A Study Of Guan Yunchang And King Gesar Under The Perspective Of The Comparative Study Of Chinese And Tibetan Literature

Guan Yu,also called Guan Yunchang,as well as King Gesar,are the tipical hero images of the great classical Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the Tibetan heroic epic Gesar,and also the widely worshipped gods among Han and Tibetan folks.They are the literary and cultural symbols of Han and Tibetan ethnic groups.In Qing Dynasty,the Kuan-ti Faith had spread into Tibet from central China,and gradually combined with the faith of King Gesar.The temples of Kuan-ti are called “Gesar lha-khang” by Tibetan folk,which means “shrine to King Gesar” in Tibetan language.There is a Kuan-ti Temple locating on Mopanshan mountian in Lhasa,which was first built during the period of Emperor Qianlong in Qing Dynasty.Now its official name is "Kuan-ti Gesar lha-khang".This name obviously is a combination of Chinese and Tibetan,and it symbolizes that local people would equalize Kuan-ti with King Gesar.The phenomenon that people would bracket together the two typical hero characters of Han and Tibetan ethnic groups aroused my interest.Previous studies on the topic of “the relationship between Kuan-ti and King Gesar” were mainly based on the view of religion or anthropology.However,this thesis tries to explain this problem from the perspective of literature.In the historical novel called Romance of the Three Kingdoms,which was created in the late Yuan Dynasty till early Ming Dynasty,Guan Yu was shaped into a typical character of loyalism and valiant,and Kuan-ti is regarded as the symbol of loyalty,and also the god of valiant and wealth by Chinese folk.In the Tibetan epic Gesar,King Gesar was a symbol of courage and wisdom.Tibetan people regard King Gesar as the Tibetan god of war.Ren Naiqiang,who was the pioneer in the field of Gesar Epic studies,once wrote an article called “A Preliminary Introduction to ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’ of Tibetan ethnic”.Ren mentioned in his article that Tibetan people called Guan Yu “King Gesar of the Han ethnic”.From my perspective,the phenomenon suggests that there must be some similarities and relations between Guan Yu and King Gesar.Thus,by taking the introduction to "Kuan-ti Gesar lha-khang" in Lhasa as a lead-in,this thesis aims to make a detailed comparison between the literary figures of Guan Yu and King Gesar.That is to say the figure of Guan Yu in the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms,and the figure of King Gesar in the Tibetan epic Gesar.The introduction to "Kuan-ti Gesar lha-khang" in Lhasa is to illustrate the cultural phenomenon that Tibetan people would bracket both Kuan-ti and King Gesar,and clarify the background of the thesis.The comparative study of this thesis is based on the view of literature,and the citing textual evidence mainly are from Romance of the Three Kingdoms commented by Mao Lun and Mao Zonggang,as well as a Chinese translation of Epic Gesar,which created by a famous singing artist Samdrup.The research method of the thesis is parallel comparison of the comparative literature,and the analysis depends on literary text.The comparison between these two literary figures mainly from the aspect of appearance,personality,subordinate.The thesis tries to find similarities and differences,and then do the cause analysis of the cultural phenomenon of Kuan-ti and King Gesar from the perspective of literature.The thesis is based on the view of comparative literature,and tries to explain the cultural phenomenon that Tibetan people would call Guan Yu “King Gesar of the Han ethnic” and regard the temples of Kuan-ti as “Gesar lha-khang” from a new viewpoint and new way of thinking.Trying to fill in the gaps of emphasizing on religious culture while ignoring the analysis of the characters,which is the deficiency of previous studies,this thesis aims to promote the interchange and communication of the Han and Tibetan ethnic culture.