What was the character of Zhou Yu in history? Was he as narrow-minded as in the novel?

Introduction: Nowadays, there are many movies, TV series and novels that arbitrarily tamper with history for the needs of the plot. Take Cao Cao, for example. He was originally a talented politician, military strategist, writer, calligrapher, and poet. Alas, in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", he was suddenly hacked into a cunning and cunning hero. However, someone said that there is one person who is more unjust than Cao Cao. Who is it? Zhou Yu!

Is Zhou Yu’s tolerance really so small?

As for Zhou Yu, most of the controversy is about Zhou Yu’s tolerance. To say that Zhou Yu is a magnanimous person may not be recognized by many friends. Because we have known since childhood that Zhou Yu was angered to death by Zhuge Liang because of his small temper. So, what is the truth?

When it comes to Zhou Yu's energy, we must talk about the famous "Three Qi Zhou Yu". Which of these three qi are Zhou Yu's? First, Liu Bei secretly grabbed Jingzhou City while Zhou Yu was not paying attention; second, he used Sun Shangxiang to trap Liu Bei, but failed, causing a farce of "losing his wife and losing his troops"; and third, Zhou Yu wanted to take advantage of the situation. Liu Bei was unprepared and launched a surprise attack on Jingzhou, but failed and was angered to death.

So, are these all true? No, that's not the case at all. Let’s talk about the first thing first. In "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu had an agreement. Zhou Yu would attack Nanjun first. If that didn’t work, Zhuge Liang would attack. Whoever captured it would get it. Unexpectedly, when Zhou Yu tried his best to capture Nanjun, Zhuge Liang captured Jingzhou. After Zhou Yu found out, he was so angry that he jumped up and down, and the old wounds on his body also relapsed in anger.

So, what are the facts? After Zhou Yu captured Nanjun, Sun Quan named Zhou Yu the prefect of Nanjun. Liu Bei happened to be defeated by Cao Cao and had no territory. So Liu Bei asked Sun Quan if he could give Jingzhou to him, but Zhou Yu disagreed. We know that Jingzhou was occupied by Zhou Yu, and Zhou Yu certainly disapproved of handing Jingzhou to Liu Bei.

Zhou Yu was so angry that Zhuge Liang fell ill

From today's perspective, the relationship between Liu Bei and Sun Quan was more of an exchange, because later Liu Bei agreed to take over the three areas east of the Xiang River. A county was given to Sun Quan. Therefore, it was not a trick to steal Jingzhou City as everyone said. But whether it is novels or film and television works, they all believe that Zhou Yu has a grudge against Liu Bei.

So, Zhou Yu in the novel used Sun Quan's sister Sun Shangxiang to trick Liu Bei into going to Soochow and taking the opportunity to recapture Jingzhou. But will Liu Bei really fall into the trap? Will everything really turn out as he planned? Not really.

In fact, Zhou Yu was ambushed by Zhuge Liang, defeated and ridiculed. With Zhou Yu's little magnanimity, how could he bear to do it like this? So, he was so angry that he vomited blood.

According to the "Biography of Zhou Yu", it is said that Zhou Yu suggested to Sun Quan: "Add a sister to consolidate the good." "Marriage is a good bond" has been a common practice since the Han Dynasty. As for this "sister", there is no evidence that she is Sun Quan's sister Sun Shangxiang, and there is no explanation of her final whereabouts.

What does it mean? In other words, Sun Quan did have a sister, but there is no record of her name being Sun Shangxiang in the relevant historical materials. What about her deeds and final whereabouts? There is no clear record either. As for Zhou Yu finally falling into Zhuge Liang's trick, there are no relevant clues to this story in historical materials.

Sun Quan is a younger sister, but there is no historical record

Many friends will ask, if the name Sun Shangxiang in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is not recorded in historical data, then is it? Did Luo Guanzhong make it up? After reviewing a large amount of information, experts discovered that Sun Shangxiang actually first appeared in the Yuan Dynasty songs "Farewell Palace Sacrifice to the River" and "Ganlu Temple". When Luo Guanzhong wrote "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", he was already in the Ming Dynasty. In order to enrich the characters in the novel, Luo Guanzhong drew on the characters and storylines in opera. Not only did it give Sun Quan's sister a name, it also enriched the story of the novel.

