Yu wearing armor, riding a horse and holding a sword, looking back, with beard and beard fluttering, as if he was victorious on the battlefield and slowly returning to camp. Someone carved this painting on the stone and it is now stored in the Longmen Cultural Relics Research Institute. In the Yuan Dynasty's "Three Kingdoms", Guan Yu used a broadsword to charge on the battlefield. In the Ming Dynasty, through the artistic processing of the writer Luo Guanzhong, Guan Yunchang in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" became an image of a majestic and majestic hero, riding a red rabbit on a thousand-mile horse, wielding a Qinglong Yanyue Sword with both hands, and conquering mountains and rivers with force. . Luo Guanzhong also fictionalized touching stories about Guan Yunchang "going to a meeting alone" and "picking up a brocade robe with a sword" based on this Bingdao, which further highlighted Guan Yu's prestige and bravery.

1. Did Guan Yu use a sword?

This has been the most discussed topic for hundreds of years. It is estimated that many people can recite it: the weapon used by Guan Yu in history was not a sword, and naturally it was not the so-called Qinglong Yanyue Sword. Chen Shou's "Three Kingdoms" does not mention what weapons Guan Yu used. There is only one record in "Three Kingdoms? Biography of Guan Yu": "Shao sent General Yan Liang to attack Liu Yan, the prefect of Dongjun, on Baima. Duke Cao sent Zhang Liao and Yu as the vanguard to attack him. When Yu saw Liang's subordinate Gai, he spurred Liang on his horse. Among the thousands of people, he beheaded him and returned it, but none of the generals could do it, so he broke the siege of Baima. "Through the word "stab", many people think that the weapons Guan Yu used were straight-piercing weapons such as spears and halberds. Some experts have verified that "halberds were the most popular in the Han Dynasty, followed by spears." During the Three Kingdoms period, there was no long-handled broadsword like the Qinglong Yanyue Sword. This kind of Yanyue Sword appeared in the Tang and Song Dynasties. It was mainly used for training to demonstrate martial prowess and was not used in actual combat. Through experts' explanation of doubts, the theory of Guandao's fabrication can finally be confirmed. Not only that, based on expert research on the origin and development and use of weapons in various periods, in the novel Huang Zhong and Wei Yan's broadswords, Xu Huang's axe, Huang Gai's iron whip, Wu Anguo's iron hammer, and Lu Bu's Fangtian painted halberd They are all fictitious. Such research is beneficial to restoring the historical origins, and also allows enthusiasts to learn more about ancient weapons. However, recently some authors have been unconventional and tried to work on the eighty-two kilogram weight of the Qinglong Yanyue Sword described in the novel. They are actually testing how much strength it takes to play the eighty-two kilograms Qinglong Yanyue Sword on a horse, trying to prove it. The fabrication of the Qinglong Yanyue Sword turned out to be a big joke. Some authors simply did not understand that the weight and scale of the Eastern Han Dynasty were different from those of modern times. One kilogram at that time was only equivalent to 222.72 grams today. Based on this calculation, the Qinglong Yanyue Sword also added up to the current 36 kilograms. These people have a good direction, but they have made two mistakes: first, they do not have enough knowledge and make random guesses; second, even if they have a result, whether it is for the study of the history of the Three Kingdoms, the study of historical figures, the study of novel art, and the study of novel characters Image research and author research are of no use. This unconventional approach is time-consuming and futile, so it is better not to do it. But this mistake doesn't just happen to ordinary people.

In the 1980s, after my father attended a classical literature conference, he brought back a real joke: at the conference, an expert presented his own paper, and the main content was to prove that Cao Xueqin, the author of "Dream of Red Mansions", was a fat man! More than twenty years have passed, but the author still remembers my father's expression when he told this incident. Readers of this article may wish to consider the implications of this.

