Lü Bu

Lǚ Bù ( Chinese  呂布  /  吕布 , IPA (standard Chinese) [ ly214 b̥u51 ], W.-G. Lü Pu , majority name - Zì, 字 - Fèngxiān 奉先 , * around 155 ; † November 7, 198 ) was a Chinese general under of the late Han Dynasty . Lü Bu was also known by the nickname of the "flying general", which was possibly meant ambiguously. It indicates, on the one hand, that Lü Bu served several masters and, on the other hand, of his faithlessness. Both historical and fictional sources describe Lü as an excellent and powerful warrior, sometimes also as the bravest warrior in China. However, all employers wanted to distance themselves from Lü in the end, because his character was not only courageous and brave but also brutal and cruel. In addition, Lü lacked fidelity and loyalty to his employers. Lü stabbed all allies in the back without warning, betrayed them and even murdered them. With his changing character, Lü found its way into Chinese folklore. In modern China, Lü appears in video games in which he plays the role of the powerful general and thus won immortality in Warriors Orochi and the series Dynasty Warriors. There are strong polarizations in the representations of Lü Bus; on the one hand as a hero, on the other hand as a cheater.

Life

In the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms , Lü Bu is portrayed as an excellent rider and mighty warrior. He originally served as an advisor to Governor Ding Yuan . At an embassy to General and Warlord Dong Zhuo in Luoyang , Lü Bu betrayed his employer and killed him.

In the following years, Lü Bu Dong Zhuo served as a bodyguard and commander. Dong Zhuo named Lü Bu as his adoptive son, but his unbalanced disposition ruined the relationship between the two. Finally, Lü Bu and counselor Wang Yun conspired against Dong Zhuo and killed him in 192. After the coup, Lü Bu and Wang Yun ruled Chang'an for a few weeks before they were overwhelmed by Dong Zhuo's general Li Jue . Wang Yun was killed and Lü Bu fled east. He joined the warlord Yuan Shu but was disowned by him for his ruthless conduct in military operations.

Lü Bu moved on to Henei to Zhang Yang and then to Yuan Shao in Ji Province. On his behalf he fought the bandits in the Black Mountains in 193. Because of his brutality, Yuan Shao wanted to get rid of him and sent him to Luoyang with an escort to kill Lü Bu. Lü Bu escaped the attack and returned to Zhang Yang, who passed away shortly afterwards. His successor, Zhang Miao , accepted Lü Bu as an officer.

In 194, warlord Cao Cao conquered Xun Province, which was adjacent to Zhang Miao's territory. On the advice of Chen Gong, Zhang Miao entrusted Lü Bu with the protection of Yan Province. Despite initial success, Lü Bu lost noticeably from 195 to Cao Cao, who subjugated more and more cities in the province. In the summer of that year, Lü Bu had to give up the resistance and flee to Liu Bei in Xu Province. When he was attacked by Yuan Shu in 1966, Lü Bu betrayed Liu Bei, occupied his main camp, and captured his family. He let Yuan Shu appoint himself inspector of Xu Province and made an alliance with the warlord.

The following year (197), Liu Bei attacked Lü Bu in Xu Province with the support of Cao Cao, who now controlled the imperial court in Luoyang. After his defeat, Lü Bu offered the imperial court and Cao Cao his submission, but Cao Cao did not accept. He sent Liu Bei and Xiahou Dun into the field against Lü Bu; however, both were defeated in the fall of 197. At this point, Cao Cao himself took command. He drove Lü Bu back to his main camp in Xiapi and took him prisoner there. He turned down one last offer of submission to Lü Bus and had him strangled.

literature

• Rafe de Crespigny : A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23-220 AD) . Brill, Leiden et al. 2007, ISBN 978-90-04-15605-0 , ( Handbuch der Orientalistik Section 4, 19), pp. 624-625.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Juuhachi, Lu Bu , GiantBomb, April 24, 2016, accessed August 30, 2017
2. ↑ Hosen Ryofu, From the series: The individual heroes from the story of the three realms , Emuseum Düsseldorf, accessed on August 30, 2017
3. ↑ Evans Lansing Smith, Ph.D., Nathan Robert Brown, The Complede Idiot's Guide to World Mythology , ALPHA, July 1, 2008, ISBN 978-1-59257-764-4 , accessed August 30, 2017

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Lü is the family name here, Bu is the first name.