Kuan Ti
Kuan Ti East AsiaThe god of war in Confucian tradition. A popular figure in Chinese folklore, Kuan Ti was a leading general during the period of disunity known as San Kuo, the Three Kingdoms (221–65). He is not, however, a Mars figure, warlike and implacable, but rather the god who prevents war. As Kuan Yu, a massive man, nine feet in height, with a beard two feet long, a ruddy complexion, and eyebrows like sleeping silkworms shading his phoenix eyes, which were a scarlet-red, he took up arms in the complicated civil war because he wished ‘to pay the state his debt of loyalty and give peace to his black-haired compatriots’. Ts'ao Ts'ao, the deposer for the last Han Emperor and the architect of discord, had once said: ‘I would rather betray the whole world than let the world betray me.’
Kuan Yu was killed by the Sun, a powerful clan established at Ch'eng-tu. Yet his valour and courtesy were a standing rebuke to his contemporaries, then...
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