Guan Yu — The Man Who Wanted No One Beside Him

I Will Not Stay Here

"A real man never stands in the same line as an old soldier."

It was the day the king's messenger came to announce that a certain man was to be made a general. The man said these words in anger and refused the appointment.

The old soldier was a general named Huang Zhong. He had heard that Huang Zhong was being given the same rank as himself.

The man's name was Guan Yu. About 1,800 years ago in China, he was a warrior who served a man named Liu Bei.

What he did next, I will tell a little later. First, let us go back to his youth.

Guan Yu was born in a place called Jie, in Hedong. At some point he abandoned his home and fled to faraway Zhuo, a district in the north. Why he ran away has not been recorded.

There he met Liu Bei. When Liu Bei gathered followers in his home region, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, a few years younger, served as his bodyguards.

Liu Bei slept in the same bed as these two. Their bond was like that of brothers, the history says.

But in a crowd, the two stood by Liu Bei's side all day long. They followed him everywhere and never shrank from danger.

At night they lay down side by side. In public they stood beside their lord.

It was an age of chaos, when warlords fought across the land. Liu Bei drifted from one strong man to another. The one who grew strongest of them all was Cao Cao.

An awkward story is told about Guan Yu and Cao Cao.

In the third year of Jian'an (198), Liu Bei and Cao Cao joined forces and besieged a warlord named Lü Bu in the city of Xiapi. Inside the city was the wife of a man Lü Bu had sent out as a messenger. Guan Yu asked Cao Cao to let him take her as his own wife, it is said.

Cao Cao agreed at first. But just before the city fell, Guan Yu came to ask again and again. Cao Cao grew suspicious. Was she an unusually beautiful woman? He sent for her ahead of time, and the story goes that he kept her for himself.

Guan Yu's heart was not at peace, it is said.

Two years later, in the fifth year of Jian'an (200), Cao Cao attacked Liu Bei. Liu Bei fled north to Yuan Shao. Guan Yu, who had been guarding Xiapi, fell into Cao Cao's hands.

Cao Cao took Guan Yu home with him, gave him the rank of Assistant General, and treated him with great kindness.

Cao Cao saw that Guan Yu was a man of fine character. But he also saw that this man's heart would not stay with him for long. So he gave an order to his officer Zhang Liao.

"Try asking him what he really feels."

When Zhang Liao asked, Guan Yu sighed and answered.

"I know very well that Lord Cao treats me with great kindness. But I received great favor from General Liu, and we swore to die together. I cannot turn my back on him. In the end, I will not stay here. But I will surely earn some merit and repay Lord Cao before I leave."

Zhang Liao hesitated over whether to pass these words on, it is said. If he told Cao Cao, Cao Cao might kill Guan Yu. If he did not, he would be failing in the duty of a man who serves his lord.

"The Lord is master and father to us. Guan Yu is only a brother."

After sighing this, Zhang Liao made his report, the story goes. Cao Cao said:

"He serves his lord and does not forget where he began. He is a true man of honor. When do you think he will leave?"

Zhang Liao, it is said, answered like this.

"He has received your kindness, so he will surely earn merit and repay you before he goes."

In the fourth month of the lunar calendar that year, Yuan Shao's general Yan Liang was attacking Baima, a place held by Cao Cao's side. Cao Cao sent Zhang Liao and Guan Yu out to lead the attack.

Guan Yu spotted Yan Liang's banner and parasol from far away and whipped his horse forward. In the middle of a huge army, he stabbed Yan Liang, cut off his head, and came back.

None of Yuan Shao's generals could stand against him. The siege of Baima was lifted. Cao Cao quickly asked the court to make Guan Yu the Marquis of Hanshou Pavilion, a noble title.

Cao Cao knew Guan Yu was about to leave. Even so, he piled on more rewards.

Guan Yu sealed up every gift he had received, wrote a letter of farewell, and rode off to Liu Bei, who was with Yuan Shao's army.

Cao Cao's men set out to chase him. Cao Cao stopped them.

"That man is acting for his own lord. Do not chase him."

This was the first time Cao Cao let Guan Yu go.

Master Beard

After Guan Yu returned to Liu Bei, the two went south together and took shelter with Liu Biao, who ruled Jingzhou.

Around that time Liu Bei welcomed a new man: Zhuge Liang, whose courtesy name was Kongming. A courtesy name is an everyday name used in place of a person's real one.

