I am a historical film director in the entertainment industry.

Chapter 100 The world will never see another handsome bearded man...

Guan Yu's image has been described in history.

He was nine feet tall with a two-foot-long beard; his face was like a red date, and his lips were like painted rouge; he had phoenix eyes and silkworm eyebrows; he had a dignified appearance and an imposing presence.

Only actor Lu Shuming could bring this character to life; he can be called the 'ceiling of Guan Yu'.

From character portrayal to plot interpretation, actor Lu Shuming has brought the character of Guan Yu to life. In the hearts of almost all netizens, his portrayal of Guan Yu in the drama is just like Guan Yu himself.

With his tall and imposing physique, coupled with an expression that looked down on everyone, Lu Shuming not only established the official image of Guan Yu, but also depicted that arrogant and domineering arrogance.

Arrogance alone cannot fully capture Guan Yu's personal charm. Therefore, Lu Shuming in CCTV's version of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" perfectly portrays Guan Yu's sense of defeat in the battle against Lü Bu and his subservience under Cao Cao.

"He possesses both spirit and form perfectly; there is only one like him!"

This is how many netizens describe actor Lu Shuming. Even the actor himself believes he is the most convincing actor to portray Guan Yu in history.

Years later, Lu Shuming will reprise his role as Guan Yu in the web series "Green Dragon Crescent Blade". At the age of 65, Lu Shuming will once again play the role of Guan Yu. With upgraded special effects and costumes, he will be able to more vividly portray the tragic situation of Guan Yu's defeat at Maicheng.

However, the web series did not achieve excellent box office results despite Lu Shuming's participation; on the contrary, it received particularly low ratings.

Cheng Sheng even complained online about this, telling the director not to ruin Lu Shuming's career.

Netizens bluntly stated: "This is a terrible drama! So just watch the first ten minutes, because there are no more scenes with Teacher Lu Shuming after that."

On one hand, there's the terrible plot, and on the other hand, there's praise for Lu Shuming's acting skills. It has to be said that this generation of netizens is very savvy, but this kind of comment also shows that Lu Shuming is undoubtedly the best actor to play Guan Yu.

Unfortunately, Cheng Sheng, another figure from my memory, never actually met Lu Shuming before his untimely death.

Many netizens also lamented: "The world will never see the handsome bearded gentleman again..."

If Cheng Sheng hadn't invited Lu Shuming to play Guan Yu, he would probably regret it to death.

Teacher Lu Shuming is a very honest person. When he received Cheng Sheng's invitation, he immediately agreed and even chatted with Cheng Sheng about the Three Kingdoms for a while on the phone.

It must be said that Mr. Lu Shuming has a very thorough understanding of the Three Kingdoms period. He can talk about both "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Records of the Three Kingdoms" in great detail.

He also frankly stated that he greatly admired Cheng Sheng's film "The Great Tang Dynasty" and had long wanted to collaborate with Cheng Sheng.

With Lu Shuming's solid knowledge of the Three Kingdoms period, Cheng Sheng had already decided on him without even an interview.

However, Teacher Lu Shuming did not want to put Cheng Sheng in a difficult position. Since it was an audition, he still needed to go through the formalities.

"The Yellow Turban Rebellion" is a historical war epic with an investment of 150 million yuan. Every actor that Cheng Sheng hired needs to live up to the investment in this film.

The actors he chooses don't need to be famous, but they must understand the history of the Three Kingdoms and fit the character's temperament in the movie.

Characters such as Lu Shuming, Bao Guoan, and Hong Yuzhou all fit the requirements of the roles.

Compared to the images of Guan Yu, Cao Cao, and Liu Bei, etc.

Cheng Sheng's choice of Zhang Fei in this film is different from the Zhang Fei in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

Although the Records of the Three Kingdoms mentions that Zhang Fei was "strong and mighty, second only to Guan Yu," it does not describe his physical appearance in detail. However, we can infer from another event that Zhang Fei's might was not only reflected in his outward appearance, but also in his inner temperament and strength.

This conjecture has been corroborated by history: Zhang Fei's two daughters became empresses of Liu Shan, the last emperor of the Southern Tang dynasty, which is enough to prove that Zhang Fei himself must have possessed outstanding qualities and appearance.

Otherwise, his daughters could not have had such outstanding genes, let alone been candidates for queen and successfully elected.

In conclusion, although Guan Yu was not described in detail in historical records, his extraordinary temperament and the image of "beautiful beard" have been confirmed in historical records.

Although there is a lack of specific physical descriptions of Zhang Fei, based on the historical fact that his daughter became empress, it can be inferred that he must have been a handsome man who was both majestic and dashing.

Furthermore, the Records of the Three Kingdoms does not mention the height of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, but only records Liu Bei's height as "seven feet and five inches" in Volume 32.

Therefore, the descriptions of Guan Yu as "nine feet tall" and Zhang Fei as "eight feet tall" in the novel are actually artistic embellishments based on Liu Bei's height.

It is worth noting that this fiction is not entirely unfounded.

In the Records of the Three Kingdoms, Xu Chu is described as "over eight feet tall with a waist ten spans in circumference," while the annotation in Volume 36, quoting Zhao Yun's Biography, states that Zhao Yun was "eight feet tall with a majestic and imposing appearance."

Considering the similarities in personality and appearance among figures like Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Xu Chu, and Zhao Yun, it is entirely reasonable that their heights are roughly the same or slightly different.

So, how many centimeters is equivalent to one chi in the Han Dynasty?

According to research, one chi (尺) in the Han Dynasty was approximately equivalent to 21.35–23.75 centimeters in modern times.

Based on this calculation, Xu Chu and Zhao Yun's height should be between 1.84 and 1.92 meters.

In the novelist's writing, Zhang Fei is similar to Xu and Zhao, while Guan Yu may be slightly superior.

Therefore, the actor chosen for Zhang Fei is no longer the one from "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" who is eight feet tall, has a leopard's head and round eyes, a swallow's collar and tiger's whiskers, and a voice like thunder.

The real Zhang Fei in history was not like that.

Although Liu Bei warned in the Records of the Three Kingdoms, “Your punishments and killings have gone too far, and you whip your strong soldiers every day while keeping them by your side. This is a path to disaster,” one cannot call his actions reckless and impulsive simply because he whipped his soldiers and showed no mercy to commoners.

More importantly, Zhang Fei was a calligrapher and painter.

For example, Wu Zhen, a painter of the Yuan Dynasty, said in "Zhang Yide Temple": "Guan Yu recited Zuo Zhuan, and Charioteer was also skilled in calligraphy. Although their interests in literature and martial arts are different, the ancients had plenty of them. I think of the strength of his wrist when he wields his spear, and I am afraid that his portrait is hard to match."

The Ming Dynasty scholar Yang Shen recorded in his book "Danqian Zonglu" that "there is a Zhang Fei Diaodou inscription in Fuling. The characters are very well written, and it was written by Zhang Fei himself."

Besides being skilled in calligraphy, the Qing Dynasty book "Records of Paintings Through the Ages" states: "Zhang Fei, a native of Zhuozhou, was good at painting beautiful women."

It can be seen that Zhang Fei was also a painter.

In addition, scholar Deng Tuo once said in his article “Starting with Zhang Fei’s Calligraphy and Painting”: “Chinese calligraphers are not limited to literati; there are also many military generals, such as Yue Fei and Zhang Fei.”

This shows that Zhang Fei in history was not a rude and reckless man, but rather a man of decent appearance and with some skill in calligraphy and painting.

Therefore, the Zhang Fei chosen this time cannot be too ugly, at least not as fierce and menacing as described in the novel.

(End of this chapter)