text/vicissitudes of literature and history
Guan Yu, as a well-known historical figure of Chinese people, was gradually deified from a historical figure to the image of Guan Erye today under the admiration of the rulers of the feudal dynasty and the people's yearning for heroes at that time. It can be said that the image of Guan Yu from birth to complete formation embodies the entire nation's strong call for heroes.
But different from the individual heroism emphasized in Western culture, the shaping of Guan Yu's image is a model of the collective heroism image of "the great man who serves the country for the people" under the traditional Chinese culture. At the same time, the image of Guan Yu, which is constantly being mythical, is mixed with a strong individualistic style, which reflects the tireless pursuit and persistence of the whole society for individual liberation under the reality that farming civilization emphasizes collectivism.
Under the background of the military weakness of the Song Dynasty, the court and the people yearn for the emergence of warriors. The image of Guan Yu was gradually deified under official praise and folk interpretation.
In the real historical "Three Kingdoms", the record for Guan Yu is like this:
" Both Guan Yu and Zhang Fei are regarded as enemies of ten thousand people, and they are the world's tiger ministers. Yu served the role of Cao Gong, flew righteously to release Yan Yan, and had the style of a national scholar. However, Yu was just arrogant, furious without grace, and defeated by short. It is common for science and mathematics.”
It can be seen from this that Guan Yu in real history is indeed a strong general, but he is not perfect, and has significant personality defects.
From the Three Kingdoms to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the rulers and the people did not pay much attention to Guan Yu. In fact, the people of that period worshiped and yearned Zhuge Liang as the "Emperor Master", so we can see a large number of poetry creations about Zhuge Liang from many famous poets in the Sui and Tang dynasties, such as the poem "Du Fu" which has been passed down through the ages. Shu Xiang.
丨 Zhuge Liang portrait
and the beginning of Guan Yu worship originated in the Song Dynasty. During the Song Dynasty, due to the long-term military weakness of the rulers, the Han nationality faced huge external pressure. On this basis, the court and the people called for fierce generals increasingly strong. And Guan Yu, who possesses improper courage, defies strong enemies, and possesses a series of characteristics such as bravery and loyalty, has become the best goal for the nation.
In the second year of Song Zhezong's Shaosheng, Guan Yu was named the "Xian Lie King", which can be said to be the beginning of Guan Yu's image myth. Later, the emperors of the Song dynasty, including the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, continued to place Guan Yu's seal on Guan Yu until the late Ming Dynasty elevated Guan Yu’s status to the “Wu Sheng” equivalent to “Wen Sheng” Confucius. "The status completes the official process of the complete myth of Guan Yu's image.
At the same time, in the folk, due to the spread of storytelling novels, various folk tales and legends with Guan Yu as the protagonist gradually emerged. However, unlike the official propaganda focus on "loyalty and bravery", the image of Guan Yu in the folk storybooks , But tends to be "righteous and courageous", showing the tragic and heroic color of a strong individualistic hero.
is like "Single Sword Society" written by Guan Hanqing, a well-known dramatist of the Yuan Dynasty. It portrays a courageous and conspiring individual hero who commits danger alone. Although it also carries the idea of loyalty and patriotism, no matter from the structure of the story, In terms of character creation, they all focused on describing Guan Yu's personal style and charm as a hero.
Figure 丨 Guan Hanqing's drama "Single Pole Club"
The initial formation of Guan Yu's image started from official admiration and became a folk interpretation. It not only has the color of a collectivist hero of "for the country and the people", but also emphasizes individual ability and Elegant personal heroism complex.
Faced with the uncontrolled worship of Guan Yu from the folks, the government strives for the right to interpret the image of Guan Yu, educates the people to be loyal and patriotic, and deliberately deify the image of Guan Yu. This kind of farming civilization has been passed down from ancient times to the present, and it has never been cut off.
There is a significant difference between farming civilization and nomadic civilization that the society developed from farming civilization emphasizes the collective rather than the individual. Because in the early stage of civilization with underdeveloped productivity, the farming civilization must rely on collective cooperation to grow enough food crops to feed everyone.
Under this kind of social background, Chinese people emphasize more on collective coordination and individual contribution to the collective, which is also a collective heroThe source of ism.
Figure 丨 Collectivism in ancient Chinese farming civilization
The social background is like this, but human nature itself has the instinct to relax one's own personality. In a society composed of centralized farming civilization, this instinct to relax personality Has been suppressed, once given the opportunity, it will grow wantonly. The shaping of the image of Guan Yu clearly shows this point. Under the impetus of the government, the worship of Guan Yu has rapidly expanded among the people. However, unlike the official emphasis on "loyalty and courage", the people hope that it is more personal. The image of the heroic character. On this basis, in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, most of the scripts emphasized Guan Yu’s personal style charm, so that in the end he was omnipotent, from the beginning "War God" to the "God" of all walks of life. . The most prominent example is that in the process of Guan Yu's deification, he robbed Zhao Gongming as the god of wealth and became the god of wealth.
From the official standpoint of the feudal dynasty, this highly individualistic figure, especially the "righteousness" of Guan Yu emphasized by the folks, is believed by people from all walks of life, even among the green forest heroes, bandits and bandits. , The worship of Guan Yu is also popular. The most typical example is "Water Margin". Of course,
officials cannot allow the people to rebel in the name of "righteousness", but as the folk worship of Guan Yu has become popular, it can only be extreme and promote Guan Yu to a high position. On the one hand, this is out of the idea of educating the people to be loyal and patriotic. On the other hand, it is also to distinguish between "people" and "gods" and to fight for the right to interpret the image of Guan Yu from the people.