2. How did the Qinglong Yanyue Sword evolve?

Since it has been mentioned above that the Guan Sword is fictional, how did it appear in the novel step by step? The author checked the relevant information, but it was not comprehensive. According to the "Three Kingdoms? Biography of Guan Yu", Guan Yu used a spear or a halberd. In the Tang and Song Dynasties, the Guandao seemed to be a sword (the author has little information on this aspect, so I may have omitted it. If any netizen has detailed information, please enlighten me, thank you very much!). There is this sentence in the poem "Farewell to Friends at Zhuangmiaohou Temple" by Lang Junzhou of the Tang Dynasty: "The general is as beautiful as the sky, and his righteousness and bravery are the best in the past and present. His horse travels on hundreds of battlefields, and one sword kills ten thousand enemies." Huang Maocai of the Song Dynasty said in "Praise to the King of Wu'an" : "The spirit is overwhelming, brave and strong. Among all the people, the assassin is good." "Wuchengwang Temple Ceremony Praise" written by an unknown person in the Song Dynasty said: "The sword spirit reaches the clouds, and it is actually called the tiger minister. When the bravery adds to a country, the enemy is called ten thousand people." By the Yuan Dynasty, the idea of ??Guan Yu using a sword began to appear in different works. Hao Jing of the Yuan Dynasty said in "The Reconstruction of the Temple": "The leaping horse killed thousands of people, and Hou Yin gave him gold to return the title. Hengdao worshiped the book to Cao Gong, which has been a noble scholar through the ages." Later, in Yuan dramas, Guan Yu also used a knife. In "Three Kingdoms Zhipinghua", which is recognized as the most important reference work for the completion of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Guan Yu also used a sword to participate in the "Three Heroes Battle against Lu Bu": "On the third day, Lu Bu started fighting again, and all the princes came out of the stronghold to fight with Pin Bu. Zhang Fei mounted his horse and fought with Lu Bu for twenty rounds. Guan Gong was angry and used his chariot sword. The First Lord couldn't bear it and used his two swords to fight Lu Bu. After a great defeat, he fled northwest to Hulao Pass." From the analysis of these data, the weapons used by Guan Yu ranged from spears (halberds) to swords, and finally the sword was formally finalized. It is unclear whether the theory of the Qinglong Yanyue Sword was originated in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", but through "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the Qinglong Yanyue Sword and Guan Yu have become one and inseparable.

What is the role of this calculation? Everyone knows that there have been a lot of debates about the year when "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was written, and there are four views: the Song Dynasty or even before; the mid-Yuan Dynasty theory; the early Ming Dynasty theory; and the mid-Ming Dynasty theory. If the above calculations about Guandao are correct, it may be of some help in helping to resolve the debate on the year when "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was written. Why? Please see the next section.

3. How did the Qinglong Yanyue Sword in the Guan Temple come about

As mentioned earlier, from the available data, it took a long time for the emergence and finalization of the theory of the Qinglong Yanyue Sword. Seeing this, we may have another guess: If the theory of Qinglong Yanyue Sword is not finalized, what will be the most affected? "Romance of the Three Kingdoms"? No, it's Guandi Temple. As we all know, in the thousands of years after Guan Yu's death, as the general public remembered Guan Yu as a "loyalty throughout the ages" and the political needs of rulers in the past, it became a trend to build temples for Guan Yu. Guandi temples are basically all over the country. . Just imagine: If the theory of the Qinglong Yanyue Sword had not been finalized, then there would be no Qinglong Yanyue Sword next to the statue of Guan Yu in the Guandi Temple. It is unlikely that the craftsmen who built the Guandi Temple would add a knife to Saint Guan for no reason because of their own whims, and they would also need to get the response of all the Guandi Temples to spread it all over the country and become Guan Yu's Special products. In order to get responses from all Guandi temples, we might as well make three assumptions: one is designated by the ruler, the other is folklore, and the third is literary works. The first possibility does not exist; the second possibility is very small. Chinese folklore is numerous and messy, not widely circulated, and lacks unity, so it is unlikely to have such a great influence. The third type of literary work is most likely. Judging from the above analysis, poetry, Sanqu and Yuan dramas are not so influential, and there is no unified description of the weapons used by Guan Yu in these works, so the only possibility left is a great literary work Appear. This great literary work can only be "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", and only the literary masterpiece "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" can achieve this. With the popularity of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the Qinglong Yanyue Sword was finalized and accepted by people, and the Qinglong Yanyue Sword appeared in Guandi Temple. This way it will be easier to handle.

You can conduct a general survey of Guandi temples across the country, and use local chronicles and related poems, sacrificial texts, and sacrificial records to see when the Qinglong Yanyue Sword appeared there, and then work backwards based on the time when "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" became famous. By making a rough judgment, you may be able to get the approximate time when "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was written. At the same time, by determining the time when "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was written, the issue of its author will be easier to determine. (Of course, this is something that is easy to say, but very labor-intensive to do. First of all, it is very difficult to determine the time when "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" became famous. There are many inaccurate factors in backcasting, but at least it is related to The possibility of novels appearing after the sword is definitely not established, which can reduce some controversy)