Guo Kan

Who was Guo Kan?

Guo Kan or Kuo K'an simplified Chinese: 郭侃; traditional Chinese: 郭侃; pinyin: Guō Kǎn, was a famous general of Han Chinese descent that served the Mongol Khans in their Western conquests and the conquest of China itself. He was descended from a lineage of Chinese generals. Both his father and grandfather had served the Khan, while his ancestor is Guo Ziyi, a famed general of the Tang Dynasty. He was not a Senior Mongol commander but was in charge of Chinese artillery units under the Mongolian Empire. He was one of the foreign legions that served for the Mongol Empire, and some of the later conquests of the Mongols were done by armies under his command. The biography of this Han Chinese commander in the Yuan Shi said that Guo Kan's presence struck so much fear in his foes, that they called him the "Divine Man".