General Tien's Character in "Red Thread Maiden"

General Tien's character as portrayed by the author Yuan Chiao in "Red Thread Maiden" has changed and developed in coordination with the progression of the story’s events. Yet General Tien ‘s nature was not very different from other warlords such as General Hsueh …. both are warmongers.  They feed their egos by making constant troubles and wars. But General Tien showed different traits and behavior, which varied according to his capacity to control his surroundings.  For example at the beginning of the story General Tien was very arrogant because he has a new well-trained army. Having this in mind, he thought he could start a war against General Hsueh and invade his state. However, after the incident of the “Golden Box” General Tien thought that only a “Magical Knight” is able to sneak into his well-guarded residence and take the “Golden Box” from beneath his pillow. The Magical Knight was an illusionary character that General Tien has created in his imagination because he is a superstitious person who believes in the spirit world.  Therefore, due to his beliefs in the super natural powers his entire attitude has totally shifted from a strong fearless Governor who was all setup for a war to a warlord who willingly pointed himself as a servant. This shift in General Tien’s personality illustrates that he is a coward man who was hiding behind his soldiers to kill and destroy a city of innocent people for senseless desire.