Dragon’s Mind: The Chinese

Strategic View continues...

But despite his intellectual appeal

Kongming (Zhuge Liang) has been far over shadowed by someone else who lived during the same period. An action-hero who has been romanticized in the classic ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’, written in the 2nd to 3rd Century CE, a fictional account of the period which draws heavily upon history. Kuan Yu was an action-hero who was born into an ordinary family, and rose to become a famous general on account of his bravery and his martial prowess, as well as his tactical genius.

Given a reputation for loyalty and ‘soldierly virtues’, his growing reputation even well after his death led to his being

canonised as an ‘Immortal’ or saint in 1128 CE, and eventually being

deified as the Chinese ‘God of War’ as late as 1594 CE.

Though he is referred to as the ‘Chinese God of War’, temples to whom can be found as far apart as Vietnam, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and, of course, China, he is more properly considered as the ‘God of Martial Values’, such as courage, strength, endurance, loyalty, etc. People all over East Asia go to his temples and pray for his protection, and his image or statue is part

of the Chinese ‘Feng Shui’ system for the protection he provides. Thus the popular martial action-hero far outweighs the intellectual though real martial hero.

To be continued...