Guan Yu

Wandering fugitive who slew a local bully five years earlier; arrives at the Zhuo inn as Liu Bei and Zhang Fei are drinking and becomes the middle of the three sworn brothers. Receives the hundred-pound Green-Dragon Saber and cleaves Cheng Yuanzhi in two in his first engagement.

Restrains Zhang Fei from killing the abusive inspector outright, urging Liu Bei to give up the post rather than the man's life. Departs Anxi at his brother's side.

Steps forward at the coalition tent after Hua Xiong has cut down Yu She and Pan Feng. Promises to return before the wine that Cao Cao pours him is cold - and does, dropping Hua Xiong's head on the table with the cup still warm. The chapter's signature scene.

Charges with his brothers at the Pan River to rescue Gongsun Zan, helping break Yuan Shao's encirclement.

Opens the combat at Beihai and cuts down the rebel chief Guan Hai with the green-dragon saber, then urges his reluctant brother to accept Tao Qian's offer of Xuzhou.

His glare, beside Zhang Fei's, is what stops Lü Bu's hand on the offered seal of Xuzhou; afterwards he keeps hauling his younger brother back from the three-hundred-bout duel.

Trades thirty even bouts with Ji Ling at Xuyi, kills the sneering stand-in Xun Zheng with a single attack, and when Xuzhou falls, drags the truth out of Zhang Fei - 'now the city is lost and therewith our sisters-in-law' - the rebuke that puts his brother's sword to his own throat.

Guan Yu; with Liu Bei at Xuyi/Xiaopei.

Counsels hearing Lü Bu out at the archery feast, then holds the rearguard against Zhang Liao's pursuit in the flight from Xiaopei.

Bars the fleeing pretender's road - 'Traitor! Why have they not slain you?' - scattering Yuan Shu's remnant toward the Huai; at the Xiaopei banquet he and Zhang Fei execute Han Xian and Yang Feng at the dropped cup.

Holds the west gate and turns Zhang Liao back with words alone - 'you are too good a man to waste yourself on rebels' - then stops Zhang Fei from pursuing a man too honorable to fight them.

Guan Yu; kneels before Cao Cao on the scaffold to spare Zhang Liao - the recruitment that gives Wei one of its greatest generals.

Guan Yu; spurs forward at the hunt with his blade ready to cut Cao Cao down; Liu Bei stops him with a glance. The 'imperial uncle' chapter.

Author and executioner of the counter-plot: rather than storm the ambush, he plays Cao Cao's own colors - hailing the gate at third watch as 'Zhang Liao's troops' - and cuts Che Zhou down at the drawbridge, under Chen Deng's covering arrows.

Defeats and captures Wang Zhong in single combat outside Xuzhou - but releases him at Liu Bei's request to carry back the message that the brothers want peace.

Loses contact with Liu Bei in the chaos; falls back on Xiapi to defend Liu Bei's wives. The setup for his three conditions in the next chapter.

Cornered at Tushan after a feigned-retreat trick by Zhang Liao; accepts Cao Cao's three conditions ('I surrender to Han, not Cao Cao; the ladies must be respected; the day I learn where Liu Bei is, I leave at once'). Relieves Baima by riding alone into Yan Liang's line and decapitating him with one stroke before he can react - the most-cited single-combat in the novel.

Cuts down Wen Chou at the third bout by the Yellow River, volunteers for Runan to break his idleness, and there learns from Sun Qian where his brother is. Caught between the ladies' reproaches and Cao Cao's no-admission board, he writes his farewell, seals every gift and his Hanshou lordship seal in the hall, and rides out the north gate with the carriage - Red Hare under him, twenty guards behind.

The solitary journey: five passes forced, six generals slain - Kong Xiu at Dongling; Meng Tan and Han Qu at Luoyang (an arrow in his arm for it); Bian Xi and his temple ambush at River Si Pass; Wang Zhi burned-bed plot at Yingyang; Qin Qi at the Yellow River ferry. He takes Cao Cao's robe on the point of his saber, stands while women are present at Hu Hua's farm, and crosses the river - only to learn from Sun Qian that Liu Bei has already left for Runan.

Approaches Gucheng where Zhang Fei has just installed himself; Zhang Fei doesn't believe his loyalty until he kills Cai Yang in a single saber-stroke before the wine grows cold. Reunion at Gucheng - the long arc since Xuzhou closes.

Entrenches southeast of the Rang camp and springs the first-day trap; sent to recover fallen Runan he is surrounded, cuts free in time to save Liu Pi's refugees, then finds and frees the encircled Zhang Fei. At the Han River feast he steadies his despairing brother: the Founder of Han lost to Xiang Yu many times and won the empire at the Nine-Mile Mountains.

Nominated to guard Guzi against Zhang Lu in Liu Bei's three-generals proposal; later argues for accepting the festival invitation - staying away would only confirm Liu Biao's suspicions.

