Biography
When neighboring lords invaded Lingling, Xing proved his skill by slaying the commanding officer of every invasion himself. He wielded a huge battle axe which he called "Cleaver Of Mountains". After stopping countless attempted invasions and slaying bandit leaders he gained a great deal of fame.
In 209, the warlord Liu Bei attacked Liu Du. Liu Du's son Liu Xian organized an army to resist the invaders. However, when Liu Xian heard that Liu Bei's army was led by Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun, he called upon Xing to fight them.
Liu Bei attacked the stockade where Liu Xian and Xing were waiting. Zhuge Liang taunted and lured Xing into a trap. When Xing charged in, Zhuge ordered Zhang Fei to attack Xing when he was retreating, to kill him quickly. Zhang tried slashing at him with his edged spear but Xing was too quick. He wheeled around and blocked Zhang's thrust with his axe.
Xing and Zhang dueled for five rounds with neither side emerging as the victor. Xing was surrounded on all sides but he kept the fight going until Zhao Yun arrived. Xing was unable to resist two of them so he turned around and charged into the enemy formation. Xing encountered Zhao again and realized that he had no hope of escaping, so he dismounted to fight on foot.
Xing's ferocity and bravery caught the attention of Zhuge Liang, who wanted to win him over to Liu Bei's side. Zhuge told Xing to convince Liu Xian to surrender. Xing pretended to agree but launched a secret attack on Liu Bei's camp at night. He was slain by Zhao Yun during the battle.
Read more about this topic: Xing Daorong
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“The death of Irving, which at any other time would have attracted universal attention, having occurred while these things were transpiring, went almost unobserved. I shall have to read of it in the biography of authors.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“As we approached the log house,... the projecting ends of the logs lapping over each other irregularly several feet at the corners gave it a very rich and picturesque look, far removed from the meanness of weather-boards. It was a very spacious, low building, about eighty feet long, with many large apartments ... a style of architecture not described by Vitruvius, I suspect, though possibly hinted at in the biography of Orpheus.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In how few words, for instance, the Greeks would have told the story of Abelard and Heloise, making but a sentence of our classical dictionary.... We moderns, on the other hand, collect only the raw materials of biography and history, “memoirs to serve for a history,” which is but materials to serve for a mythology.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)