In the first chapter of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei burn incense in a peach garden and swear an oath. “Though we are of different surnames, now that we are brothers we will join hearts and strength. We do not ask to be born in the same year, month and day. We only wish to die in the same year, month and day.”
The oath ends: “If one betrays righteousness and forgets kindness, may Heaven and men together destroy him.” The official history of the period records that Liu Bei shared a bed with the two men and that their bond was “like that of brothers.” The words of the oath come from the novel.