Takes the flanking wing in Shan Fu's first battle plan and falls on Lü Xiang's retreating column, destroying more than half of it.

The hidden blade of Shan Fu's whispered plan: while Cao Ren empties Fancheng for revenge, Guan Yu takes the city - 'I took the city a long time ago!' - and mauls the fugitives once more. Later he alone questions the wisdom of adopting Liu Feng: 'you have a son; it may cause confusion.'

Suggests turning back at the empty cottage and, hearing Water Mirror rank Zhuge Liang with Guan Zhong and Yue Yi, objects that the comparison is 'a little too much' - to be trumped: Lu Wang and Zhang Liang are the right measure.

Opens the chapter's remonstrance - two visits is 'even too much deference'; the recluse 'dare not submit to the test' - and later hushes Zhang Fei's plan to wake the sleeper with a bomb.

Left commanding Xinye during the Jingzhou visit, then given the Yushan Hills ambush: wait for the southern flame, burn the baggage train. He voices the brothers' scepticism - 'we are all to go out; what will YOU do?' - and rides home converted: 'Zhuge Liang is really a fine strategist!'

His river patrol nets Song Zhong and the secret of the surrender; then, posted upstream with a thousand men and sandbags, he dams the White River and waits for the glow of burning Xinye - at the fourth watch the shouting of watering soldiers below is his signal to break the dam.

Readies the boats that empty Fancheng, hastens the weeping crowds across, and is sent ahead with Sun Qian and five hundred troops to beg relief from Liu Qi at Jiangxia - off-stage when Changban breaks.

Springs from the hills on the Hanjin road with ten thousand Jiangxia troops - 'I have waited here a long time!' - and the pursuit dissolves at the sight of Red Hare. Aboard the boats he asks after his 'sister' Lady Mi, sighs over the hunting day at Xutian when his advice went unheeded, and takes post at Xiakou with five thousand men.

Guan Yu; with Liu Bei at Jiangxia.

Opposes the visit, then stands sword in hand behind his brother's seat through the whole banquet - the 'fierce look' that makes Zhou Yu's back run with sweat and keeps the signal cup on the table. One meaningful glance ends the visit safely.

Left conspicuously without orders until he demands his share - then given Huarong with the poison in it named aloud: his old debt to Cao Cao. He signs the death-pledge, is taught the smoke trick ('he will take it as a subterfuge and risk going that way'), and marches with Guan Ping, Zhou Cang, and five hundred swordsmen - while Zhuge Liang privately tells Liu Bei the stars forbid Cao Cao's death and Guan Yu has been handed a kindness to repay.

Answers the third laugh with five hundred swordsmen across the Huarong throat - and cannot strike: Cao Cao bows from the saddle, invokes the five passes he forgave and the archer who spared Zi Zhuo, and the mountain of goodness turns his horse aside. He shouts once more for form's sake, pities the kneeling soldiers, frees Zhang Liao too - and walks into headquarters empty-handed to ask for death.

Seizes Xiangyang after forged dispatches under Chen Jiao's seal draw Xiahou Dun's garrison away - the third city of the bloodless sweep, and the atonement Liu Bei promised for Huarong.

Off-stage at Xiangyang: Liu Bei plans to move Liu Qi there so Guan Yu can be freed to return - the pre-positioning for the Changsha campaign to come.

Scorns the warning about the sixty-year-old - 'give me my own five hundred swordsmen' - kills Yang Lin in three bouts, and fights Huang Zhong a hundred more without finding a weak spot. When the veteran's horse falls he lowers his saber: 'get another horse and come again.' Next day the answering arrow parts his helmet plume. Changsha falls to Wei Yan's mutiny, and he ends the chapter sent to hold Xiangyang and bury Liu Qi.

Bursts from a gully at Huangzhou on the dismounted marines - the ambush that turns Zhou Yu's pursuit into flight and reopens his wound.

One of the four armies converging on the exposed Zhou Yu from all sides, shouting for the capture of the Commander-in-Chief - the shock that reopens the wound.

Receives Zhang Song at the Jingzhou guest-house with drums and full honors ('my brother sent me to meet you'), escorts him miles at his departure, and is assigned Xiangyang and the narrow pass at Qingni.

Guan Yu; assigned by Zhuge Liang to hold Jingzhou with the famous 'north oppose Cao Cao, east ally with Sun Quan' instruction. The post he will hold until chapter 76.

Sends thanks for the gold and silk — and a request to come west and 'try conclusions' with Ma Chao. Zhuge Liang's flattering letter (Ma Chao is 'only of the class of Ying Bu and Peng Yue... far from the standard set by you, O Lord of the Beautiful Beard') is shown round to his clients, and he thinks no more of it. Created Lord of Hanshou.