Liu Bei grew closer to this new retainer with each passing day. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei did not like it.

Liu Bei calmed them.

"Having Kongming is like a fish having water. Gentlemen, please say no more."

The two fell silent.

The lord had compared Kongming to the water. He had not compared them.

In the thirteenth year of Jian'an (208), Cao Cao's huge army marched on Jingzhou. Liu Bei fled south. Guan Yu led several hundred ships by another route, and they planned to meet at Jiangling.

Cao Cao's army chased them as far as Dangyang. Liu Bei turned off the road at a slant and headed for a river crossing. There he happened to meet Guan Yu's ships. Together they escaped to Xiakou.

A story is told about this time too.

Some years earlier, when Liu Bei was staying with Cao Cao, the two had gone out hunting. When the crowd scattered, Guan Yu urged Liu Bei to kill Cao Cao. Liu Bei did not agree.

At Xiakou, wandering the banks of the Yangtze, Guan Yu is said to have said angrily:

"If you had done as I said on that hunting day, we would not be in this misery today."

"I spared him then for the sake of the country. If Heaven helps the righteous, how can we say this will not turn out well?"

Pei Songzhi, who added notes to the history, doubts this reply of Liu Bei's. After that hunt, Liu Bei joined a secret plot to kill Cao Cao. Pei Songzhi thought "for the sake of the country" was probably a fine-sounding excuse made up afterward.

That same year, Liu Bei joined hands with Sun Quan of Wu, drove back Cao Cao, and took the southern districts of Jingzhou.

The neighboring powers feared Guan Yu too. One of Cao Cao's advisers called Guan Yu and Zhang Fei "a match for ten thousand men," meaning each could stand against ten thousand alone. Zhou Yu of Wu called them "generals like bears and tigers."

Zhou Yu also advised Sun Quan to keep Liu Bei in Wu, entertain him with a grand mansion and beautiful women, and pull him away from Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. Put these three together on the border, he said, and it would be like a dragon getting clouds and rain. Sun Quan did not take this advice.

It is also said that Guan Yu loved an old history book called the Zuo Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals, and could recite most of it from memory.

In time, Liu Bei put Guan Yu in charge of Jingzhou and went west to take Yizhou. Zhuge Liang went west. Zhang Fei went west. The only one left behind to guard Jingzhou was Guan Yu.

In the nineteenth year of Jian'an (214), a famous warrior named Ma Chao came over to Liu Bei.

Guan Yu had never been an old friend of Ma Chao. Even so, he wrote a letter to Zhuge Liang. He asked just one thing: who was this Ma Chao man comparable to?

Zhuge Liang knew that Guan Yu hated being outdone. Mengqi was Ma Chao's courtesy name, and Yide was Zhang Fei's. His reply went like this.

"Mengqi is skilled in both the pen and the sword, and his courage is beyond the ordinary. He is a hero of his age. He and Yide could race each other for the lead. But he still does not reach the matchless brilliance of Beard, who stands apart from all."

Guan Yu had a beautiful beard, and Zhuge Liang called him "the Beard."

Ma Chao could be set beside Zhang Fei. He could not be set beside Guan Yu. That was the answer.

Guan Yu read the letter and was overjoyed. Then he showed the letter to the guests who came to visit.

The general in charge of Jingzhou was showing guests a letter that praised him.

What words please a man who hates to be overtaken? Zhuge Liang was not the only one who knew.

Five years later, another letter arrived for Guan Yu, full of praise for him.

It was from an enemy general.

Not in the Same Row as an Old Soldier

Guan Yu had once been hit by a stray arrow, and it went right through his left arm.

The wound closed, but on cloudy and rainy days the bone ached. A doctor told him:

"The arrowhead was poisoned, and the poison has soaked into the bone. If I cut open the arm and scrape the bone, taking the poison out, the pain will go away."

Guan Yu held out his arm at once and let the doctor cut it open.

He happened to be dining with his officers, sitting across from them. The blood dripping from his arm filled the plates and bowls. Still, Guan Yu carved the roasted meat, drank his wine, and chatted and laughed as usual, Chen Shou wrote.

Chen Shou was the man who wrote the history called Records of the Three Kingdoms, some decades after Guan Yu's death. In later stories, this operation was turned into an even more famous scene. But in Chen Shou's history, not even the doctor's name appears.

