The Image of Ch'ao Yun in San-kuo Yen-i

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Other Title
  • 「三國演義」における趙雲像
  • サンコク エンギ ニ オケル チョウウンゾウ
  • 「三国演義」における趙雲像

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In San-kuo Yen-i, Ch'ao Yün plays an active role as a general in the Kingdom of Shu 蜀. In the story, he is portrayed as "bold and careful". How does the author build up such an image for this protagonist? What kind of role has he assigned to Ch'ao Yün? These are two points that I shall examine in this paper. Juxtaposing San-kuo Yen-i and San-kuo-chih 三國志, we may easily notice that Ch'ao Yün plays a much more active role in the former story. However, there are scenes where the two books resemble each other closely. An example of which is the scene where Ch'ao Yün remonstrates with Liu Pei. Another point that should not be neglected is that the role of Ch'ao Yün in San-kuo Yen-i has become much more important than in the two sources upon which it is based, namely San-kuo-chih P'ing-hua 三國志平話 and the Yüan Tsa-chü 元雜劇. While retaining his intellectual image as portrayed in San-kuo-chih, the author exaggerates his valiant quality in San-kuo Yen-i. Thus Ch'ao Yün becomes both an intellectual as well as a militarist in San-kuo Yen-i. This also explains why he enjoys the status of being the third most competent general in the Kingdom of Shu, second only to Kuan Yü 關羽 and Chang Fei 張飛, although in history he has been ranked, at the most, as the fifth general. One of the reasons behind such a treatment of Ch'ao Yün in San-kuo Yen-i is that the author probably wishes to make him the counterpart of Chang Fei. Such a device is not unusual in Chinese novels. The contrast between Chang Fei and Ch'ao Yün in San-kuo Yen-i is obvious. While Chang is portrayed as a brave but emotionally unstable warrior, Ch'ao remains a calm and discerning person who almost never errs. Another reason perhaps is that the author has intended Ch'ao to be a character who can be summoned conveniently both as a warrior in the battle-scenes and as a thinker in the field of strategy. Finally, perhaps we may also look at Ch'ao Yün as a character to fill the gap when such leading figures as Liu Pei, Kuan Yü and Chang Fei have all passed away.

Journal

  • 中國文學報

    中國文學報 38 86-114, 1987-10

    CHINESE LITERATURE ASSOCIATION, DEPARTMENT OF CHINESE LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE, FACULTY OF LETTERS, KYÔTO UNIVERSITY

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