King Guangze with his right foot and left leg hanging down. Collection of the Mintai Yuan Museum, China
His birth name was Guo Zhongfu, a native of Quanzhou, Anxi, Fujian Province, born in the year of Tongguang in Later Tang, on the 22nd day of the 2nd lunar month, and his family lived at the foot of Guo Mountain for many generations.[1] Guo Zhongfu was a very pious from childhood. He was working for the Yang family sheep herding in Qing Xi Village (now QuanzhouAnxi) when he would suddenly miss his parents and run back home to Nan'an to serve them. After his father's death, Guo Zhongfu was always very sad when herding sheep because his family was poor and could not afford to buy land for burial. A geomancer felt that he was very filial and pointed out to him a piece of auspicious land. Guo then asked the Yang family to bury his father there and returned home to serve his mother.[2]
There is also a folk legend that after Guo Zhongfu's father died early, his mother worked as a maid for the Yang family while Guo Zhongfu herded sheep for the Yang family. The Yang family hired a geomancer (said to be Cui Yun) to choose the location of the gravesite, but they accidentally neglected the geomancer. Guo Zhongfu's mother treated the geomancer with respect, so the geomancer asked her if her husband had been buried, and after learning that he had not, he asked her whether she wanted her descendants to be the "Emperor of China" or to enjoy "the title of marquis for ten thousand generations. "The mother chose the latter. The geomancer then told her: "Under the sheep pen is the feng shui perfect burial place (sheep shed centipede cave), you crush your husband's bones, and when you bring me breakfast tomorrow morning, you take the opportunity to scatter the ashes in the sheep pen, and then leave with your son, seeing a monk wearing a copper made bucket and bull riding a man, so he stopped. After Guo Zhongfu and his mother left Yang's house, they saw a monk with a bronze cymbal on his head to keep off the rain, and a shepherd boy hiding under the cow's belly to avoid the rain, so they chose to stay there.[3]
One day, when he was sixteen years old, Guo Zhongfu, with a gourd and a Buddhist sutra in his hand, suddenly climbed to the top of Guo Mountain and sat on an ancient vine tree. When Guo Zhongfu's mother arrived, she reached out and pulled his left leg, so people who later made the statue portrayed him with his right leg up and his left leg down.[4][5]
^戴凤仪, 郭山庙志·卷二·保安廣澤尊王傳, archived from the original on 2020-09-16, retrieved 2018-10-26, 王，閩之南安人，郭其姓，忠福其名。……王世居泉之南邑十二都郭山下，山以姓得名。祖父多隱德。母感異夢而娠，誕辰八月二十二日。
^戴凤仪, 郭山庙志·卷二·保安廣澤尊王傳, archived from the original on 2020-09-16, retrieved 2018-10-26, 王生有孝德，氣度異人，嘗牧於清溪楊長者家，晨昏之思，忽起馳歸，侍奉依依如也。父薨，艱於葬地，王憂心惸惸，雖就牧，猶潸然淚下。一形家鑒其孝，指長者山而告曰，穵此大吉。王然之，稽顙謝籲。求長者而塋之，竣迺歸郭山下而奉母以終身焉。
^杨浚, 鳳山寺志略·卷一·附錄, archived from the original on 2020-09-16, retrieved 2018-10-26, 世傳神母傭食楊長者家，神隨之，為牧羊（或云牧牛）。長者延地師擇吉穴，家人誤以墜廁之羊具饌，師恚其不潔，母伺師盥漱甚虔，日為澣衣。師問母曰，而夫得佳城否，答以餬口不遑，安能及此，然時以為憂。師曰，爾欲一朝天子耶，抑萬代血食耶，母願其次。遂指以若見所牧之羊圈下（或曰牛圈）即正穴。爾碾夫骸，明晨雜沫湯進，傾骸灰於圈地，速挈兒遁，予亦從此逝。爾母子逃數武，遇僧戴銅笠，牛倒騎兒，是即故居，可駐足焉。值大雨，一僧以銅鈸覆首，有牧童避淋於牛腹，母曰，是吾居也。
^杨浚, 鳳山寺志略·卷三·志乘, archived from the original on 2020-09-16, retrieved 2018-10-26, 閩書云，郭山有威鎮廟，神姓郭，世居山下……年十歲時，忽取甕酒牽牛登山，明日坐絕頂古藤上，垂足而逝，酒盡於器，牛存其骨。
^戴凤仪, 郭山庙志·卷二·保安廣澤尊王傳, archived from the original on 2020-09-16, retrieved 2018-10-26, 後晉天福間，王年十六，忽牽牛登山，翼日坐古藤上而逝。母至，攀其左足，塑像者因塑其左足下垂。
