Overview
Guo Sheren was a Musician.
IdentityHistorical · Male
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Book of Han, Chapter 76Volume 65: Dongfang Shuo · 7 passages
時，有幸倡郭舍人，滑稽不窮，常侍左右，曰：「朔狂，幸中耳，非至數也。
At that time there was a favored entertainer, Guo Sheren, inexhaustibly witty, who constantly attended left and right, saying: "Shuo is mad—he hit by luck, not by ultimate reckoning.
舍人曰：「果知朔不能中也。」
Sheren said: "As expected, I knew Shuo could not hit."
上令倡監榜舍人，舍人不勝痛，呼□。
The emperor told the master of jesters to flog Guo Sheren until he howled with pain.
舍人恚曰：「朔擅詆欺天子從官，當棄市。」
Sheren angrily said: "Shuo presumptuously slanders and deceives the Son of Heaven's attendants—he should be executed in the market."
舍人不服，因曰：「臣願復問朔隱語，不知，亦當榜。」
Sheren was not convinced and therefore said: "Your servant wishes again to question Shuo with a riddle; if he does not know, he too should be flogged."
舍人所問，朔應聲輒對，變詐鋒出，莫能窮者，左右大驚。
Whatever Guo Sheren threw at him, Dongfang Shuo answered in the same breath with wit that never flagged; the whole court stared.
時方外事胡、越，內興制度，國家多事，自公孫弘以下至司馬遷，皆奉使方外，或為郡國守相至公卿，而朔嘗至太中大夫，後常為郎，與枚皋、郭舍人俱在左右，詼啁而已。
While the empire was busy with the Xiongnu and the Yue on the frontier and with new institutions at home, everyone from Gongsun Hong down to Sima Qian was dispatched abroad or made a regional governor or rose to the highest offices. Shuo had briefly reached grand counselor of the palace, but he usually held only the modest rank of gentleman-attendant and, with Mei Gao and Guo Sheren, hovered at the ruler's elbow cracking jokes.