There are many saints throughout the ages, and everyone has his own saint in his heart. What is a saint? What kind of person deserves to be called a saint? Since he is a saint, he must be different from ordinary people. In ancient China, saints were people with both ability and political integrity, and they were omniscient and omnipotent.
There have been many saints in the history of China, including Confucius, a well-known saint in medicine, Zhang Zhongjing, a saint in calligraphy, Wang Xizhi, a saint in painting, Wu Daozi, a saint in literature, and Guan Yu, a martial saint we are going to talk about today.
The "Guan Gong" worshipped by the people is also called "benefactor" by Taiwan compatriots, which means savior. In Southeast Asia, Japan, New Zealand, Malaysia, the Philippines and other countries, even in the Chinese areas of the United States and Britain, Guan Gong's belief is quite popular, and many overseas Chinese do business abroad. Therefore, Guan Gong, as a saint, is also worshipped more.
However, there are so many saints, as I said, everyone has noble character in his heart. There have always been many controversial saints, and many people have different views. The most controversial one is Guan Yu's Guan Shengren. So, what is the reason?
If we look closely at the history of China, we will find that there has never been a shortage of good generals in China's history, and even there are many good generals. However, why is only Guan Yu deified by people and called "Guan Sheng Di Jun"? Especially at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, famous soldiers emerged one after another. There are five Iliad generals such as Zhao Yun and Zhang Fei in Shu alone, and the brave lose Guan Yu, what's more. Even the valiant soldier Lu Bu, who had the highest martial arts and the strongest fighting capacity during the Three Kingdoms period, did not have such a title.
Guan Yu was inferior to Lu Bu in force and lost to Zhuge in intelligence. So, why was he deified from then on? In fact, it is too one-sided to judge Guan Yu only by force and ingenuity. Since Guan Yu is called "the sage of Guan Yu", he is naturally unusual.
The author believes that Guan Yu is deified for the following two reasons:
First of all, Guan Yu is versatile, brave and resourceful: the description of Liu Bei's five-member tiger generals in the annals of the Three Kingdoms written by Chen Shou. According to the book, these five people are very brave and have the courage to be defeated by thousands of troops. They are even called "Tiger Generals". However, even if Guan Yu has the strength of "one enemy against ten thousand", he is not invincible.
Later, in the battle with Pound, a famous Cao Wei, Pound shot him in the forehead. But here, I don't think these are worth mentioning, because Guan Yu was over 60 years old at that time. In ancient times, he was already an old man, past the age of knowing his destiny. Therefore, it is normal that Guan Yu, who is over 60 years old, lost to Pound in his prime.
Li Guang, the general of the Western Han Dynasty, was defeated in his sixties and was captured alive by his great enemy Xiongnu, which did not affect the great reputation of General Li Guang. Moreover, Pound's army came in an aggressive manner and wouldn't give up without taking the city. Guan Yu was besieged and confronted for a long time. Although the first battle was unprofitable, Guan Yu later staged a coup, drowned the seventh army, and captured Wei and Pound alive.
It can be seen that Guan Yu is also a courageous and resourceful person.
However, Guan Yu was so brave and resourceful that he was captured twice, which made people suspicious. The most incredible thing is that Guan Yu finally lost to Maicheng and was actually calculated by a little-known teenager, which makes people feel sorry. But for military commanders, there must be victories and defeats in the war, and no one can win or lose forever.
So it is common to be captured in the war. Even Lu Bu, the first warrior of the Three Kingdoms, was captured many times and surrendered several times. During the Republic of China, General Cai E surrendered to Yuan Shikai to save his strength after losing the war to defend his country. Moreover, the main reason why Guan Yu was captured for the first time was that there was a huge difference in strength between Cao and Liu, which had nothing to do with him.
Moreover, Cao Cao's men are numerous, so although Guan Yu was defeated, it was actually glorious. The main reason for his second capture was Guan Yu's own blindness and arrogance, but objectively it was because of internal problems in Jingzhou that Liu Bei did not rescue him in time. Moreover, the alliance between Cao and Sun was really fierce, and Guan Yu was also defeated and captured.
Although Guan Yu was not the first warrior in the Three Kingdoms, Lu Bu, the strongest warrior in the Three Kingdoms at that time, killed his husband twice and changed his master several times, both in folk and in history. He is a cunning and capricious villain, a man who will do anything to achieve his goal.
I would like to ask such a person, no matter how high the force value is and how brave he is, but he doesn't even have the most basic martial arts or even personality. He is not even a hero in the Three Kingdoms, let alone a saint. On the other hand, Guan Yu is equally extraordinary in force. When he was in his early years, he cut Hua Xiong with warm wine, which shocked everyone.
Hulao Pass's three British wars against Lyu3 bu4 led the allied forces to a great victory. Guan Yu made great contributions to Liu Bei's journey to establish hegemony, and was named the head of the army of five Iliad generals by Liu Bei, showing Liu Bei's trust in him. In the description of the romance novels of the Three Kingdoms, Guan Yu spent more pen and ink than anyone else.
Secondly, loyalty, filial piety and benevolence conform to Confucian standards: Confucianism has always regarded Guan Yu as a moral model. He has all the standards advocated by Confucianism, such as being capable of writing and martial arts, loyalty, filial piety and benevolence. Guan Yu worked hard for Liu Bei's dream of reviving the Han Dynasty all his life. He never thought of betraying his brother, and even went to his brother through layers of obstacles and difficulties, which shows his loyalty.
Cao Cao fled in defeat. After Huarong Road, Guan Yu did not embarrass Cao, but showed his kindness and former character in the United States. Guan Yu never broke his word all his life, which is enough to see his loyalty. Guan Yu's compassion for his subordinates in the army is enough to show his kindness.
Only Guan Yu has a moral model of "benevolence, righteousness and faith" advocated by Confucianism, which meets all the requirements of people for "warrior sage" The emperors of all dynasties regarded Guan Yu as the embodiment of loyalty, which became the material for educating loyal monarchs and patriotic beliefs, and made him "serve the king, the king is the emperor, the emperor is the saint, and the saint is the sky". Therefore, Guan Yu deserves to be called "Guan Sheng Di Jun".