Chao Yun is one of the famous characters in Chinese history, however, in the book of“ History of the Three Kingdoms” by Chen Shou, his efforts are not mentioned much in the main sections. Later, in the Pei Song Chi’s interpretation, he polished Chao Yun’s achievements, and moreover, “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms”by Luo Guan Jhong, he raised Chao Yun’s historical and art image into the highest position at the time. During the Ming Dynasty to the Ching Dynasty, the society was influenced by the historical romance. The trend of Chao Yun was popular around the different areas, which included his temples, historical heritages and mementos. The trend showed that how people and the government respected the effects of Chao Yun, thus, the legends of Chao Yun were developed rapidly at the time.
According to the local chronicles which were written in the Ming Dynasty to the Ching Dynasty, the temples of Chao Yun are not distributed extensively. From the history and “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms “which are referred to that most distributions are concentrated on the areas where Chao Yun ever visited. Some of them are focus on Hebei , Hunan and Sichuan province which Chao Yun’s achievements are revered by the local residents. Although Chao Yun never set foot in the Taiwan history, his legends is different with the historical romance and changed to exist as a belief in the society. There are two Zi-Long temples which were built in Ching Dynasty. In addition, based on early Taiwan history which recorded that there are two temples named Zi-Long temple. As the result of combining the local chronicles and historical documents which proved the Zi-Long culture was developed effectively in Taiwan since Ching Dynasty.
In the case of legends about Chao Yun, there were only two folk stories which sourced from Hubei Dangyan county and Sichuan Dayi county in Ming Dynasty to Ching Dynasty. However, the modern histories currently refer to the traditions of the Three Kingdoms and Chinese folklore literatures which were mentioned the historical interest and the toponyms that were created by Chao Yun culture. For example, the Zi-Long Street in Dangyan County, the Prince Royal Bridge, the Great army spring, the grave of Chao Yun at Nanyang County, and the Zi-Long pond in Sichuan Chengdu city, etc. Apart from these, there are different characteristic legends spread widely around the Hubei, Hunan province and Sichuan Chengdu city, and the majority was referred to “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms”, and moreover, the temples and mausoleum of Zi-Long were famous for efficacious stories in Sichuan Dayi county and Taiwan. Furthermore, the legends of Chao Yun in Hebei province were expanded as different performances, such as creating traditions of his boyhood, editing his records and public speeches of his stories. This trend led people to adorned Chao Yun for his heroic character and made his legends more and more.
This article is to explore and clarify the historical sources of Chao Yun. The content not only gathered materials from the local chronicles of the past dynasties, the records of the Ming Dynasty to the Ching Dynasty, and the popular traditions of various regions, but also combined the field surveys to organize the resources which included temples, heritages and legends. Through the deeply investigation which people can see Chao Yun from a completely perspective and understand how to create the historical memory of him more than just discuss the appearances from the novels and dramas. Therefore, this article analyzed the developments of folk religions and legends about Chao Yun around various regions in China and Taiwan. Based on the typical historical recognition of Chao Yun, the culture value of his legends was developed effectively and constantly.