Luo Guanzhong put the story of "Three Oaths in Taoyuan" in the first sentence of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, "Banqueting a hero with three oaths in Taoyuan and beheading a hero with the yellow turban insurrectionary". The article describes that Ada went to Zhuoxian to recruit volunteers, which led to Zhuoxian hero Liu Bei, and then Liu Bei met Zhang Fei and Guan Yu by chance. The three people are like-minded, and they hit it off at first sight. At the end of the article, the three men were described as burning incense and worshipping, and they vowed: "I miss Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. Although the surnames are different, since they are brothers, Qi Xin will work together to help the poor; Serve your country, rest in peace. I don't want to be born on the same day in the same year, I just want to die on the same day in the same year After heaven and earth, I will learn from this heart, be ungrateful, and kill heaven and man together! " After the oath, Liu Bei was sworn as his younger brother, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei as his younger brothers. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms vividly describes the story of the Three Oaths in Taoyuan, so what is the relationship among Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei in real history? Chen Shou's Biography of the Three Kingdoms and Guan Yu records: "My ancestors slept in the same bed with two people, and they were brothers. The thick people sit wide, stand all day long, follow the ancestors, and do not avoid difficulties and obstacles. " "Biography of the Three Kingdoms and Zhang Fei" mentioned: "Yu is several years older than Zhang Fei, and Fei Ge is in charge." The Biography of the Three Kingdoms and Liu Ye also said: "Guan Yu and his equipment are righteous as monarch and minister, and they are kind to their father and son." These three historical materials are enough to illustrate two problems: first, the close relationship between Liu Guan and "Enruo Brothers" Zhang; Second, they are "brothers" rather than sworn brothers, and there is no conclusion in historical materials. Moreover, from the description in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. After Guan Yu was killed, Cao Pi, Emperor Wen of Wei, asked his ministers, "Are you going to send troops to attack Wu and avenge Guan Yu?" Ye Liu, the waiter, replied: Liu Bei and Guan Yu are "the righteousness of the monarch and the minister, the gratitude of the father and son", and "Guan Yu was killed. If Liu Bei can't avenge him, his kindness to Guan Yu is not the whole story. " Here, from wei ren's point of view, the relationship between Liu Bei and Guan Yu is a "father-son" relationship. The ancients had the concept of "the monarch and his subjects are like father and son", so this statement is not surprising; At the same time, it can be disproved that Liu Bei and Guan Yu are not brothers, and their contemporaries are very clear about this. Zhao Yi, a A Qing, thinks that the monarchs of the Three Kingdoms are all good at employing people, and they are different. Cao Cao's political system is suitable, Sun Shi's brothers are soul mates, and Liu Bei's temperament is congenial. The so-called "harmony of temperament" means getting along with feelings and having deep friendship, but this does not mean that we are brothers. Some experts have verified that the story of "Taoyuan Sanjieyi" probably began to spread in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. In the book Rebuilding the Temple at the end of the Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, there was a saying that "at the beginning, Wang (Guan Yu) and the general riding a sedan chair flew to be friends with Zhao Lie, about brothers". Guan Yu's plays also quoted the poet's poem "A brother and a younger brother in Taoyuan, a brother and a gentleman for thousands of years" at the end of Yuan Dynasty. The story in Tao Liu undressed, a Yuan drama, is described as follows: Yin Zang, a ghost in Zhou Pu, wants to stand on his own feet and beg Guan Yu to be handsome. Guan Yu killed him and fled to Fanyang, Zhuozhou. Zhang Fei opened a butcher shop in the local area. Zhang Fei deliberately pressed a knife with a thousand-pound boulder in front of the store, threatening that anyone who could move the boulder would take nothing and give him meat to eat. One day Guan Yu passed by Zhang Fei's butcher's shop and moved out the 1,000-kilo boulder that Zhang Fei used to press the knife. There was no meat. When Zhang Fei returned to the store and learned the news, he