God of War
關聖帝君 (관성제군) means the war-god who deified Guan Yu. martial means of war; of combat; military. East Asian idiom and Western myth mirror the same human truth.
The Meeting
The Romans dedicated the first month of spring each year to Mars, god of war; in East Asia, Guan Yu (關羽), the sworn brother of Liu Bei, was deified after his death and became the god of war, Guansheng Dijun. One was a god of myth; the other, a man of history who became a god. Yet both occupied the same place -- the guardian deity of war and martial force, whom humans both fear and lean upon.
Western Myth — Mars, God of War
Mars (the Greek Ares) is the war-god of Roman mythology. But unlike the Greek Ares, relatively scorned as a mere god of slaughter and frenzy, the Roman Mars held a far more dignified station -- he was a principal deity, second only to Jupiter (Zeus), and was held to be the father of Romulus, founder of Rome. To the Romans, then, Mars was the ancestral god of their own people. In the Roman calendar the first month, March, was the month of Mars, and as spring began, sacrifices were offered to Mars before the army marched out to war once more. The Roman Forum held several temples of Mars, and the Field of Mars (Campus Martius) was the site of military drills and political assemblies. Martial entered English in the fourteenth century, settling into the meaning "of Mars, of war, military." Martial law, martial arts, and martial music all come from Mars. Intriguingly, the planet Mars bears the same god's name -- for the red planet's color called to mind blood and war.
What matters is that Mars was not merely a god of slaughter but "the guardian of just war." The Romans justified all their wars as "wars of defense," and Mars was the guarantor of that legitimacy. The expression martial law, too, denotes not mere violence but "the keeping of order in an emergency," in the very same vein. Mars was a god of war, yet at once a god of Roman identity and civic virtue.
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Oxford English Dictionary"martial" etymology entry.
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Etymonlinemartial word origin.
Eastern Legend — The Incarnation of Loyalty, Guansheng Dijun
Guansheng Dijun (關聖帝君) is the Daoist war-god who deifies Guan Yu (關羽, ca. 160–220), the famed general of the late Eastern Han. Guan Yu, who swore the Oath of the Peach Garden with Liu Bei and Zhang Fei to become sworn brothers and kept faith all his life, is drawn as the most compelling hero in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. His image astride Red Hare with the Green Dragon Crescent Blade in hand, his loyalty in sparing Cao Cao at Huarong Pass, and the tragedy of his capture and death at the hands of Sun Quan while defending Jingzhou -- all made him not a mere warrior but "the incarnation of righteousness (義)." Guan Yu's deification unfolded over centuries after his death: Emperor Huizong of Song enfeoffed him as "Duke of Loyalty and Grace (忠惠公)"; the Wanli Emperor of Ming elevated him to "Guansheng Dijun (關聖帝君)"; and under the Qing he received the long title "Great Emperor Guan, the Loyal and Righteous, Divinely Martial, Numinously Protecting, Benevolent and Brave, Awe-Manifesting, Sage (忠義神武靈佑仁勇威顯關聖大帝)." He was worshipped in Daoism as god of war, god of wealth, and guardian of sworn brotherhood, venerated widely across Korea, China, Japan, Vietnam, and the overseas Chinese communities of Southeast Asia. In Korea, too, after the Imjin War, the Dongmyo (東廟) shrine was built in Hanyang -- a shrine to Guan Yu.
If Mars is a being in whom "a god of myth became human and taught war," Guansheng Dijun is a being in whom "a human of history died and became a god." The Western war-god descended from above; the Eastern war-god rose from below. Moreover, Mars was the guardian of war itself, whereas Guansheng Dijun was the guardian of "one who keeps faith even amid war." The East deified not martial force itself, but the ethics of wielding it.
Where the Mirrors Meet — Where the Two Myths Converge
Both share the common theme of "the god of war."
Martial from Greek myth and Guansheng Dijun from East Asian tradition captured the same human truth.
Both live on in daily language. Martial endures in English, Guansheng Dijun in Korean.
Yet their modes of expression differ. The West conveyed this wisdom through a mythic character; the East, through a combination of Chinese characters.
Mnemonic — One Line to Take Home
- ✓ martial = from Mars. Of war; of combat; military.
- ✓ 關聖帝君 (Guansheng Dijun) = the war-god who deified Guan Yu.
- ✓ Remember it in one stroke: "Martial and Guansheng Dijun -- two different civilizations telling the same story."
"Myth does not die. It still breathes today, in martial and in Guansheng Dijun."
