son of Guo Chang 郭常之子

In Chapter 28 of the Romance, Guan Yu, escorting his two sisters-in-law toward Runan together with Sun Qian, is caught in a heavy rain and asks to stay the night at a manor beside a ridge. The old man Guo Chang slaughters a sheep, sets out wine and drinks with Guan Yu and Sun Qian in the thatched hall, and at dusk a young man leads several people into the manor and comes straight up to the hall. Guo Chang tells him to pay his respects to the general and introduces him to Guan Yu as his foolish son, and when Guan Yu asks where he has come from, answers that he has just returned from hunting. The young man merely greets them and soon leaves the hall. Romance, Ch. 28 §1 · 9–11

Weeping, Guo Chang says that his family has made farming and study its calling, that this is his only child, and that he does not apply himself to the family calling but devotes himself only to hunting, which is the misfortune of the house. When Guan Yu says that in these troubled times one skilled in arms might win merit and fame, Guo Chang replies that if he were willing even to train in arms he could be called a man of purpose, but that now he does nothing but idle and roam about and stops at nothing, and that this is his worry; Guan Yu too sighs for him. Romance, Ch. 28 §11–12

Late at night, just as Guan Yu and Sun Qian are about to go to bed, they hear a horse neighing and people shouting in the back courtyard. Going out sword in hand, they find Guo Chang's son lying on the ground crying out and the attendants brawling with the manor hands. The attendants report that he came to steal the Red Hare and was kicked down by the horse, and that when they went out to look at the sound of shouting, the manor hands set upon them instead. As Guan Yu, saying that a petty thief dared to steal his horse, is about to give vent to his anger, Guo Chang rushes up and pleads that his worthless son's crime deserves ten thousand deaths but that his old wife loves this child most, and begs for pardon; Guan Yu, out of regard for the old man, pardons him for the time being. Romance, Ch. 28 §13–15

The next day, when Guo Chang and his wife bow and thank him, Guan Yu asks to have the son called out so that he can instruct him with upright words, but Guo Chang says that at the fourth watch his son again went off somewhere with several ruffians. Before Guan Yu's party has gone thirty li from the manor, more than a hundred men swarm out from behind a hill, led by two riders: the one in front wears a yellow turban and a battle robe, and the one behind is Guo Chang's son. The man in the yellow turban says he is a lieutenant of Zhang Jue, the General of Heaven, and tells them to leave the Red Hare behind. Romance, Ch. 28 §16–17

When Guan Yu undoes his beard bag and draws out his long beard to show him, the man all but tumbles from the saddle, dismounts, grabs Guo Chang's son by the topknot and drags him before Guan Yu's horse. He says that he is Pei Yuanshao, and that this morning this fellow came and told him that a traveler riding a thousand-li horse was lodging at his house, and invited him to seize the horse. Guo Chang's son prostrates himself and begs for his life, and when Guan Yu says he will spare his life out of regard for his father, he clutches his head and scurries off like a rat. The Romance never mentions him again. Romance, Ch. 28 §18–19