went to the inn where Guan Yu stayed and worshipped Guan Yu as his brother. Later, they met Liu Bei. Seeing Liu Bei's extraordinary appearance, I invited him to drink together. Liu Bei was lying drunk, only to see a red snake get into Liu Bei's seven orifices. Guan Yu felt that "the blessing of this person will be expensive in the future", so he worshipped Liu Bei as his brother. The three men slaughtered cattle and horses in Taoyuan outside the city, offering sacrifices to heaven and earth, vowing "not to be born on the same day, but to die on the same day". Although the story is interesting, it is absurd. In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms in the Yuan Dynasty, the concept of "Three Marriages in Taoyuan" is better, and the plot and characters are more vivid. In addition to the description of the romance of the Three Kingdoms mentioned here, we can also see many other materials describing the story of the romance of the Three Kingdoms. In short, from the above analysis, the story of Taoyuan Sanjieyi is fictional, but no matter how many versions of this story are fictional, we can see that all versions, including the records in historical books, at least recognize the characteristics of friendship, mutual assistance and sincere unity among the three people. Taoyuan Sanjieyi can be abstracted as a typical relationship of mutual assistance, friendship and sincere unity. Then we can analyze this abstract and typical relationship of sincere solidarity. The specific analysis material is the material in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, because this version is familiar to everyone and is the most vivid and simple language. Is there really a story of "three vows in Taoyuan" in history? At the beginning of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Luo Guanzhong put "banquet for Taoyuan heroes, and beheading the yellow turban insurrectionary hero as the first achievement". Everyone knows the story in the book, so I won't repeat it. Let's take a look at other stories in "Three sworn meanings in Taoyuan". Some experts have verified that the story of "Taoyuan Sanjieyi" probably began to spread in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. In He Jingfu's Rebuilding the Temple, it has been said that "Wang (Guan Yu) and the general riding a sedan chair were friends with Zhao Liefei, and they were about brothers". Guan Yu's plays also quoted the poet's poem "A brother and a younger brother in Taoyuan, a brother and a gentleman for thousands of years" at the end of Yuan Dynasty. There is also a complete story in the Yuan drama "Liu Tao undresses": Yin Zang, a ghost of Zhou Pu, wants to stand on his own feet and beg Guan Yu to be handsome. Guan Yu killed him and fled to Fanyang, Zhuozhou. Zhang Fei opened a butcher shop in the local area. Zhang Fei deliberately pressed a knife with a thousand-pound boulder in front of the store, threatening that anyone who could move the boulder would take nothing and give him meat to eat. One day, Guan Yu passed by Zhang Fei's butcher's shop and moved out the 1,000-pound boulder that Zhang Fei used to press the knife. There was no meat. When Zhang Fei returned to the store and learned the news, he went to the inn where Guan Yu stayed and worshipped Guan Yu as his brother. Later, they met Liu Bei. Seeing Liu Bei's extraordinary appearance, I invited him to drink together. Liu Bei was lying drunk when he saw a red snake drilling into Liu Bei's seven orifices. Guan Yu felt that "the blessing of this person will be expensive in the future", so he worshipped Liu Bei as his brother. The three men slaughtered cattle and horses in Taoyuan outside the city, offering sacrifices to heaven and earth, vowing "not to be born on the same day, but to die on the same day". Although the story is interesting, it is absurd. In the story of the Three Kingdoms in the Yuan Dynasty, the concept of "Taoyuan Sanjieyi" is relatively better, after all, it has the shadow of real life. During the Three Kingdoms period, there was a custom of killing white horses as allies. In the seventh year of Jian 'an (202), Cao Cao attacked Nanpi and killed Yuan Tan. Yuan Ji touched the Ministry and turned his back on Cao. When they revolted, they vowed to kill the white horse. But this is just an oath, not a sworn brother. Later, many leaders of the peasant uprising used this form when they began to become sworn brothers. For example, in the Red Scarf Uprising of Liu Fushun and others in the Yuan Dynasty, the history of the Yuan Dynasty "Ji" described their sworn relationship as "killing white horses