What are the traditional moral spirits embodied in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms?

In the traditional culture of China, "righteousness" is one of the five permanent principles (benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and faithfulness) and is the basic moral principle for dealing with interpersonal relationships. From the point of view of word meaning, "righteousness is appropriate". Appropriate means should, should. It can be said that righteousness is good and beautiful, which is just and reasonable. Mao Zonggang commented in Reading the History of the Three Kingdoms: "A great man is like a cloud, and a great man is like a cloud. Qing history is extremely elegant for Deng Qing; If you are flushed, you are extremely brave. Raise the candle to reach Dan, and people preach its big festival; When a person goes to a meeting, the world serves its big country. Walk a thousand miles alone and report your determination; The friendship of repaying kindness is heavy. Do things like the sky, treat people like the sun and the moon, and treat people like the wind. The heart is the heart of Zhao Bian who burns incense and tells the emperor that he lives aboveboard. It means arrogant, but solemn: the first strange man among ancient and modern famous soldiers. " So Guan Yu is called "a must".

Guan Yu is a figure created by Luo Guanzhong with a lot of pen and ink, which can be said to run through the whole novel. When Xu Tian was hunting, he came out with a knife and said, "I want to cut Cao Cao." In Guan Yu's view, Cao Cao's insult to Emperor Xian of Han Dynasty is ethically impermissible. In order to maintain the dignity of the royal family, he will kill Cao Cao. Look at a series of actions, from "three things about the Tuntushan Pass Convention" to "hanging seals and sealing gold", "riding a thousand miles alone", beheading Cai Yang and Gu Chenghui after five passes. Guan Yu took an oath with Liu Bei and Zhang Fei, agreeing to live and die together. These actions clearly highlight his loyalty to Taoyuan, his wealth and his unyielding loyalty. Later, Cao Cao was placed in Huarong Road, violating military orders and worrying about his life. Let the tiger go back to the mountain, leaving behind future troubles, but the author still describes him as a strange man who would rather violate the military regulations than forget the old feelings. Because in Guan Yu's view, Cao Cao was grateful to him and never showed any disrespect, so he couldn't be killed. Even after the death of Guan Yu, the second generation ruler of Shu came to power, and Guan Yu appeared in Yuquan, saving Guan Xing and Zhang Bao, two generals of Shu, and guarding Shu.

Guan Yu has read books. Romance of the Three Kingdoms said that he had read Spring and Autumn Annals. This shows that Guan Yu is deeply influenced by traditional culture and has a firm Confucian ethics in his mind. For Guan Yu, The Spring and Autumn Annals is read as a military book on the one hand, and a symbol of China's traditional thought and moral spirit on the other. Later, Taoyuan Sanjieyi was deeply branded with this traditional cultural spirit. The philosophical discourse of "Taoyuan Sanjieyi" and the actual commitment to this oath: "Do not expect to be born on the same day in the same year, but to die on the same day in the same year." Guan Yu pinned his life on his brothers, on the world and devoted himself to friendship, and found a home here, which means that he sublimated natural life and crystallized social value.

As a special code of conduct to regulate the relationship between people and between individuals and society, morality must establish a value standard for people's behavior choice and tell people when dealing with the relationship between people and between individuals and society. What should be done is reasonable, and what should not be done is unreasonable. "Righteousness" means "doing what you can", that is, doing things according to "should" and "should". It is an external behavior, which can also be said to deal with the relationship between people at the same level. "Loyalty" constitutes a complete system for ordinary people to deal with social and moral relations outside the family and family.

Obviously, Guan Yu, the "absolutely righteous" in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, almost became the embodiment of righteousness and the spokesman of China's traditional culture.