Was dong zhuo really such a tyrant?

[Tamasin]

Was he really such a tyrant or is this just the usual "written by the winners"?

[Timmy the Dragonborn]

He was very 'knightly' when he was young, and essentially he was just another warlord later in his millitary career. There ain't right or wrong in the big picture of Three Kingdoms, it all depends on your perspective.

[Vacca]

Originally posted by von Vogelstall:

Was he really such a tyrant or is this just the usual "written by the winners"?

Bit of both, probably. He wasn't any better or worse than any of them. Some just payed a lot of poets to write some garbage about how good they were, and some didn't bother.

[Poljanan]

One of the more famous stories about Dong Zhuo was how he punished his political enemies by Lingchi (although this form of execution dates far later in 900 AD) and then having their corpses rolled up into literal human meat balls. He would do this at a grand banquet and made all his servants watch. He would marvel at his masterpiece after the gruesome deed while everyone else stood in shock.
So yeah, he was not very nice.

[Ｓｕｐｅｒ_Ｊ]

Well. He is the first to break all rules. He will get all the finger pointing at him.

[AlwaystheMage]

He got the flak for being the guy "responsible" for civil war, the horror of burning the capital and for killing an Emperor. There are clear issues with the texts about him as factions ensured that their lead family guy was 100% against Dong Zhuo always, foreshadowing. and some tropes. However even with that it would seem he was a overly harsh ruler who abused his power at the very least.

[ashbery76]

Originally posted by Poljanan:

One of the more famous stories about Dong Zhuo was how he punished his political enemies by Lingchi (although this form of execution dates far later in 900 AD) and then having their corpses rolled up into literal human meat balls. He would do this at a grand banquet and made all his servants watch. He would marvel at his masterpiece after the gruesome deed while everyone else stood in shock.
So yeah, he was not very nice.

Sounds like ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ propaganda more than reality.

[Haddon]

In the book, yes, he is absolutely an evil POS. In reality, yeah he was still a very bad dude, but he has been romanticized into being much worse. He had Luoyang burned down and basically kidnapped the Emperor, then basically deposed him as acting ruler (though he nominally retained control). Like Cao Cao he seems to have been a bit of a Legalist, but he was no Qin Shi Huang. Bad dude, a tyrant for sure in the original meaning of the word (a military strongman who takes absolute control, more-or-less), but not quite a tyrant in the modern meaning (which is the same things, but plus a significant amount of evil stuff. Sadam or Pol Pot style.)

[Thomasking]

Hard to say. A lot of propaganda, myth and lies.

To understand the amount of power and responsibility these people held the question is not 'was he morally bad?' but should be 'would he be able to afford to be morally good?'

I would suggest anyone, if able, to buy a copy of Niccolo Machiavelli's 'the Prince'. It's an astounding piece of literature that gives an insight in morality and power and is considered highly controversial for the wrong reasons.

Abuse of power and the useless act of torture and destruction on ones subjects is frowned upon as not only wrong from a moral standpoint, it also serves no purpose but to create enemies and threaten the stability of the state.

Looking at machiavelli's rules of statesmanship and believing the acts Dong Zhuo has commited according to legend are true: this man was doomed from the start.

[forkarjnmylove]

everyone during that chaos era was a tyrant . the big Dong was just a little bit more because he have all the power . hell even liu bei was a tyrant himself . all the other warlord hate Dong just because they don't want him eat all the power cake himself

[Hexagoros]

Originally posted by von Vogelstall:

Was he really such a tyrant or is this just the usual "written by the winners"?

Dong Zhuo did nothing wrong.

Originally posted by Timmy the Dragonborn:

He was very 'knightly' when he was young, and essentially he was just another warlord later in his millitary career. There ain't right or wrong in the big picture of Three Kingdoms, it all depends on your perspective.

This is correct.

Originally posted by Poljanan:

One of the more famous stories about Dong Zhuo was how he punished his political enemies by Lingchi (although this form of execution dates far later in 900 AD) and then having their corpses rolled up into literal human meat balls. He would do this at a grand banquet and made all his servants watch. He would marvel at his masterpiece after the gruesome deed while everyone else stood in shock.
So yeah, he was not very nice.

Liar. This is propaganda put out by the treacherous traitors of the Han Empire.

Originally posted by Haddon:

In the book, yes, he is absolutely an evil POS. In reality, yeah he was still a very bad dude, but he has been romanticized into being much worse. He had Luoyang burned down and basically kidnapped the Emperor, then basically deposed him as acting ruler (though he nominally retained control). Like Cao Cao he seems to have been a bit of a Legalist, but he was no Qin Shi Huang. Bad dude, a tyrant for sure in the original meaning of the word (a military strongman who takes absolute control, more-or-less), but not quite a tyrant in the modern meaning (which is the same things, but plus a significant amount of evil stuff. Sadam or Pol Pot style.)

No you are.

Originally posted by Ｓｕｐｅｒ_Ｊ:

Well. He is the first to break all rules. He will get all the finger pointing at him.

Liar.

Originally posted by forkarjnmylove:

everyone during that chaos era was a tyrant . the big Dong was just a little bit more because he have all the power . hell even liu bei was a tyrant himself . all the other warlord hate Dong just because they don't want him eat all the power cake himself

Every except Dong Zhuo.

Originally posted by ashbery76:

Originally posted by Poljanan:

One of the more famous stories about Dong Zhuo was how he punished his political enemies by Lingchi (although this form of execution dates far later in 900 AD) and then having their corpses rolled up into literal human meat balls. He would do this at a grand banquet and made all his servants watch. He would marvel at his masterpiece after the gruesome deed while everyone else stood in shock.
So yeah, he was not very nice.

Sounds like ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ propaganda more than reality.

This is correct. It is all clearly propaganda. Dong Zhuo is a true hero.