Around the twentieth year of Jian'an (215). After Liu Bei took Yizhou, Sun Quan of Wu demanded that he return the land of Jingzhou. Liu Bei sent Guan Yu to Yiyang with thirty thousand soldiers, and Wu sent out Lu Su's army to block him.

The two sides agreed to meet and talk. They halted their soldiers and horses a hundred paces away, and the generals gathered with only one sword each at their belts.

Lu Su blamed Guan Yu. The land was lent to you by Wu in the first place, he said. You have taken Yizhou, and yet you have no intention of giving it back.

Before Lu Su had finished, one of the men at the table cut in.

"Land belongs only to those with virtue. Nobody owns it for good."

It was an argument on Liu Bei's side. Lu Su turned on the man and scolded him in a harsh voice.

Then Guan Yu stood up with a sword in his hand and said:

"This is a matter of state. What does this man know about it?"

And he signaled with his eyes for the man to leave.

Around the same time, Guan Yu said he would cross a shallow ford upstream at night with five thousand picked troops.

Gan Ning of Wu had only three hundred soldiers. Even so, he is said to have told Lu Su and the others flatly:

"Give me five hundred more men. I will go and face him. Guan Yu will not dare cross the river if he even hears me clear my throat. If he crosses, I will capture him."

Gan Ning was given a thousand men and set out that night. When Guan Yu heard this, he gave up crossing and, it is said, built a camp of piled brushwood. That ford was later called "Guan Yu's Ford." This is a story from the Wu side, recorded in Gan Ning's biography.

Soon Cao Cao invaded Hanzhong in the west, so Liu Bei made peace with Sun Quan. They divided Jingzhou along the Xiang River.

Sun Quan once proposed a marriage to Guan Yu. He wanted Guan Yu's daughter as a bride for his own son. Guan Yu cursed the messenger, shamed him, and turned the match down. Sun Quan was furious.

What Guan Yu said to the messenger has not been recorded.

In the autumn of the twenty-fourth year of Jian'an (219), Liu Bei's followers proposed that he become King of Hanzhong. Their petition lists the names of his officials in a long line: Zhuge Liang, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and on and on.

As king, Liu Bei made Guan Yu General of the Vanguard. At the same time, he tried to make Huang Zhong General of the Rear.

Zhuge Liang worried about this. Huang Zhong's fame had never been on a level with Guan Yu's or Ma Chao's. Ma Chao and Zhang Fei, who had seen Huang Zhong's deeds up close, might understand. But—

"Lord Guan will only hear of it from far away, so surely he will be displeased. Is this not a bad idea?"

Liu Bei answered.

"I will go and explain it to him myself."

The man Liu Bei sent as his messenger was a retainer named Fei Shi. That "old soldier" remark was made at this moment.

"A real man never stands in the same line as an old soldier."

Guan Yu would not accept the appointment, and Fei Shi persuaded him. A man who builds a king's work does not use only one kind of person. Long ago, Gaozu, the founder of the Han, had retainers who had been his friends since childhood. Han Xin, on the other hand, had run away from elsewhere and joined him later. Even so, Han Xin's rank was the highest. Fei Shi had never heard that the old friends held a grudge over it.

Lord Marquis was a respectful way of addressing Guan Yu.

"Now the king has honored Huang Zhong for one moment's achievement. But in the king's heart, his weight cannot be the same as yours, my Lord."

"The king and you are as one, like the elbow and the body. You share joy and sorrow, misfortune and good luck. You should not be concerned with the height of a rank or the size of a salary."

"I am only a messenger. If you will not accept, I will simply go home. I only regret that you will come to be sorry for this."

Guan Yu understood deeply. And he accepted the appointment on the spot.

What Guan Yu cared about may have been less the height of the rank than his weight in the king's heart.

He was quick to anger, and just as quick to give way.

That same year, Guan Yu led the Jingzhou army north. His target was Fancheng, held by Cao Cao's general Cao Ren.

The Autumn That Shook the Land

Early on, just as he set out to besiege Fancheng, Guan Yu had a dream, it is said. In it, a pig bit his foot.

He told his son Guan Ping, the story goes:

"This year I have grown weak. And I do not think I will be going home."

No other words of Guan Yu's that sound like weakness have been passed down.

In the seventh month of the lunar calendar that year, Cao Cao sent Yu Jin with seven armies to relieve Fancheng.

But in autumn, a long rain fell. In the eighth month of the lunar calendar, the Han River overflowed, and all seven of Yu Jin's armies sank under the water. Yu Jin fled to high ground, but Guan Yu attacked him with large boats, and Yu Jin surrendered.

