Why Is Guan Yu Worshipped as a God? From Three Kingdoms General to Guan Gong

Guan Yu is worshipped as a god because, over many centuries, a real third-century general famous for loyalty was gradually turned into a symbol of loyalty and righteousness itself: he was deified as early as the Sui dynasty, honoured with ever grander titles by emperors, and is still venerated today as Guan Gong or Guan Di. The historical Guan Yu was a brave, proud and ultimately defeated commander who served the warlord Liu Bei. The red-faced hero with the giant halberd comes largely from the 14th-century novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which, as the record shows, altered and enlarged him more than almost any other character.

A fugitive from Hedong

Guan Yu came from Xie County in Hedong Commandery, in present-day Yuncheng in Shanxi province; his date of birth is unknown. His courtesy name was originally Changsheng and later Yunchang. For reasons the sources do not record, he fled his hometown and ended up in Zhuo Commandery, where he met Liu Bei.

Brothers in all but name

Guan Yu and Zhang Fei joined Liu Bei's militia during the Yellow Turban Rebellion in the 180s. The historical record says the three were as close as brothers, sharing a room, a mat and a cooking pot.

The famous Oath of the Peach Garden, in which they swear brotherhood among blossoming trees, is not in that record. It is one of the novel's invented scenes. The Romance, traditionally attributed to Luo Guanzhong, built its whole moral world around Liu Bei's camp, and Guan Yu became its symbol of loyalty.

Captured by Cao Cao, and loyal anyway

The episode that best explains Guan Yu's reputation happened in 200. After defeating Liu Bei, Cao Cao captured Guan Yu, treated him generously and gave him a general's rank. At the Battle of Boma that year, Guan Yu repaid him by killing the enemy commander Yan Liang in the middle of his army, and Cao Cao made him a marquis.

Then Guan Yu left. He sealed up all of Cao Cao's gifts, wrote a farewell letter and went back to Liu Bei. Cao Cao chose not to chase him, and the historian Pei Songzhi later praised Cao Cao's generosity in letting him go. A man who repays a debt and then returns to his old lord was the perfect raw material for a legend of loyalty.

The novel amplifies this into a series of adventures, including "crossing five passes and slaying six generals" on the way back to Liu Bei. That journey is fiction.

The surgery without a flinch

One of the most striking stories is actually historical. A poisoned arrow wound left Guan Yu with pain in the bone, and a physician cut open his arm and scraped the bone. Guan Yu reportedly sat feasting and talking with his officers through the operation. What the novel adds is the doctor: it gives the role to the famous physician Hua Tuo, an episode listed among the book's fictional stories.

Another real detail shows his pride. When the general Ma Chao joined Liu Bei in 214, Guan Yu wrote to Zhuge Liang asking who Ma Chao could be compared to. Zhuge Liang tactfully praised Ma Chao while saying he was still no match for Guan Yu, whom he called the "peerless beard."

Fancheng: the peak

In 219, after Liu Bei made himself King of Hanzhong, Guan Yu was named General of the Vanguard and attacked Cao Ren at Fancheng. The Han River flooded and destroyed the relief army of Yu Jin, who surrendered, while the officer Pang De was executed. The shock was so great that Cao Cao considered moving his capital further north, until his advisers suggested persuading Sun Quan to attack Guan Yu instead.

The fall

That advice worked. The Wu general Lü Meng hid troops on merchant ships, slipped into Jing Province and disabled Guan Yu's watchtowers. Two officers whom Guan Yu had treated badly, Mi Fang and Shi Ren, surrendered, and most of his soldiers deserted. He retreated to Maicheng, was ambushed and captured, and was executed with his son Guan Ping in early 220. Sun Quan sent the head to Cao Cao, who buried it with the honours of a noble.

Chen Shou admired Guan Yu and Zhang Fei as warriors worth ten thousand men, but judged Guan Yu "unrelenting and conceited," flaws that brought about his downfall.

From marquis to god

His first posthumous title, granted in 260, was relatively modest. Over the following centuries the honours grew. Song and Yuan rulers raised him to princely rank, and in 1644 the Qing Shunzhi Emperor named him the loyal and righteous God of War. In Taoism he is Holy Emperor Lord Guan, and in Chinese Buddhism he is a protector of the dharma known as Sangharama Bodhisattva.

Shopkeepers also pray to him as a god of wealth, a role that appears only from the 18th century. In Hong Kong, both police stations and triads honour him. Temples to him stand far beyond China, including Dongmyo in Seoul, built in 1601. His red face and his Green Dragon Crescent Blade, said in the novel to weigh 82 catties, belong to fiction and opera, not to the historical record.

Learn with Guan Yu: English phrases

Phrase	Meaning	Example
loyal to the core	completely loyal	Guan Yu was loyal to the core.
pride comes before a fall	arrogance leads to failure	At Jing Province, pride came before a fall.
to repay a debt	to return a favour	He repaid his debt to Cao Cao at Boma.
to keep a stiff upper lip	to stay calm in pain	He kept a stiff upper lip during the surgery.
larger than life	more impressive than reality	The novel made Guan Yu larger than life.

Try this: Write three English sentences about someone you admire for their loyalty, using "loyal to the core," "repay a debt" and "pride comes before a fall."