Zhao Yun of Shu

a major military general during the civil wars of the late Han Dynasty and during the Three Kingdoms era of China. For most of his career, Zhao Yun served the warlord Liu Bei, playing a part in the establishment of Shu Han. In literature and folklore he is lauded as the third member of the Five Tiger Generals.

Due to the limited historical records, many facts about Zhao Yun's life remain unclear or unknown. The original records in Chen Shou's Records of Three Kingdoms are only a couple of hundred words long. Pei Songzhi's annotations provide a relatively clear, though still incomplete picture of Zhao Yun's life.

MODERN REFERENCES

Zhao Yun has become a popular figure in Chinese culture, having been featured prominently in literature, art, anecdotes, etc. Already a relatively well-known hero from the Three Kingdoms period through tales told for centuries, Zhao Yun became a household name after the wide success of the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms .

Recently Zhao Yun’s popularity has moved well beyond Asia and into the Western world through various media including the Internet and video games. Zhao Yun is often portrayed as being youthful and handsome, fearless and invincible, calm and intelligent, genuine and selfless in today’s operas, novels, games, comics and plays.

A film titled Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon features Andy Lau as Zhao Yun, and another film titled "Red Cliff " features Hu Jun as Zhao Yun.

In video games

Zhao Yun has been a central character in the Dynasty Warriors video game series developed by Koei. He is usually placed in a prominent position on the manual/cover of each title and is the character most often used by the developers in screenshots and promotional materials for upcoming releases. Because of this, Zhao Yun is widely perceived as the "face" of the Dynasty Warriors series, and is now instantly recognisable to those familiar with the titles. In Dynasty Warriors 6 he has a new silver armour and a longer spear called "Dragon Spike".

Zhao Yun also appears in Warriors Orochi where he is captured by Orochi's forces at the beginning of the game. He is later rescued by Zuo Ci, Shimazu Yoshihiro and Xing Cai. He then goes on a quest to find and free Liu Bei and aligned himself with Sanada Yukimura who he felt was his match and shared the same beliefs he did. Together with Yukimura as well as other allies, he was successful in saving him. Although his character in the game is essentially the same as it was in Dynasty Warriors 5, he is also given a new, somewhat quirky sense of humor.