Among the enemy, one man did not surrender. Pang De.

Pang De's older brother was on Liu Bei's side, so his own comrades distrusted him. That is why he is said to have always said:

"I have received my country's kindness. My duty is to give my life for it. I will strike down Guan Yu with my own hands. If I do not kill Guan Yu this year, Guan Yu will kill me."

And in the fight, he really did hit Guan Yu in the forehead with an arrow.

Even surrounded by water, Pang De put on his armor and shot arrows from the top of an embankment, fighting from dawn until past noon. His small boat capsized, and while he was clinging to it, Guan Yu captured him.

Pang De stood and would not kneel. Guan Yu said:

"Your older brother is in Hanzhong. I want to make you a general. Why not surrender quickly?"

Pang De cursed Guan Yu. The King of Wei was Cao Cao.

"Boy, what do you mean, surrender? The King of Wei has a million soldiers, and his might shakes the whole land. Your Liu Bei is nothing but a mediocre man. He cannot match us. I would rather be a ghost of my country than a general of rebels."

Guan Yu killed Pang De with the sword.

When Cao Cao heard that Yu Jin had surrendered, he is said to have grieved for a long time.

"I have known Yu Jin for thirty years. I never imagined that when danger came, he would fall short of Pang De."

Nineteen years earlier, it was Guan Yu who had fallen into enemy hands and accepted an enemy general's rank.

The victory did not stop there. Bandits from far away even accepted Guan Yu's seal and became his followers, and his fame shook the heartland of China. Cao Cao went so far as to discuss moving the capital, Xu.

It was the highest point of Guan Yu's life.

But perhaps he could not see the ground under his feet.

Guan Yu was good to his soldiers, but arrogant toward men of rank. So Chen Shou wrote.

Mi Fang, who guarded Jiangling in Jingzhou, and Shi Ren, who guarded Gong'an, had long resented Guan Yu, feeling that he looked down on them. When Guan Yu marched out, the two did not send enough supplies for the army.

Guan Yu said:

"When I come back, I will surely punish them."

The two were frightened and could not settle down.

Yu Jin's surrendered soldiers numbered in the tens of thousands. Using a shortage of rice as an excuse, Guan Yu seized rice stored at a border post on Sun Quan's side, without permission.

In Wu, Lü Meng, who guarded the border facing Guan Yu, said he was seriously ill and pulled back to the capital. Lü Meng was often sick anyway. He used the illness as a cover to make Guan Yu lower his guard. Guan Yu believed it, and little by little he moved the troops he had left on defense over to Fan.

Lu Xun, who took over the defense for Wu, wrote Guan Yu a letter.

"We have heard that Yu Jin and the others were captured. Far and near, people are delighted and full of admiration. Your achievement, General, will be remembered for ages to come."

He went so far as to set two famous battles from the past side by side and say that neither could equal this one. About himself, he said humbly that he was "a mere scholar, slow and dull."

The same letter also had a passage like this:

"After a victory, it is easy to look down on the enemy. The men of old planned carefully, and grew more watchful the more they won. I hope you too, General, will make wide preparations and see your victory through."

Guan Yu read the letter, saw that Lu Xun meant to humble himself and look to him for protection, and was completely at ease. He suspected nothing, it is said.

He had read a letter that told him to be careful, and it made him feel safe.

Around then, Sun Quan was secretly sending a letter to Cao Cao. I would like to send troops and strike Guan Yu from behind. Please keep this secret, so that Guan Yu is not put on guard.

Cao Cao decided to let Guan Yu know about this letter on purpose. One of his advisers had said:

"Guan Yu is stubborn. He is counting on the strength of the defenses of his two cities, so he will not pull back quickly."

Sun Quan's letter was shot by crossbow into Fancheng and into Guan Yu's camp.

Guan Yu hesitated and could not leave.

Around then. On the Yangtze, a boat rowed by men in merchants' clothes was going upriver day and night.

Inside the boat, Wu soldiers lay hidden.

This Is a Matter of State

Outside Fancheng, Guan Yu faced Xu Huang, a general of Cao Cao's.

The two are said to have been close friends from long ago. They talked from a distance, and all they spoke of was the past. They did not touch on the war, it is said.

After a while, Xu Huang got off his horse and announced to his soldiers, the story goes:

"Whoever takes the head of Guan Yunchang will receive a thousand jin of gold (a jin is a unit of weight)."

