MovieChat Forums > San guo zhi jian long xie jia (2008) Discussion > Zhao Yun overrated?

Zhao Yun overrated?

posted 15 years ago by january2010
1 reply | jump to latest

I've read this interesting post on the Internet about how Zhao Yun may be overrated.

Now, there is little doubt about his loyalty, his examplary conduct, and his battle prowess.. and although the last one is definitely exaggerated in the novels, I am sure it was as good as it can realistically get.

What this post questioned was Zhao Yun's abilities as a commander. It goes on to argue that he was more on the level of the lieutenant in charge of Liu Bei's bodyguard, not a general who commands thousands of soldiers on the battlefield. We know that Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Ma Chao, Zhuge Liang were all generals to some degree. But was Zhao Yun one?

In fact, it almost seems like that Wei Yan is considered more of a general than Zhao Yun in the later years. Of course, Zhao Yun is definitely more liked and respected because of his seniority, but even in the novels it's Wei Yan who comes up with suggestions on strategies, and who commands this or that wing of the Shu army. Zhao Yun is just a vanguard.

So I was interested in hearing any opinions on this. Does anybody have a concrete idea on this?

[–] S12345 14 years ago

A little late but if you really want to have a more concrete idea on his actual historical accomplishments, you can look up the SGZ, here's his bio:

http://kongming.net/novel/sgz/zhaoyun.php

yes he is embellished a lot in the novel, same with most generals or strategists. The historical version is really rather boring, most of those amazingly strategic battles really didn't have as much going on historically.

In the novel, characters with great fighting ability are embellished as great generals as well when in real life, being a great fighter was pretty different from being a great general.