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Huang Zhong

Courtesy nameHansheng

The Aging Warrior Who Cut Down a General at Mount Dingjun

Best of the Rank and File · Fierce Generals & Fine Strategists

ArcheryThe Veteran GeneralMount Dingjun

Who they are

One of Liu Bei’s Five Tiger Generals, already past sixty when he submitted, yet at the Battle of Mount Dingjun he cut down the renowned Wei general Xiahou Yuan and made his name in a stroke — the phrase "stronger for the years" might have been made for him. In the novel his hundred-round duel with Guan Yu below Changsha, and their mutual honor in pulling their blows, is a beloved tale, a classic of "hero cherishing hero."

Primary sourcesChen Shou, Records of the Three Kingdoms, Book of Shu, Biography of Huang Zhong

Key stories

Cutting Down Xiahou Yuan at Mount Dingjun

At the Hanzhong campaign of 219, Huang Zhong, on Fa Zheng’s direction, charged down from the heights to surprise the Wei general Xiahou Yuan defending Mount Dingjun, cutting him down and turning the whole Hanzhong campaign in a single blow. For this Liu Bei made him General of the Rear, ranked with Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Ma Chao, and Zhao Yun among the "Five Tiger Generals" — a veteran who reached the peak of his military career past sixty, proving with one decapitating strike that "old Lian Po is not yet done."

Relationships

Serves

🐉Liu Bei

Ally

🛡️Zhao Yun　Fellow Five Tiger General

Echoes today

Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.

"Stronger for the years"The modern image of this idiom owes much to his cutting down Xiahou Yuan past sixty, now for one long in years yet still hale and capable.

Appears in

Red Cliffs and the Three-Way DivisionWinning Hanzhong at Mount Dingjun; Cao Pi Takes the Throne

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