Famed for his enormous strength, Dian Wei excelled at wielding a pair of jis (a halberd-like weapon), each of which was said to weigh 40 jin.

[4] Dian Wei disguised himself as a marquis and travelled to Li Yong's house in a carriage filled with food and wine.

As Li Yong lived near the marketplace, news of his death spread quickly and the whole town was shocked.

After travelling four or five li on foot, Dian Wei met his companions and they escaped after a brief fight with the pursuers.

[5] Around February or March 190,[6] when the regional official Zhang Miao was rallying an army to join the campaign against Dong Zhuo, Dian Wei answered the call and became a subordinate of Zhao Chong (趙寵), a military officer serving under Zhang Miao.

[8] Around September 194,[9] when Cao Cao was at war with a rival warlord Lü Bu in Yan Province, he launched a surprise night raid on one of Lü Bu's camps located 40-50 li west of Puyang County and destroyed it before dawn.

[11] Dian Wei ordered dozens of men to gather around him, put on two layers of armour, discard their shields and arm themselves only with spears and jis.

[12] Another wave of enemy soldiers closing in from the west unleashed a barrage of arrows onto Dian Wei and his men.

Dian Wei remained oblivious to the arrows and told his men, "Let me know when the enemy is ten paces away."

[21] Dian Wei stood guard at the entrance to the camp and prevented Zhang Xiu's soldiers from advancing further.

[22] However, Dian Wei fought bravely with a long ji, and with each swing of his weapon, he broke more than ten enemy spears.

While Xiahou Dun was out hunting, he saw Dian Wei chasing a deer across a stream and he brought the man back to his lord.

Dian Wei shouted at them to move back and he grabbed the banner pole with one hand and kept it steady.

[27] Dian Wei's death at the Battle of Wancheng is described in greater detail in Chapter 16 but is more exaggerated than his historical biography.

In this exaggeration, it was mentioned that Dian Wei was able to pick up the dead bodies of enemies by their feet and swing them as a means of attack before he was finally killed by raining arrows and piercing spears.

He also appears in Chan Mou's manhua series The Ravages of Time, a retelling of the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Dian Wei appears alongside Xu Chu as a guardian spirit of General Cao Yanbing in the anime and drama series Rakshasa Street.