The Legend of the Sworn Brotherhood of the Three Heroes in the Peach Garden
In downtown Zhuoxian County there was a street called Zhongyimiao Street. It is said that the great hero Zhang Fei once sold meat on this street when he lived in Zhuozhou. He used to keep the meat in a well in front of his house which he covered with a heavy flagstone weighing over 500 kg. He also erected a sign by the well with the challenge “Anyone who can lift this stone can have free meat.”
One day, Guan Yu was driving his little donkey down that street with a load of mung beans which he hoped to sell. When he got to the doorway of Zhang Fei’s butcher’s shop, he saw the sign and thought “Hmm - what a rash promise that is!” Guan Yu was very strong and he lifted up the flagstone with very little effort. Laying it to one side he took out a large piece of pork from the well and stored it away on the back of his donkey, Guan Yu continued on his way without saying something. When Zhang Fei returned, his wife told him everything that had happened. Zhang was enraged and immediately went to the market to confront Guan Yu.
Zhang Fei was an impetuous man, but he was no fool. He realized that he needed to settle this problem quietly, or he would have to provide free meat again and again. He came up to Guan Yu, and asked,
“Are your mung beans dry?”
Guan Yu said, “Of course! They are very dry.”
“May I check?” inquired Zhang Fei.
“Sure. Go ahead!”
Zhang Fei grasped a handful of mung beans and ground them into powder with his thumb. He did the same with another handful and still he continued. Soon, he had ground half the bag of mung beans into powder. Guan Yu knew that this was the famous Zhang Fei and he beseeched him, “My fellow-villager, if you want to buy my mung beans, please wait to grind them into powder at home after you have bought them. How can I sell them now after you have ground them into powder?”
“Didn’t you say I could test them?” Zhang Fei shouted angrily.
“I never said you could test all of them?” replied Guan Yu, also getting angry.
They began to quarrel and soon they had rolled up their sleeves and began trading heavy punches and kicks. People tried to pull apart them but to no avail. At that time, Liu Bei was in the market trying to sell some straw sandals. He saw the fight and seeing that nobody dared to step between the two big fellows, he resolved to make peace between them. Other bystanders told him to stay out of it. He was so slender and slight that they felt he could get seriously hurt if he intervened in the fight between these two huge giants. However, Liu Bei was undeterred. He stepped forward and pulled the two fighters apart easily. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei couldn’t touch each other, and they stamped their feet in anger keen to continue beating the heads off each other. This is the origin of the popular saying, “One dragons pulls apart two tigers.”
Having fought each other, both Zhang Fei and Guan Yu could not but admire the other’s strength. Thanks to Liu Bei’s peacemaking, they eventually calmed down and eventually even became good friends. This is how it came to pass that these three great heroes swore a solemn oath of brotherhood in a nearby Peach Garden. Afterwards, they needed to decide the order of seniority. Generally, with sworn blood-brothers rank would be decided according to age. However, Zhang Fei, the youngest among them, wouldn’t accept this.
He proposed “We should be ranked according to our strength. The one whose strength is greatest should be regarded as the eldest brother.” Guan Yu said, “Liu Bei pulled us two apart with one stroke, so his strength is the greatest and he should be the eldest brother. We are equal, Zhang Fei. There is no need to decide who will be second or third brother. There is no need to fi ght again.”
Zhang Fei remained silent. Then Liu Bei proposed, “Perhaps we can decide this issue with a battle of wits!”
Both Zhang Fei and Guan Yu agreed.
Liu Bei said, “We will see who can throw a chicken feather onto the roof of the house. The one who throws it onto the roof will be the eldest son, OK?”
All three agreed. Short-tempered Zhang Fei caught a chicken and pulled a feather from it and then summoning all his strength he threw it towards the roof. However the feather floated away and even after a number of attempts Zhang Fei was unsuccessful. Guan Yu also tried and also failed. Then it was Liu Bei’s turn. He took the chicken and threw the whole bird onto the roof with no effort at all.
Zhang Fei said, “That doesn’t count. You threw the whole chicken!”
Liu answered, “Can you see the chicken feathers on the roof? Who threw them there? I did!”
Zhang Fei was dumbstruck but had to admit that Liu Bei was right. He admitted defeat.
Thus the great hero Liu Bei became the eldest brother, but the question remained of who would be second and third brother? Liu Bei said, “Zhang Fei threw the feather first and the most times, but failed. I believe it is reasonable to rank him as third brother and Guan Yu as second.”
Zhang Fei agreed and laughing said, “OK. OK! I give up, I give up!’
This is the first story in the great classic of Chinese literature The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Today, if you mention Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei to any Chinese people, they will immediately be reminded of the Peach Garden Oath. In the Peach Garden where the peach flowers were in full blossom, the three heroes performed all the sacred rites - prepared a cow and a white horse and burning incense to worship heaven and earth. Then, they established their sworn brotherhood and vowed to fight together and defend each other what may come in those troubled times. If they could not always stand together, they vowed to all die on the same day. The story has been passed down from generation to generation.
