Neglected Historical Fact of the Day: Who was Lu Bu
Ok, Romance of the THree Kingdoms is THE epic novel of China, like by far. It along with Journey to the West are most likely the most popular ancient Chinese works and one of the 4 great classical works that all Chinese students have to read (along with The Water Margin and Dream of the Red Chamber). They are also the two works I know the best out of the 4, but that is neither here nor there. And I would personally argue that Romance of the Three Kingdoms is the most commonly retold, with SO MANY TV shows, movies, anime, manga, poems, and video games based upon it. In the west the most famous is Dynasty Warriors which I am deeply ashamed to admit actually got me into the period, like the games are terrible, stupid and really inaccurate, but that totally got me into reading about this history. BTW China just finished up with a an epic series based on this called “Three Kingdoms” that you can find for free on youtube translated check it out. It isn’t good, but interesting and the acting is fantastic...the editing isn’t but the acting is. Also it is.....REALLY GAY, like OMG if you want to see an example of CHinese homosexual culture on screen, here it is. But I digress
Basically like most people playing Dynasty Warriors for the first time, it wasn’t the first game and I had no idea what was going on. But in one mission this dude named Lu Bu showed up and everybody acted like he was a big deal. So I thought he was a boss and got ready to attack him when.....the game told me not to fight him. So I went after him anyways and got my ass handed to me. he utterly and completely defeated me. And when I beat the game and got to play as him, I relaized he was BY FAR the best fighter in the game. So I wanted to find out who he was. And I give this long digressional story but I imagine I wasn’t the only guy who got interested in Lu Bu this way.
Right so a bit of background on the Three Kingdom Period, and I am trying to be brief because this is a doozy of a period. So basically, the Han Dynasty is the first IMperial Dynasty that lasts more than a generation, and in fact lasts over 400 years. In fact it generally gets unto the top 5 greatest Chinese dynasty list, which is quite a list. But near the end it gave into corruption and infighting and eventually the boy Emperor was ruled as a puppet by a local warlord. Long story short, warlord got over thrown and the Han were divided into...well Three Kingdoms, how lasted for about a generation before all three fell apart. In the epic novel “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” Luo Guanzhong, divides the three kingdoms in Good (the Shu ruled by the honorable Liu Bei) the Neutral (The Wu Ruled by the dedicated Sun Ce) and the bad (The Wei ruled by the ruthless Cao Cao). The popular depiction of Lu Bu comes from that novel.
Now the Historical Lu Bu and the fictional character are going to mix, because their aren’t many texts, but supposedly Lu Bu, Also known as Fengxian, was supposedly the greatest warrior ever. Like i know they are exaggeration and we aren’t sure how awesome this real dude was, but from the novel you really get the sense that he is a real life Achilles. And part of that is how much his military prowess informs the overall story. I mean, he is so skilled, that everybody on ever side wants him in their army, because he can supposedly kill 100 men by himself. I mean this dudes reputation is colossal and because of it you just cannot really realize how much of his reputation. I mean none of the other characters want to face him in single combat, he is just that scary. Lu Bu was a minor lord under the general Ding Yuan, who eventually committed a coup and over took the empire, albiet temporarily. When another warlord named Dong Zhou arrived to “liberate the City” he secretly adopted Lu Bu and had him slay Ding Yuan...who was also his adopted father. He got the term “Bastard of Three fathers for a reason” Supposedly Dong Zhou and Lu Bu quarrelled over Dong’s most recent mistress Diaochan, one of china’s “Four Great Beauties” though the figure might be fictitious. Long story short is that Dong Zhou was also killed by Lu Bu. He was later adopted by the minister Wang Yun, but he was latter killed in the Civil war, though not by LU Bu. Lu Bu and one of the great military minds at the Time Chen Gong had all sorts of adventures, running around the Chinese civil war countryside until they were eventually destroyed by Lu Bu’s terrible military tactics. Long story short, he lost....look its a really long story I am not doing all of Three Kingdoms So why is Lu Bu so famous is that while he was an unsurpassed fighter but a poor military leader and known for being impulsive an hard to control. So when he was defeated by Cao Cao, he offered his skills to the General, only for Cao Cao to deem him too dangerous and he instead had him strangled. The morality tale was about how brains triumph over brawns....or something.
