The Evolution Of The Image Of Liu Bei And The Cultural Implication

Liu Bei is a high-profile character in the history, and he is also a sagacious monarchprioritizes kindheartedness and justice, a wise king values virtuous and talented people in TheRomance of the Three Kingdoms. The story of the Three Kingdom has spread through thehistory books, poetry, folklore, fiction and contemporary video works. The image of Liu Beihas been changed because of the value differences, his character traits also became morediversified.Liu Bei has different images before the book The Romance of the Three Kingdoms isfinished. Liu Bei’s image has two sides which are ambitious and merciful in the history book.In the celebrities’ notes, Liu Bei’s merciful image is still a big part, and his talent of ruling andthe virtue of listening as a wise king are becoming more and more outstanding. Because of thedifferent social background, Liu Bei’s image in the poems of Tang and Song Dynasty aredifferent. The intellects in Tang dynasty were eager to come across an emperor as Liu Bei, sothere are more poems praised the relationship between Kong Ming and Liu Bei in Tangdynasty. However, Song dynasty was always invaded by northern minorities. So the poetryabout Three Kingdoms in the Song Dynasty considered Liu Bei as the orthodox and gave hima recognition and appreciation of his talent and record. The thinking of “singing the praises ofLiu Bei’s image” is more serious among the people, so there are some different images of LiuBei being appearing.Luo Guanzhong created the image of Liu Bei according to the historical figure and his own politicalideals in the book The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. So the author highlights Liu Bei’smerciful side and plays down the side of ambitious. Due to the background differences, thereare much Liu Bei’s image reshaping in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms of the editioncompiled by a father and his son whose surname is Mao. In this edition, the author weakenedLiu Bei emotional changing, and strengthened his ambition.In contemporary films and television works, the image of Liu Bei also spreads veryextensively. The old version of the TV series The Romance of the Three Kingdoms presentedthe novel vividly on the silver screen, however, the new version of Three Kingdoms showedLiu Bei’s moral and also highlighted his wisdom. And films like red cliff shaped Liu Bei into an aspiring and failed hero.