Guo Sheng
| Guo Sheng | |
|---|---|
| Water Margin character | |
| First appearance | Chapter 35 |
| Nickname | "Comparable to Rengui" 賽仁貴 |
| Rank | 55th, Help Star (地佑星) of the 72 Earthly Fiends |
| Central Camp Defendant General of Liangshan | |
| Origin | Bandit |
| Ancestral home / Place of origin | Jialing (present-day Jialing District, Nanchong, Sichuan) |
| Weapon | "Sky Piercer" (方天畫戟) |
| Names | |
| Simplified Chinese | 郭盛 |
| Traditional Chinese | 郭盛 |
| Pinyin | Guō Shèng |
| Wade–Giles | Kuo Sheng |
Guo Sheng is a fictional character in Water Margin, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. He ranks 55th of the 108 Liangshan heroes and 19th of the 72 Earthly Fiends. He is nicknamed "Comparable to Rengui".
Guo Sheng is from Jialing (嘉陵; present-day Jialing District, Nanchong, Sichuan). He dons a suit of silvery white armour over a white robe, along with a silver belt and a headdress. He rides on a snow white steed and wields a ji similar to Lü Bu's "Sky Piercer" (方天畫戟).
Initially a trader, Guo Sheng decides to become a bandit after he lost his goods in the river during a storm and had insufficient money to make his journey home. When he was young, he learnt martial arts from a military officer in his hometown and has become an expert in using the ji after many years of training. He is nicknamed "Comparable to Rengui" because his combat skills are comparable to those of Xue Rengui, a famous Tang dynasty general.
Guo Sheng hears of Lü Fang's reputation as a powerful warrior and desires to challenge him, so he goes to Mount Duiying (對影山), where Lü and his bandit followers reside, and engages Lü in a one-on-one duel. Neither of them is able to overcome his opponent after fighting for over 10 days.
Song Jiang, Hua Rong and other outlaws are on their way back to Liangshan Marsh after the battle at Qingfeng Fort (清風寨; in present-day Qingzhou, Weifang, Shandong) when they pass by Mount Duiying and see Lü Fang and Guo Sheng engaging in their duel. At that time, the blades of Lü Fang and Guo Sheng's jis are caught up and entangled in their tassels, and the two warriors are struggling to disentangle their weapons. Hua Rong sees that and fires an arrow, which directly hits the entangled point and separates the weapons. The crowd cheers. Lü Fang and Guo Sheng stop fighting and greet Song Jiang, who successfully persuades them to join the outlaw band at Liangshan.
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