Though Chin Chia is the protector of scholars, he is also the redoubtable avenger of their evil actions:  his flag is saluted as a good omen, but his sword is the terror of the wicked.

The God of War

Still another patron deity of literature is the God of War.  “How,” it may be asked, “can so peaceful a people as the Chinese put so peaceful an occupation as literature under the patronage of so warlike a deity as the God of War?” But that question betrays ignorance of the character of the Chinese Kuan Ti.  He is not a cruel tyrant delighting in battle and the slaying of enemies:  he is the god who can avert war and protect the people from its horrors.

A youth, whose name was originally Chang-sheng, afterward changed to Shou-chang, and then to Yuen-chang, who was born near Chieh Liang, in Ho Tung (now the town of Chieh Chou in Shansi), and was of an intractable nature, having exasperated his parents, was shut up in a room from which he escaped by breaking through the window.  In one of the neighbouring houses he heard a young lady and an old man weeping and lamenting.  Running to the foot of the wall of the compound, he inquired the reason of their grief.  The old man replied that though his daughter was already engaged, the uncle of the local official, smitten by her beauty, wished to make her his concubine.  His petitions to the official had only been rejected with curses.

Beside himself with rage, the youth seized a sword and went and killed both the official and his uncle.  He escaped through the T’ung Kuan, the pass to Shensi.  Having with difficulty avoided capture by the barrier officials, he knelt down at the side of a brook to wash his face; when lo! his appearance was completely transformed.  His complexion had become reddish-grey, and he was absolutely unrecognizable.  He then presented himself with assurance before the officers, who asked him his name.  “My name is Kuan,” he replied.  It was by that name that he was thereafter known.

The Meat-seller’s Challenge

One day he arrived at Chu-chou, a dependent sub-prefecture of Peking, in Chihli.  There Chang Fei, a butcher, who had been selling his meat all the morning, at noon lowered what remained into a well, placed over the mouth of the well a stone weighing twenty-five pounds, and said with a sneer:  “If anyone can lift that stone and take my meat, I will make him a present of it!” Kuan Yue, going up to the edge of the well, lifted the stone with the same ease as he would a tile, took the meat, and made off.  Chang Fei pursued him, and eventually the two came to blows, but no one dared to separate them.  Just then Liu Pei, a hawker of straw shoes, arrived, interposed, and put a stop to the fight.  The community of ideas which they found they possessed soon gave rise to a firm friendship between the three men.