The oath having been formally taken, Liu Pei was saluted as elder brother, Kuan Yue as the second, and Chang Fei as the youngest.  Their sacrifice to Heaven and earth ended, they killed an ox and served a feast, to which the soldiers of the district were invited to the number of three hundred or more.  They all drank copiously until they were intoxicated.  Liu Pei enrolled the peasants; Chang Fei procured for them horses and arms; and then they set out to make war on the Yellow Turbans (Huang Chin Tsei).  Kuan Yue proved himself worthy of the affection which Liu Pei showed him; brave and generous, he never turned aside from danger.  His fidelity was shown especially on one occasion when, having been taken prisoner by Ts’ao Ts’ao, together with two of Liu Pei’s wives, and having been allotted a common sleeping-apartment with his fellow-captives, he preserved the ladies’ reputation and his own trustworthiness by standing all night at the door of the room with a lighted lantern in his hand.

Into details of the various exploits of the three Brothers of the Peach-orchard we need not enter here.  They are written in full in the book of the Story of the Three Kingdoms, a romance in which every Chinese who can read takes keen delight.  Kuan Yue remained faithful to his oath, even though tempted with a marquisate by the great Ts’ao Ts’ao, but he was at length captured by Sun Ch’uean and put to death (A.D. 219).  Long celebrated as the most renowned of China’s military heroes, he was ennobled in A.D. 1120 as Faithful and Loyal Duke.  Eight years later he had conferred on him by letters patent the still more glorious title of Magnificent Prince and Pacificator.  The Emperor Wen (A.D. 1330-3) of the Yuean dynasty added the appellation Warrior Prince and Civilizer, and, finally, the Emperor Wan Li of the Ming dynasty, in 1594, conferred on him the title of Faithful and Loyal Great Ti, Supporter of Heaven and Protector of the Kingdom.  He thus became a god, a ti, and has ever since received worship as Kuan Ti or Wu Ti, the God of War.  Temples (1600 State temples and thousands of smaller ones) erected in his honour are to be seen in all parts of the country.  He is one of the most popular gods of China.  During the last half-century of the Manchu Period his fame greatly increased.  In 1856 he is said to have appeared in the heavens and successfully turned the tide of battle in favour of the Imperialists.  His portrait hangs in every tent, but his worship is not confined to the officials and the army, for many trades and professions have elected him as a patron saint.  The sword of the public executioner used to be kept within the precincts of his temple, and after an execution the presiding magistrate would stop there to worship for fear the ghost of the criminal might follow him home.  He knew that the spirit would not dare to enter Kuan Ti’s presence.

Thus the Chinese have no fewer than three gods of literature—­perhaps not too many for so literary a people.  A fourth, a Taoist god, will be mentioned later.