Guo Chang 郭常

In Chapter 28 of the Romance, Guan Yu, escorting his two sisters-in-law with Sun Qian, is hurrying on the road to Runan when, in the midst of fighting Xiahou Dun, who has come after him, Zhang Liao opens the way by conveying Cao Cao's order. After travelling a few more days, a heavy rain pours down and all their baggage is soaked, and Guan Yu leads the carriages to a manor he sees in the distance beside a hillside and asks to stay the night. The old man who comes out of the manor says that his surname is Guo and his name Chang, that his family has lived there for generations, and that he has long heard of Guan Yu's great name and is fortunate to meet him. Romance, Ch. 28 §1 · 6–7 · 9

Guo Chang slaughters a sheep and sets out wine to entertain them, lets the two ladies rest in the rear quarters, and drinks with Guan Yu and Sun Qian in the thatched hall. At dusk a young man comes in leading several others, and Guo Chang tells him to bow to the general, introducing him as his foolish son and saying that he has just come back from hunting. When the young man merely greets them and leaves the hall, Guo Chang weeps and says that his family has made farming and study its calling, that this is his only child, and that the boy does not apply himself to the family calling but does nothing but hunt, which is the misfortune of the house. Romance, Ch. 28 §10–11

When Guan Yu asks why it should be a misfortune, since in a time of disorder one skilled in martial arts may win merit and fame, Guo Chang answers that if the boy were willing to learn martial arts he could be called a man of purpose, but that now he only idles about and there is nothing he will not do, and that is his worry; Guan Yu, too, sighs for him. Late at night, after Guo Chang has withdrawn, a horse's neighing and shouting are heard from the back yard, and Guan Yu, going out to look, finds Guo Chang's son lying on the ground, kicked down by the horse after coming to steal the Red Hare, and the manor hands trading blows with his attendants. Romance, Ch. 28 §11–13

When Guan Yu, saying 'How dare a petty thief try to steal my horse!', is about to give vent to his anger, Guo Chang runs up and begs that, though his unworthy son's crime deserves ten thousand deaths, his old wife loves this child most of all, so the general should pardon him in his generosity. Guan Yu says that from what the old man said earlier, truly no one knows a son better than his father, and out of regard for the old man he pardons the son for now. The next day Guo Chang and his wife come out before the thatched hall to bow and thank him, and when Guan Yu says he will call the son and instruct him with proper words, Guo Chang says that around the fourth watch the boy went off somewhere again with a few ruffians. Romance, Ch. 28 §14–16

Less than thirty li after Guan Yu has thanked Guo Chang and taken his leave, a man wearing a yellow turban and Guo Chang's son come out at the head of more than a hundred men, and the man in the yellow turban demands that he leave the Red Hare behind. When Guan Yu takes out his long beard and shows it, the man in the yellow turban dismounts, seizes Guo Chang's son by the hair, drags him forward and presents him, and reports that he is Pei Yuanshao, who gathered a band in the hills and forests after Zhang Jue's death, and that this fellow called him, saying that a traveller riding a thousand-li horse was staying at his house, to rob him of that horse. When Guan Yu says he will spare his life out of regard for his father, Guo Chang's son, clutching his head, scurries away like a rat. Romance, Ch. 28 §16–19