ZHANG FEI

[Chinese] One of the gods of butchers in Chinese mythology. Originally, he was a butcher to Guan Gong, with whom he got into a fight, and to Liu Bei, who separated them. The date of the oath of friendship and brotherhood taken by these three is given as 191 CE. Because these three military heroes swore allegiance in an effort to unify their land, they are often referred to as the Three Musketeers of China. Later Zhang Fei became again a meat-seller. But in the temple of Guan Gong he is numbered among the 254 assessors of that deity, one of the 24 heroes deserving gratitude for service to their country. He is a composite god (i.e. represented by parts of two animals into which he was transformed) and is eight feet tall with a panther's head, a swallow's chin, and voice of thunder.