However, Guan Yu's peak era ended here, and he quickly slipped down to the bottom. He was defeated by the allied forces in Cao Liu and defeated Maicheng. Finally, he was ambushed by Ma Zhong, the Ministry of Pan Zhang, and was killed in Linzhou.
This is Guan Yu's curtain call performance. In the last year of his life, he once shined brilliantly in generate, but in the end he was unable to change the direction of the Three Kingdoms. The situation in the Central Plains did not develop as he and Shu Han expected. At this time, however, an article had a profound impact on China culture. After Guan Yu's defeat, 68-year-old Zhong You excitedly presented a "Hejie Watch" to Cao Cao:
Minister's words: Both roads are brave, dare to take risks and dare to bear the cold. I don't have an appointment, I don't have an attache, and I'm worried about my feelings. On this day, Chang Shi arrested Chong Xuan's big order, told him that it was strange to collect the land list of General Nan, and asked him to help the angry masses. He and Huang Xu stood on the same front and tried their best to fight for it. Make progress in appearance and appearance, strive for timely success and eliminate fierce resistance. The handsome thief Guan Yu was stabbed. Fu Fang repeatedly thanked Hu Xiu, and God cursed her, but she never died. Wen Feng Jia Yi, in heaven. Looking at the road with a smile, I am eager to relax. I am very happy to celebrate and thank you for your cheap price. I nodded in horror and was sentenced to death. On the 9th of the leap month in the 24th year of Jian 'an, Hou Chen went to the cave in Nanfanwuting.
Originally, after the establishment of Wei, Zhong You was promoted to the position of Prime Minister and held a high position. However, in the twenty-four years of Jian 'an, he was dismissed from office because of his involvement in Wei's satirical rebellion. Therefore, although Zhong You was Hou Ting of Dongwu at that time, he had no official position, so he didn't personally fight Cao Cao. According to the custom at that time, he wrote this congratulation form for Wei, and Wei returned home in triumph. This is reasonable.
This kind of "River Festival Watch", also called "Rong Lu Watch" or "Rongji Watch", is nothing in the 5,000-year history of China, even at that time, it didn't make Luoyang paper expensive. However, its profound influence on China culture stems from its calligraphy characteristics.
After the establishment of the Qin Dynasty, Li Si founded Xiao Zhuan, and many previous characters such as Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Jinwen were called Da Zhuan. Small seal script is beautiful, tall and beautiful, but too complicated, and gradually replaced by official script. Since Cheng Miao founded the official script, it has become very popular and almost occupied a dominant position. However, the appearance of this "Hejie Watch" finally broke this pattern.
It has the brushwork of running script and retains the traces of official script, but the strokes have surpassed the times and become recognized regular script. Although under the strong simplicity, its writing style is very general in today's popular regular script, but this is tantamount to opening another window of China characters. At that time, the official script prevailed, and Zhong You, who had been in contact with official script since childhood, had great courage to break down the barriers when he was nearly seventy years old.
It is because of Zhong You's articles that regular script broke ground, gradually became popular and even became the most important font in China. According to the characteristics of this font, people call it "regular script", and later it is called "regular script" because of its square font and straight strokes. Although the Song Dynasty's "Xuanhe Pu Shu" also wrote that "Wang Cizhong began to use official script as regular script in the early Han Dynasty." But the regular script here is only eight-part script, not the so-called regular script in modern times.