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The next of our euhemerized heroes is the loyal victor, Guo Ziyi, whose armies were to a great extent the power behind the throne during the rebellion. He is best known to many by his title, Fenyang Wang, the King of Fenyang, an erstwhile name for Anhui province. He is one of the most renowned of Chinese generals, greatly distinguished following service under four successive Tang emperors. He lived to the then great age of 84, dying in AD 781 having been blessed with innumerable progeny, the offspring of his eight sons and seven sons-in-law, all of whom occupied high official posts. Legend claims that he had one hundred sons and one thousand grandsons, hence another of his titles, the Ancestor of Five Generations [Wu Dai Tongtang]. He is also known as Father of the Realm [Shang Fu] and having such a wealth of sons and grandsons, is popularly regarded and worshipped China-wide as the God of Happiness, Lushen. The image of the God of Posterity and Happiness, stage left in the trio of elderly men, the San Xing, the Three stellar Gods of Wealth, Fortune and Posterity, is frequently identified as Guo Ziyi. Such groups of three are to be seen in many Chinese homes and in the UK in most Chinese take-away shops [Photographs 4 and 5]. The standard image portrays him as an elderly scholar-official, standing, dressed in blue robes leading or holding his eight year old son in his arms. The blessings he enjoyed, namely honours, riches, longevity and posterity, were attributed in popular legend to the stellar maiden Zhi Nü, who was said to have appeared to him once on the day consecrated as her annual festival, the double seventh, when she promised him these rewards.
In temple legend he was born of a peasant family whereas in fact he was the son of a wealthy official, born in the far north in Shaanxi province. In southern China, however, he is claimed by Hakkas to have been a Hakka. His youngest son married the daughter of the Gao Zong emperor, and among the many stories related about Guo and his relationship with the Tang Court, possibly the best known tells of the princess refusing to offer her greetings to Guo, her father-in-law, on his eightieth birthday, as he was a mere commoner. Her furious husband beat her causing her to return to the Palace to complain to her father, the emperor. Meanwhile, Guo had his son bound and sent to Court for punishment. The emperor, recognising Guo's years of service and that domestic affairs were nothing to do with the Court, set his son-in-law free whilst the empress advised her daughter reach an accord with her husband.