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| A Study of Guan Yu's Red Face Image |
| Lou Hansong, Wang Yangwuji |
| School of Humanities, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China |
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Abstract Guan Yu’s image change is a cumulative process over generations. Only the long beard of Guan Yu is recorded in literature before the Tang Dynasty. The image of Guan Yu was divinized as a stern ghost accompanied by a long snake in the Tang Dynasty. The image I began to be associated with Buddhism and Taoism in the Song Dynasty, while his external characteristics remained in golden armor, green scarf and gorgeous beard. It was only in the Yuan Dynasty that the image of Guan Yu suddenly appeared with red face characteristics.In the previous studies, the characteristics of a red face was simply interpreted as a symbol of the spirit of loyalty and righteousness, while the negative meaning of a red face in the Chinese cultural contexts was neglected. First of all, red face and loyalty are not in a one to one correspondence, such as Liu Laozhi, Liu Zhiyuan and other unfaithful and unrighteous people also have the characteristics of a red face. The second is that red face also has such negative connotations as shame, cowardice, and wrong-heartedness. Together with the special religious and cultural background of the Yuan Dynasty, it is not difficult to find that Guan Yu’s red face characteristics were the product of the combined influence of folk beliefs and Buddhist Tantric culture.On the one hand, red is the color of blood, and the red face ghosts and deities in folk beliefs often carry the characteristics of injustice, death in vain, ferocity, and terror, which overlap with the image of Guan Sanlang recorded in the Tang Dynasty notes and correspond to Guan Yu’s experience of dying a horrific death to become a deity. On the other hand, Guan Yu’s image of red face was also influenced by the Tantric Buddhism of the Yuan Dynasty. Guan Yu’s influence was weak during the Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty, and the Yuan Dynasty was a crucial period for the enhancement of Guan Yu’s divine character. For the first time, under the leadership of the great Yuan Dynasty Emperor Master Phags-pa, Guan Yu was transformed from a local ghost into a grand national Buddhist protector, appearing in Tantric pujas as a supervising altar protector. As for the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism, where Phags-pa is located, importance is attached to the red Power Love Yidam, and Guan Yu has been regarded in Tibetan Buddhism as the incarnation of a red protector, the Bright Red Lord of Life. A close reading of the text shows that the “Prayers of the Master Guan Yu” by the Living Buddha Tuguan is identical to the Commentary on the Other Biography of Master Tiantai Zhizhe by Tanzhao of the Song Dynasty in terms of characterization, environmental elements, and storyline, indicating that Guan Yu’s self-contained folk beliefs were accepted by both Chinese Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism, and were given a new Buddhist packaging and interpretation.After the Yuan Dynasty, Guan Yu was not only a protector of the Buddhist religion but also a deity of war, wealth, learning and love. All of these deities ruled by Guan Yu originated from the functions of conquest, gathering wealth and hooking and regulating possessed by the red Power Love Yidam.According to the above-mentioned cross-studies, which include literature and history, interaction between iconography and literature, and literature and religion, the image of Guan Yu is a successful outcome of the diversified symbiosis and exchange and integration of Chinese culture.
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Received: 12 December 2020
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2021, Vol. 51 
