Wu Yong
The novel portrays Wu Yong as having a fair and handsome face and a long beard – typical features of learned and sophisticated men in Chinese literature. When Wu Yong is an ordinary teacher in a village school in Yuncheng County, he is already likened by some to Zhuge Liang and Chen Ping, two famous strategists of the Han dynasty, for his astuteness and wit. He is hence nicknamed "Knowledgeable Star".