After arguing for a long time, it turns out that the beauty trap of Erqi Zhou Yu that everyone often talks about does not exist at all. Why lose his wife and then lose the army? It is all in the novel to enrich the character image, and it is all the same. The details of this story are fictitious. Seeing this, my friends may be a little impatient.

The first two qi did not exist in history, so does the third qi that everyone is most familiar with exist? Zhou Yu, was he angry to death by Zhuge Liang?

So, first of all, let’s review what is the third spirit in novels, movies and TV works? Didn't Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang borrow Jingzhou on the pretext of capturing Xichuan before? But unexpectedly, this loan was never returned.

So, this time Zhou Yu thought of a plan. He pretended to pass through Jingzhou and help Liu Bei conquer Xichuan. Then when you have enough money and food, you can launch a sneak attack to recapture Jingzhou. But Zhou Yu thought that his clever plan was foolproof this time. Unexpectedly, he was defeated by Zhuge Liang again and was ambushed. In this way, Zhou Yu was once again clever but was misled by his cleverness, thus creating an impressive scene in the novel.

Liu Bei borrowed money from Jingzhou and never repaid it

So, is this true? Sadly, no. In 210 AD, Liu Bei's sphere of influence was between Liu Zhang of Western Shu and Sun Quan of Eastern Wu. So, Xichuan was occupied by Liu Zhang at that time, and Liu Zhang was the same clan of Liu Bei. Therefore, in order to prevent Liu Bei from taking Xichuan and further expanding his power, Zhou Yu decided to strike first and take Xichuan.

In other words, in the novel, when Zhou Yu planned a sneak attack on Jingzhou City, he was wrong in the first place. As for the scene where Zhou Yu died of anger outside Jingzhou City, it is even more nonsense. "Three Kingdoms" records this paragraph like this, saying: "Yu returned to Jiangling to dress up, but Tao died of illness in Baqiu at the age of thirty-six."

What does it mean when translated into our current vernacular? That is to say, when Zhou Yu returned to Jiangling, he was preparing to organize his army to attack Xishu. However, on the way there, he had already contracted a serious illness and died soon after. So what does this mean? This shows that Zhou Yu has never been to Liu Bei's territory at all. I have never been there, so there is no way to talk about the so-called Zhou Yu who was ambushed by Zhuge Liang, defeated and died of anger.

Zhou Yu did not attack Jingzhou at all

So, the story of "Three Qi Zhou Yu" in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is not true. In fact, according to historical records, Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu united to fight against Cao Cao. They cooperated relatively closely and admired each other very much. Therefore, before Zhou Yu died, he said: "Since Yu is born, how can Liang be born?" It should be out of emotion. After Zhou Yu's death, Zhuge Liang cried and mourned Zhou Yu, and the "Essay on Commemorating Zhou Yu" written by Zhuge Liang should also be sincere.

There is such a sentence in "Essays on Sacrifice to Zhou Yu", Zhuge Liang said: "From now on, there will be no sound in the world. It hurts, but I still have a good time." What does it mean? Zhuge Liang was very sad, feeling that after Zhou Yu passed away this week, he would never have a close friend again. This shows that the two people cherish each other and appreciate each other.

So, in the novel "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", why is Zhou Yu written as such a narrow-minded person? In fact, the dispute between Shu and Wei during the Three Kingdoms period has always existed. The mainstream thinking in the early society was to affirm Cao Cao, thinking that Cao Cao was the orthodoxy, and belittling Liu Bei.

However, by the time of the author Luo Guanzhong, the situation had changed. It was the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, and the mainstream idea was to respect Liu and restrain Cao. It was in this general environment that Luo Guanzhong portrayed Zhou Yu as a narrow-minded negative image in order to show the intelligence and wisdom of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang, as well as their noble conduct.

Zhou Yu was maliciously blackmailed by Luo Guanzhong

Later, with the development and progress of society, the characters portrayed by Luo Guanzhong, an excessive fan, began to suffer. questioned by some people. For example, when Lu Xun reviewed "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", he said something like this, "As for writing about people, it is also quite flawed. In order to show Liu Bei's strengths, it is thick and fake, and Zhuge's wisdom is almost demonic."

Obviously, Lu Xun felt that Lu Xun's description of Luo Guanzhong's deliberate fandom was a bit excessive. In fact, Zhou Yu is an out-and-out handsome man, talented man and famous general. This is the real Zhou Yu in history.