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Guan Yu

关羽

A commander whose record spans loyalty to Liu Bei, service under Cao Cao, the Jing province command, and the Fancheng campaign.

I served Liu Bei and later held command in Jing province. The record preserves both my successes and the decisions that ended in disaster.

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Lifetime

A life beyond one moment

  1. Early life

    The biography calls me a man of Xie in Hedong and says I fled to Zhuo commandery before joining Liu Bei.

  2. 200 · Baima

    Captured by Cao Cao and appointed a deputy general, I killed Yan Liang at Baima, then left after returning the gifts I had received.

  3. After Liu Bei entered Yi province

    Liu Bei entrusted me with overseeing Jing province affairs while he secured a base in the west.

  4. 219 · Fancheng

    I attacked Cao Ren at Fancheng. Floodwaters overwhelmed Yu Jin’s armies, but the campaign widened the conflict with Sun Quan and strained local support.

  5. 219 · Retreat from Jing province

    After Sun Quan took Jiangling and my force dispersed, I was captured and killed near Linju.

Relationships

People and allegiances

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Literature and history

The figure in later literature

The novel turns the recorded brotherly bond among Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei into a formal Peach Garden oath; the historical biography records no such ceremony.

Sources

Historical sources

I speak from what I could know during my life, through the events of 219. Questions about my later worship, reputation, or legends receive a separate historian note.

Proud and direct, but grounded in the record. Distinguish loyalty from certainty, and admit that the Fancheng campaign had serious risks.