Volta
Fiction184 (novel)

Oath of the Peach Garden

Also called: Peach Garden Oath

A scene invented by a historical novel. It differs from the recorded history.

The opening scene of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, in which Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei swear brotherhood in a peach garden. It is not in the official history.

A scene invented by the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Having met over a notice calling for volunteers against the Yellow Turbans, Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei sacrifice to Heaven in the peach garden behind Zhang Fei’s house and swear that, though not born on the same day, they wish to die on the same day.

The Records of the Three Kingdoms says nothing of sworn brotherhood. Guan Yu’s biography notes only that Liu Bei "slept in the same bed with the two, and his kindness to them was like a brother’s." That Liu Bei and Zhang Fei came from Zhuo Commandery agrees with the history.

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Places
Zhuo Commandery (Zhuozhou)

People

  • Liu BeiAD 161 – AD 223

    participant · Founding emperor of Shu Han (Emperor Zhaolie), who claimed descent from the Han house and became emperor at Chengdu in 221

  • Guan YuAD 220

    participant · Liu Bei’s general, who attacked Fancheng in 219 but lost Jingzhou to Wu’s Lü Meng and was captured and killed; later worshipped as Guandi

  • Zhang FeiAD 221

    participant · Liu Bei’s general from Zhuo Commandery, who held off Cao Cao’s cavalry at the bridge at Changban in 208; murdered by his own men in 221