欢迎您访问95历史网
欢迎您访问95历史网
Copied from another thread in the Three Kingdoms section)
Let's have an interesting look at Song and Yuan-dynasty storytelling traditions about the Three Kingdoms, which existed before the Luo Guanzhong novel and actually provided a lot of material for it. The surviving example is the Sanguo Zhi Pinghua 《三国志平话》, which was published in the early 1320s as a reference text for professional street storytellers and eventually lost in China itself, to be rediscovered in Japan in the 1920s.
The Yuan novel (which I will henceforth call Pinghua) introduces Guan Yu thus: 生得神眉凤目虬髯，面如紫玉，身长九尺二寸。 "He had majestic eyebrows, phoenix (almond-shaped) eyes, and curled whiskers, and a face the colour of purple jade. His height was nine chi and two cun." In another passage, he is described as having curled whiskers that went down lower than his abdomen (虬髯过腹). Compare this to the SGYY Guan Yu, who has similar eyes, but no curled whiskers, a long beard, a face the colour of a red jujube, and a height of nine chi. Finally, compare it to Sanguo Zhi, which only states that Guan Yu had "a beautiful beard and whiskers" (美须髯).
Now, on to weapons: in the Pinghua, Zhang Fei uses a long spear 1 zhang and 8 chi long (丈八长枪 or 丈八神矛) which is almost similar to the SGYY's 1 zhang and 8 chi serpentine-spear (丈八蛇矛). Guan Yu is only mentioned vaguely as using a dao 刀, which could be either a glaive (大刀) or a one-handed sabre. Liu Bei is mentioned as using a pair of swords (双股剑). So here we can see how the weapons associated with the three were beginning to evolve.
Guan Yu killing Hua Xiong?: Not in Pinghua. There is no mention even of Sun Jian's army killing Hua Xiong (which is what happened in history).