The single-sword banquet: one ship, ten guards, Zhou Cang at his shoulder. He refuses the three territories over Liu Bei's own letter ('when a leader is in the field, he receives no orders'), chases off Sun Quan's officials, then walks into Lu Su's trap at Lukou — and out of it, feigning drunkenness with his sword in one hand and his host's hand in the other, so no hidden blade dare move until his boat catches the wind.

Guan Yu; at Jingzhou.

Named in passing — Zhuge Liang threatens to send down to Jingzhou for him to face Xiahou Yuan, the goad that fires Huang Zhong.

Made first of the Five Tiger Generals — after nearly refusing the seal over sharing rank with 'this Huang Zhong' until Fei Shi's Han Xin parable lands — then Commanding General over Jingzhou's nine territories and forty-one counties. Throws Zhuge Jin out over the marriage proposal ('how can a tiger's daughter marry with a dog's whelp?'), flogs and demotes his van leaders over the camp fire, dreams of a black boar biting his foot, and marches: Cao Ren trapped by feigned retreats, Xiahou Cun cut down in one encounter, Xiangyang taken, the beacon towers ordered — and Wang Fu's warning about Pan Jun waved away.

His zenith: shamed into rage by the coffin-bearer, he duels Pang De a hundred bouts to mutual admiration, takes the trick arrow in his left arm — then reads the ground instead: 'how can any fish last long in such a trap?' Dams the swollen Xiang, drowns the seven armies, takes Yu Jin's grovel with contempt and gives Pang De an honorable burial for his defiance. Splits his force against Fancheng and Jiaxia — and, taunting the walls without his armor, takes a crossbow bolt in the arm and falls from Red Hare.

The poisoned bolt in his right arm reaches the bone — but he refuses to retire ('think you that I can vitiate the whole campaign because of a slight wound?') and takes Hua Tuo's knife with his arm through no ring and no post, playing chess with Ma Liang and drinking wine while the scraping sets the room's teeth on edge. Then vanity does what poison could not: he laughs at the 'mere youth' Lu Xun, pockets the flattering gifts, and strips half of Jingzhou's garrison north to Fancheng — leaving the door Lü Meng walks through in white.

The fall: dismisses the Jingzhou news as rumor and Lu Xun as 'that impractical fellow,' duels his old friend Xu Huang ten bouts on a half-healed arm and hears a thousand-ounce bounty put on his own head — then Cao Ren's sortie breaks the army. Word comes: Jingzhou, Gongan, Nanjun, family, all gone. The wound reopens; 'Wang Fu, you were right.' Lü Meng's kindness bleeds his ranks to three hundred; ringed 'like the kernel in a nut' amid families calling from the hills, he cuts through to Maicheng — and answers Zhuge Jin's surrender embassy with the credo: 'jade may be shattered, but its whiteness remains.'

The end at fifty-eight: breaks out of Maicheng by the north paths against Wang Fu's last warning, loses Zhao Lei in the melee, and at Zhuxi before dawn is dragged from his tangled horse by Ma Zhong's hooks and ropes. Spits 'green-eyed boy! purple-bearded rat!' at Sun Quan's wooing and dies with Guan Ping, tenth month of 219. Then the manifestations: 'Give back my head!' over the Jade Spring Mount until the recluse's rebuke — who returns the heads of Yan Liang, Wen Chou, the five-pass commanders? — the possession of Lü Meng at the feast, and the opened box whose eyes roll at Cao Cao's greeting.

Guan Yu; appears as a vengeful ghost in Cao Cao's dreams - drives him to the final illness.

Guan Yu; in the recap of his death and the political fallout.

Guan Yu; named in passing in the recap of the cause of war.

Guan Yu; named throughout in the recap of why Liu Bei rides east.

Guan Yu; named throughout in the recap - the cause of war.

Guan Yu; named throughout in the war's recap.

Returns as a shade in the candle-shadow — 'we are not men; we are spirits... ere long, brother, we three shall be together again.'

Named as the father Guan Suo could not avenge in person — the son emerges from the Bao family's shelter to join the southern van.

Named in the memorial's list of reverses that no one could have forecast — 'Wu proved false to pledges, our Guan Yu was defeated' — and again in Zhao Yun's eulogy as one of the two the veteran was a fitting mate for.

Mentioned in Wang Su's strategic advice at the start: 'When Guan Yu was most famous, Sun Quan sent Lu Meng to capture Jingzhou by surprise. What did Lu Meng do? He first won over the officers of Guan Yu by taking care of their families and thus broke the power of his enemy like a tile.' The precedent is used to argue for holding the rebels' families hostage in the Middle Land.

Named in the elegy, paired with Zhang Fei, in the line that measures Zhuge Liang's death against theirs. The three names that opened the book close it.

Named in passing only, and long dead, as the descent of one of the dead: 'Guan Yi, Lord of Hanshou and grandson of Guan Yu, were also killed by the Wei soldiers.'