Mengdez New Book wrote:Well, if you base on this source, it seem like Lu Bu was quite good at literacy
Don't forget that Lu Bu started out as Ding Yuan's Chief Secretary (主簿) in history!
Maybe he's no Xun Yu, but he cannot be illiterate.
Here's my defence for Lu Bu. Ok, so Lu Bu betrayed Ding Yuan and Dong Zhuo. Let's see how this looks like in history first. In history, Lu Bu was never Ding Yuan's adopted son. When Dong Zhuo entered the capital, he held a higher position than Ding Yuan, and if Lu Bu killed Ding Yuan at Dong's command, he was just obeying someone with even higher authority. It was probably a heartless act, but hardly outside the realm of proper behaviour. What about Dong Zhuo? Sure enough they made a pact to be as father and son, but did Dong honour this pact when he threw the lance at Lu Bu for no reason? Surely Lu Bu can be excused for not playing his part as a son after this incident -- there was no more father-son tie to be betrayed. Compounded with the fact that killing Dong Zhuo was for a good cause, Lu Bu's "betraying" of Dong can be excused.
Novel now. It's true that Lu Bu's killing Ding Yuan was painted more negatively -- they were sworn father and son, and Ding Yuan was bold enough to stand up to Dong Zhuo, and there is no way to make Lu Bu innocent. But consider this point to Lu Bu's favour. Lu Bu had said to Li Su, "I have been Ding Yuan's man, it's true. But out of necessity more than choice." From this it seems that Ding Yuan hadn't been treating Lu Bu too nicely (note that Li Su hadn't even mentioned the more powerful person's name yet). So Lu Bu was perhaps 80% at fault, but he didn't betray someone who did him nothing but good. As for Dong Zhuo, the case is clear. As far as Lu Bu knows, Dong Zhuo committed an
incestuous deed by taking his son's wife for himself. Of course, he was deluded by Wang Yun. However, given what he knew, Dong Zhuo's behaviour violated all codes of humanity and decency, unacceptable by heaven or earth. Furthermore, as far as Lu Bu's concerned, he did nothing wrong, and yet his "father" attempted to spear him through with a lance. Again, just as in the historical case, the father-son tie has been severed by Dong Zhuo, and Lu Bu should not be obligated to honour it. I would assign 50% guilt to Lu Bu in this affair, but I would also cancel it by the fact that
even if Lu Bu betrayed Dong Zhuo, he saved the country.
Now let's consider what Lu Bu did after he went to Xuzhou (novel now). People argue that Lu Bu betrayed Liu Bei's trust by taking over Xuzhou. But consider this. Xuzhou at that time was under the care of Zhang Fei, who apparently didn't do a very good job in governing it (getting drunk and beating up his own guys). So Lu Bu's taking over Xuzhou may have been a breach of trust, but it was better for the people there! Note also that the take-over in the novel was bloodless. Lu Bu even treated Liu Bei's family, his captives, very well (whether he had ulterior motives is irrelevant), and returned them promptly when Liu Bei came for them. In a way, he was taking better guard of Liu Bei's land when Liu Bei was away! Considering also the fact that Lu Bu did return a piece of land to Liu Bei, and furthermore saved his butt from Ji Ling, I would say that Lu Bu's betrayal of Liu Bei was minimal.
All in all, Lu Bu betrayed at most 1.8 people -- 0.8 of Ding Yuan, 0.5 Dong Zhuo, 0.5 Liu Bei. Against this, he saved
a lot of people by killing Dong Zhuo, and had no deed of misgovernment during his time at Xuzhou (incompetent maybe, but he certainly did not overtax the people in any way). He also must have treated his officers well (whether he listened to them is a separate issue), since even people like Gao Shun, Zhang Liao, and Chen Gong were willing to die for him.
Now look at Liu Bei. First, even though he nodded when Lu Bu entrusted him with saying a good word for him, his sly remark killed Lu Bu right away. Not considering the Ji Ling incident, or Lu Bu's good treatment of his family. Betrayal #1. He then betrayed Cao Cao by killing Che Zhou and taking Xuzhou for his own (nevermind that some in Cao's camp was ready to kill Liu Bei; the fact is, Cao never did Liu Bei any harm and yet Liu Bei killed his guys and stole his land). Betrayal #2. Liu bei was ordered by the Emperor to help restore Han, but what did he really do to that effect? The girdle mandate did Liu Bei a whole lot of good by granting him legitimacy, but it's unclear what Liu Bei contributed to the cause. Betrayal #3. Skipping over Yuan Shao, we come to Liu Biao. Liu Biao asked him to take care of the land after his death, but Liu Bei refused, and neither did he use his power as uncle and a trusted general of Liu Biao's to help Biao's heir to safeguard the province. He then caused the deaths of many civilians by having them follow him flee. Betrayal of Liu Biao the Jingzhou people is #4. #5 and 6 would be Liu Zhang and Sun Quan (for Ba/Shu and Jingzhou), but those are debated elsewhere so I won't go into them. Ok, last one -- Yiling. Liu Bei certainly did not betray his brotherly oath when he went to exact revenge for Guan Yu, but he betrayed the Shu people's trust in him as a leader. He led his 750,000 men into destruction, and shattered any hope for Shu to unify China.
So this is my verdict -- Lu Bu betrayed maybe 2 or 3 men, but Liu Bei betrayed the people 3 or 4 times over. Who is the bigger traitor?
) where he could help Cao Cao to acheive his dream.
In any case, I don't think Lu Bu was a Guan Zhong. If he did label himself as Guan Zhong, then he must be out of his mind.
