In my recent tour, I was pleasantly surprised when two fellow tour members told me they are sworn brothers and sisters. I thought this didn’t exist anymore.
Their type of sworn brother and sister is less common than sworn brothers in Chinese history.
Both are Chinese-educated. I believe those who are Chinese-educated are more likely to enter into sworn brotherhood and sworn brother and sister relationships.
This is because sworn brotherhood has a particularly rich and culturally significant tradition in China, especially in classical literature, history, and popular imagination.
In Chinese culture, sworn brotherhood involves two or more men pledging loyalty and lifelong friendship, often in a ceremonial way.
The most famous sworn brotherhood is the brotherhood formed by Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
In Zhang Fei’s peach orchard (the Peach Garden), the three men swore an oath of brotherhood, pledging loyalty to each other and to the Han dynasty. They vow to work together to serve the country and protect the people, and to die on the same day if they cannot live together.
This oath of brotherhood is the very foundation of the storyline in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms saga. It drove all three characters’ actions and motivations. It took place in the very first chapter of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
In the Outlaws of the Marsh (Water Margin), many heroes also swear brotherhood.
Sworn brotherhood symbolizes loyalty, righteousness, and solidarity, values that are deeply rooted in Confucian and Chinese martial arts ethics.