I have been thinking about this for a while and I feel a need to create this topic. I know that there have a lot of topics about Jingzhou but I can’t find any the same as this one. If a moderator knows a topic virtually identical to this one then please feel free to lock this topic and give me the link so I can post this message there.
I originally thought that Liu Bei made an understandable decision to place Guan Yu in charge of Jing with the knowledge he had the time. However now I think that Liu Bei should be blamed somewhat. Chen Shou says in his assessment of Bei that he knew how to read and use people’s abilities well but I am not so sure of that. As far as I can tell it is quite clear that Guan Yu was an excellent warrior and had the personality traits to make a superb vanguard general. His performance in slaying Yan Liang was the mark of a true front line general. This was where Guan Yu was skilled and not in any other area. This is how he should have been used. I think that if Guan Yu had stayed with Cao Cao then the latter would have used him in the right way. I think that Liu Bei had a close personal attachment to Guan Yu and this seriously interfered with his judgment. How did Liu Bei get it so wrong? After being with Guan Yu for so many years he should have known where his abilities lied. Guan Yu was terribly politically and therefore he made a poor governor. How could Liu Bei not have known that Guan Yu was so poor in this area. He should have been able to tell having been with him for so many years. I don’t think it was necessary to have hindsight. Warriors like Guan Yu tended to have arrogant type personalities so surely Liu Bei should have seen the warning signs earlier on.
As I’ve said before I think only four men at this time could have been placed in charge of Jingzhou, namely Zhuge Liang, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun. They were the only ones whose loyalty could be thoroughly depended on at this time and yet were also able enough. Zhuge Liang was needed quite desperately in Yizhou so that takes him out of it. The way I see it, it comes to just those three. I will compare all three of them in the different fields and then say who I think should have been given Jingzhou.
I would say that Guan Yu was the best warrior out of the three. He proved this when he slayed Yan Liang. That being said I wouldn’t say he was leagues above the other two. Zhang Fei was said to be strong and mighty and Zhao Yun was later known as the bravest in Shu. I would therefore say that both Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun were good warriors in their own right but Guan Yu would just edge above them.
The next field would be who was the best general? I firstly have to say with complete confidence that Guan Yu was the worst. Guan Yu had more failures to his name when it came to leading troops than anything else. Zhao Yun, however, demonstrated he could lead troops quite competently. He had success during Yi campaign and led troops through his own separate route. His performance in Hanzhong showed he was skilled with cavalry and able to use both might and strategy calmly under pressure. Here he gained a impressive victory over a more powerful and better equipped enemy army. He also performed well during the northern campaign when he protected his men and supplies ably. His record proves that he was at least a good general and one of the best Shu had to offer. That being said I would have to say that Zhang Fei would probably have been the best general on the battlefield. He had a major victory over Zhang He who was a very competent general in his own right. As good a record as Zhao Yun had, he never got a victory over someone of Zhang He’s calibre. I therefore say that Zhang Fei was the best but certainly not by a long way.
The final field would be abilities as a governor. I think it is quite evident that Guan Yu was dreadful politically (his treatment of Sun Quan would prove this) and therefore he would again be the worst in this field. Zhang Fei also failed as a governor when he was placed in charge of Xia Pi. This was of course thanks to his volatile personality. He was said to have never reformed and therefore I would say that Zhang Fei was poor politically as well. Zhao Yun, however, suggested a number of wise policies and illustrated that he had very sound judgment. He was by far the best politically. Zhao Yun is actually on record for suggesting policies whereas Guan Yu and Zhang Fei are not. This would certainly point towards Zhao Yun being the best politically and having the best judgment off the battlefield. Since being a good governor (especially in regards to guarding a province as crucial as Jingzhou) is directly tied to being skilled in the area of politics then I think it is fair to say that Zhao Yun was the best governor.
I can’t think of any more fields to base the assessment on and therefore in my opinion Zhao Yun would have been the best choice because he was well balanced. He wasn’t quite as good a general as Zhang Fei or quite as good a warrior as Guan Yu but he was much better politically and his personality was for more suitable for this kind of duty. I think the leader of Jingzhou needed to have a well balanced mix of abilities with major exploitable weaknesses and Zhao Yun fitted the bill.
I am very interested to know what others think about this. Who do you think should have been placed in charge Jingzhou? Perhaps there were other contenders I haven’t considered? I would ask you to please explain your opinions.