Guan Yu

Chinese general serving warlord Liu Bei (160-220)

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China rank#121
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Lived 160–220, aged 60China

China Business ProfessionalsOther

Wikipedia
45 languages
Cross-language footprint
Rank in China
#121
Business Professionals
Era
160–220
Aged 60

Summary

Updated 2026-06-10

A general who died in 220 became a god. Guan Yu served the warlord Liu Bei through the collapse of the Han dynasty, lost a province, and was executed in an ambush — then spent the next eighteen centuries as the deity of loyalty itself, worshipped in shrines across East Asia.

Biography

About

Guan Yu fought alongside Liu Bei and Zhang Fei through the warlord chaos of the late Eastern Han, bound by what histories call a brotherly oath. He once repaid a rival warlord's kindness by killing that warlord's enemy at the Battle of Boma — the act that coded him as the embodiment of reciprocal honor. In 214 Liu Bei took Yi Province and left Guan Yu to hold Jing Province alone. Five years later, while Guan Yu was engaged at Fancheng against Cao Cao's forces, Liu Bei's ally Sun Quan turned, sent Lü Meng to seize Jing Province, and had Guan Yu caught in ambush and executed. Within centuries he…

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