庞涓
Zhou's portrayal as their teacher is connected to a recurring element in Chinese fiction where Tang and Song dynasty heroes train under a "celestial master", usually a Taoist immortal, prior to their military exploits. C. T. Hsia suggests the mold from which all other similar teachers are cast is Guiguzi, master of the feuding strategists Sun Bin and Pang Juan, from the Yuan dynasty tale "Latter Volume of the Spring and Autumn Annals of the Seven Kingdoms" (七國春秋後集). Hsia goes on to say that Qian Cai, Yue's fictional biographer, associated Zhou with the outlaws because "most such teachers [in the military romance genre] are celestials" with at least two students. But in adopting this format, Qian reversed the traditional pattern of "celestial tutelage" since Zhou is written as a human, while his students are reincarnations of demons (Lin and Lu) and the celestial bird Garuda (Yue Fei).