and black cows, swearing with heaven and earth, and wanting to fight together". But this kind of writing is rough and low-level. Luo Guanzhong deserves to be called a master of literature, and these historical materials and stories have undergone fundamental changes as soon as they reached his hands. Luo Guanzhong deleted some absurd elements and changed them into three brothers on the premise of the same goal, that is, to join the army to break thieves, protect the country and benefit the people, and jointly hold great events. Especially when the three people burned incense and took the oath again, they said, "Although Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei have different surnames, they are brothers after all, so Qi Xin worked together to help the poor; Serve your country, rest in peace. I don't want to be born on the same day in the same year, I just want to die on the same day in the same year After heaven and earth, I will learn from this heart, be ungrateful, and kill heaven and man together! " In this way, the intention is also high, and the relationship between friends has risen by a big step, turning a simple oath into mutual support for going to the national disaster, which makes people feel lofty and cordial. A big book put "Three sworn vows in Taoyuan" at the beginning, which laid a deep friendship foundation for the three of them to achieve such a goal of "doing great things together" in the future. So in later years, it was even more convincing that Guan Yu and Zhang Fei risked their lives to help Liu Bei restore the Han Dynasty. So, what is the relationship between Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei in history? In fact, Mr. and Mrs. Liu are not bound by Taoyuan Sanjie. The reasons are as follows: (1) There is no record in the official history, and neither the History of the Three Kingdoms nor Zi Tong Zhi Jian mentioned this matter; ② The age of three people should be Guan, not Liu. There is no date of birth and death in the History of the Three Kingdoms, only that he died in the third year of Zhangwu (223) at the age of 63. The age calculated by ancestors is nominal. Accordingly, Liu Bei was born in Yan Xi, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty for four years (16 1). Therefore, the year of birth and death of Liu Bei should be 16 1~223 years. According to Qian's Novel Collection: The Tombstone of Guan Houzu Unearthed from Guan Yu's Hometown in Kangxi Period, Guan Yu was born in June of the third year of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty (160). Therefore, Ke Rulin's Chronicle of Guan Yu thinks that Guan Yu is one year older than Liu Bei. The year of birth and death of Guan Yu should be 160~2 19. When Zhang Fei was born and died, Ci Hai introduced: ~22 1 year. According to Guan Gong Chronicle, "Zhang Fei and Liu Bei were four years old", it should be 165~22 1 year. The Biography of the Three Kingdoms and Liu Ye also said: "Guan Yu and his preparations are kind to his father and son with the righteousness of monarch and minister." Historically, the relationship between Liu, Guan and Zhang is really extraordinary. The Story of the Three Kingdoms, Guan Yu, said that Guan Yu was desperate to go to Zhuo Jun, Liu Bei was an apprentice in the village, and Guan Yu and Zhang Fei voted for him. Later, Liu Bei was a plain, and Yu Hefei was another Sima, which was divided into different parts. Liu Bei and the two of them "sleep together and are brothers." Guan Yu often sits in the crowd and stands all day. Later, Xuzhou fell, Guan Yu was captured, and Cao Cao sent people to surrender. Guan Yu also said, "I was sworn to death by General Liu, and I can't recite it." "Biography of Zhang Fei" also records: "Zhang Fei ..... is less prepared with Guan Yu, how old is Yu, and Brother Fei is the master." Guan Yu and Zhang Fei are both famous for their bravery. Cheng Xian, the counselor of Wei, praised him as "the enemy of ten thousand people" and Zhou Yu praised him as "the general of bears and tigers". Therefore, Liu Bei attached great importance to Zhang Guan and regarded him as a confidant. So that later historians, such as Wang Fuzhi in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, thought: "Liu Bei was more sincere to Zhuge Liang than to Zhang Guan." The above historical materials are enough to explain two problems: first, the "Enruo brothers" who are closely related to Liu; Second, they are "brothers" rather than sworn brothers, and there is no conclusion in historical materials. Therefore, there is no real allusion to the "Three Boundaries of Taoyuan" in history.