The ancient Chinese classic“ San Guo Zhi Ping Hua” ends with a story that the Jin Dynasty ended and Liu Yuan became the new Han Emperor.The Han Emperor’ s descendant Liu Yuan,captured the Jin Emperor.Huai Di,and executed him in front of the Liu Chan Temple to offer a sacrifice to his ancestors.Please note that this ending is different from that of the“ San Guo Zhi Yan Yi” (the General History of the Three Kingdoms). Liu Yuan was the founder of the Han Dynasty during the“ Five Tribes and Sixteen States” period,as discussed in the“ Wei History· Xiongnu Liu Cong Biography” (Liu Cong was Liu Yuan’ s son)edited by Wei Shou in North Qi Dynasty.The issue is also discussed in“ Jin History” edited by the scholar Fang Xuan- ling in the Tang Dynasty.According to the comparative study,the ending of“ San Guo Zhi Ping Hua” is based on the“ Jin History” (There are two or three editions of“ Jin History” that were published by Jian An publishors in Song and Yuan times).However,the editing of“ San Guo Zhi Ping Hua” was based not only on“ Jin History” ,but also on“ Zi Zhi Tong Jian” (the General Appreciation of National Management)and“ Zi Zhi Ji Shi Ben Mo” (the Whole Course of the Memorandum of the General Appreciation),both of which had been edited out of the original version of“ Jin History” The editor of the“ San Guo Zhi Ping Hua” also borrowed a
character of the God of Dragon from“ Jin History· Liu Yuan Hai(Liu Yuan)Zai Ji” and incorporated it into the image of
Guan Yu.Originally the Guan Yu and Liu Yuan’ s characters are almost depicted as one character’ s two sides.The character of Liu Yuan in“ Jin History” which concerns Guan Yu in“ San Guo Zhi” (the History of the Three Kingdoms)written by Chen Shou and annotated by Pei Song Zhi.In a word,Liu Yuan’ s long moustache image and his hobby of reading“ Zuo Zhuan” (the famous commentary by Zuo Chiu Ming on The Spring and Autumn Annals)were factored from Guan Yu’ s character,while Guan Yu’ s characteristics of the God of Dragon was borrowed from Liu Yuan.
More summaries about the Guan Yu and Liu Yuan —— Guan Yu’ s Character Development