Impulsive, hot-headed and like to drink. These characteristics eventually brought upon his death. He was initially a butcher before he sworn brothership with Liu Bei and Guan Yu. His outspoken frankness and the desire to help the weak and bullied without a second thought led him to trash the imperial inspector who came to inspect the county Liu Bei was rewarded for contributing to the war against the yellow scarves rebellion before Liu Bei and Guan Yu stopped him. This trashing led to Liu Bei giving up his county post and be on the run from the authorities.
The fondness for drinking led to the lost of Xuzhou when he beat up Cao Bao who later sought revenge by instigating Lu Bu to quickly launch a surprise attack on Xuzhou while Zhang Fei is in a state of drunken stupor. Despite those flaws, the courage and skills of Zhang Fei are remarkable and only rivaled by few. Later when Liu Bei and the rest are evacuating the populace to Jiangling, Zhang Fei managed give them some breathing space against the onslaught of the Cao army by scaring them off with his skills and vocals at Changban bridge.
Though profiled as dumb and a lack of wits from the start. He probably learnt a bit from earlier defeats and subdued the old general Yan Yan with a little trick at Bajun county who blocked Zhang Fei’s journey into Xichuan to reinforce Liu Bei who was trapped at Fu Pass. At the defense of Jiameng Pass, Zhang Fei engaged Ma Chao in a duel that resulted in a statemate for two days. This duel among these two highly skilled warriors impresses Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang and led to Zhuge Liang to come up with a plan to persuade Ma Chao to pledge allegience over to Liu Bei.
He was stabbed to death while sleeping by disgruntled subordinates Fan Jiang and Zhang Da. Overcome by the desire for revenge for his brother Guan Yu. He issued an unreasonable order to Fan Jiang and Zhang Da to get ready white flags and white armor for the upcoming war against East Wu in three days time. Fan Jiang and Zhang Da requsted more time and overswept by anger over the thought of delaying the invasion Zhang Fei tied them to a tree and whipped them up. Due to the impossible task give to them as well as resentment over the beatings, the two of them sneak up on Zhang Fei when he is drunk and fell asleep and assasinated him.