Yunchang was Guan Yu's courtesy name. Guan Yu was shocked and frightened, and is said to have said:

"Elder Brother, what are you saying?"

"This is only a matter of state."

They were almost the same words Guan Yu himself had used, some years earlier at Yiyang, to silence the man who cut in.

Xu Huang pretended to attack one of Guan Yu's camps and attacked a different fort instead. Seeing the fort about to fall, Guan Yu led five thousand infantry and cavalry out himself, but was beaten and pushed back into his own ring of camps.

Guan Yu pulled back without taking Fancheng.

But there was no place left to return to.

Lü Meng of Wu had already taken Gong'an and Jiangling. Shi Ren of Gong'an read the letter from Wu's envoy, wept, and surrendered, it is said. Mi Fang of Jiangling also opened his city and surrendered.

They were the two he had said he would punish when he got back.

When Lü Meng entered Jiangling, he took the families of all of Guan Yu's soldiers into his hands. But he did not treat them harshly. He looked after the families and strictly forbade taking anything from the people's homes.

On the way back, Guan Yu sent messengers to Lü Meng again and again. Each time, Lü Meng treated the messenger warmly, had him walk through the city, and let him visit the houses. Sometimes he sent letters from the families back with him.

When the messengers returned, the soldiers quietly asked them questions. Every house was safe, they heard, and the families were being treated better than usual. Learning this, Guan Yu's soldiers lost their will to fight.

These were the soldiers of the man of whom Chen Shou wrote that he was good to his soldiers.

On the Fancheng side, Cao Ren's generals began saying they should chase the fleeing Guan Yu. But one of the advisers stopped them. If Guan Yu were deliberately left alive, it would cause trouble for Sun Quan. When Cao Cao heard that Guan Yu had fled, he too hurried an order that his generals should not chase him. It was the same judgment as that adviser's.

This was the second time Cao Cao did not let Guan Yu be chased.

No reinforcements came either. While he besieged Fan, Guan Yu had ordered Liu Feng and Meng Da, who guarded the mountain districts, to send troops again and again. They said they could not move from the districts that had only just submitted to them, and did not obey.

Guan Yu was alone now.

When he shut himself up in Maicheng, Sun Quan tried to lure him into surrendering. Guan Yu pretended to surrender, raised flags on top of the city, and set up dummy figures. In the meantime, he slipped out of the city.

His soldiers scattered. Only about ten horsemen were left.

Perhaps Guan Yu was remembering the dream he had seen when he first set out for Fan. The dream that made him tell his son he would not be going home.

In the twelfth month of the lunar calendar in the twenty-fourth year of Jian'an, the Wu army, which had blocked his escape routes, captured Guan Yu. His son Guan Ping was with him. The two were beheaded.

What Guan Yu said at the end has not been recorded.

When the new year began, in the first month, Guan Yu's head was sent to Cao Cao, who was in Luoyang. In that same month, Cao Cao died in that same Luoyang.

He was the man who, twenty years before, had said "Do not chase him" and seen Guan Yu off.

The body, it is said, was buried by Sun Quan with the honors due a lord.

In Wei, there was a discussion of whether Liu Bei would send troops for Guan Yu. Shu, the state Liu Bei ruled, was small, and Guan Yu was its only famous general. Now he was dead and his army was beaten. It no longer had the strength to send troops. Many of the officials said so.

Only one official saw it differently.

"Guan Yu and Liu Bei are lord and servant in terms of duty, but in terms of kindness they are like father and son."

Liu Bei did not forgive Sun Quan for attacking Guan Yu. In the autumn of the first year of Zhangwu (221), Liu Bei sent his army against Wu. Even when Sun Quan asked for peace, he was furious and would not hear of it.

Cao Cao, who did not let him be chased as he left. Zhuge Liang, who knew his nature and wrote him a reply. Fei Shi, who persuaded him in anger as a mere messenger. And Liu Bei, who refused peace and raised an army for him.

In the autumn of the third year of Jingyao (260), more than forty years after Guan Yu's death, the Shu court gave posthumous names to its dead generals. A posthumous name is a name given afterward to honor a person who has died.

In the record of Liu Bei's son, the second emperor, it is written in just one sentence.

Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Ma Chao, Pang Tong, Huang Zhong.

The man who raged that he would never stand in the same line as an old soldier has his name in the same line as that old soldier.

At the very front.