Picture of Guan Yu in the Qing Dynasty:
This can be seen from the edicts of the Ming and Qing emperors on Guan Yu. The Qing Dynasty literati Zhao Yi’s "Chuhai Cong Kao" records:
"Ming Wanli forty-two year ten In the month, Jia Yu is the Emperor Guan Sheng of Tianzun in Weiyuan Town.”
The emperors of the Qing Dynasty gave Guan Yu a lot of seals, but its core has not changed. It can be seen from the emperor’s honor to Guan Yu, focusing on . "Shenwei" and "Far Town" preach Guan Yu's family and country's righteous feelings.
Under this guidance, the individualistic part of Guan Yu's image has gradually been weakened, and the collectivism spirit of the country for the people has gradually been enlarged. The positioning of Guan Yu's "loyalty" image has gradually evolved from "loyalty" to the monarch and "righteousness" to friends to "loyalty" to the monarch and "great righteousness" to the nation-state . The image of Guan Yu in the famous novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms in ancient my country has converged with the official propaganda at that time.
In The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Guan Yu was captured by Cao Cao. Cao Cao tried his best to persuade Guan Yu to take refuge in him, but Guan Yu finally chose to leave and return to Liu Bei, who represents the authentic imperial power, which is a concentrated expression of this national righteousness. Because Cao Cao is a rebel who usurped Han in the characters portrayed in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, although Cao Cao tried his best to woo Guan Yu, Guan Yu could never join Cao Cao.
The complex and multifaceted image of Guan Yu embodies the organic combination of ancient Chinese individual heroism and collectivism.
China is a country that has always emphasized collectivism. As mentioned earlier, this is determined by the characteristics of farming civilization. But just as Confucius, who pays attention to "denying oneself and restoring rituals for benevolence" , also admitted the truth of "food and sex," , and the relaxation of individual human personality is also a kind of almost instinctive existence. Although the ruler constantly strengthens the values of collectivism in order to facilitate the rule, this pursuit of self-worth will never disappear, but exists in the culture of each nation in another way. The final shaping of the image of Guan Yu is a good example of the ingenious presentation of personal heroism in an environment where collectivism is politically correct.
is represented by the relationship between Guan Yu and Cao Cao in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Although Guan Yu could not take refuge in Cao Cao because of his true righteousness to the imperial power, when Cao Cao of Huarong Dao was trapped by Guan Yu, he came out of his personal loyalty and thought of repaying kindness. Let go of Cao Cao. From a strategic point of view, this is undoubtedly going against the righteousness of helping Liu Bei to dominate the world. But if you look at the characterization of Guan Yu, this move is undoubtedly a relaxation of Guan Yu's personal heroism.
Figure 丨 Huarong Dao Guan Yu's interpretation of Cao Cao
is very ingenious that while shaping this image, traditional Chinese literati made use of the objective reality that the Shu Han failed to dominate the world in the end. In other words, regardless of whether Guan Yu let Cao Cao go or not, Shu Han could not be blamed for failing to dominate the world in the end. In this way, in the mainstream context of collectivism as the main body, individualism also has its own basis for existence.
Counting down the various images of characters that have been constantly mythological in Chinese history, they cannot escape this ingenious way of embodying individual heroism, such as "Xue Gang against Tang". After the loyal Tang Dynasty fierce general Xue Rengui died, his son Xue Dingshan was murdered by traitorous officials. From the perspective of collectivism, individuals should submit to the collective, but there is a story of Xue Dingshan’s son Xue Gang against the Tang Dynasty; Yue Wumu was killed The traitor Qin Hui was killed, so there was a bronze statue of Qin Hui in front of Yue Fei’s tomb. Even the "Water Margin", which promoted rebellion, still played the banner for the heavens. Who is "Heaven" is naturally the emperor. Is the emperor.
Guan Yu, who is loyal and unparalleled, will inevitably be defeated by Maicheng. From the perspective of the righteousness of his family and country, he brought his infinite loyalty to the monarch and devoted himself to the righteousness of the Han Dynasty for four hundred years, and of course he lived up to the name of "Martial Saint". On the other hand, from the perspective of personal heroism, the red-faced and long-bearded Guan Erye, who has a red face and long beard, is a man who is a man from the perspective of personal heroism. Dazzling personal hero image.
Picture丨Red Rabbit, Horse, Qinglong, Red Face, Long Beard Guan Erye
In fact, many people say that China has always been a country that only talks about collectivism, not individualism, but it is not. Talking about collectivism is determined by the characteristics of our farming civilization. But it is not to say that the Chinese do not talk about individual heroism. It is just that in the long and unique historical development process, local individual heroism has been integrated with collectivism and organically combined. As the official of the ruler,
promotes the spirit of collectivism from the perspective of stabilizing the government and educating the people, which is determined by its class attributes. As a participant in the shaping of the folk Guan Yu's image, that is, the general public and the individual inclination of each of them, the person who writes the storybook must consider the people's expectations for individual heroes. With this kind of three-dimensional participation, the official collectivism spirit and the personal heroism that the folks prefer have been perfectly integrated in the hands of the authors who acted as the bridge agent to shape the heroes of the drama and other heroes. As a result, ancient Chinese individual heroism has found its own unique and alternative development path.
References:
"Three Kingdoms"
"Song History"
