Zheng Tianshou, the White-Faced Gentleman, is one of the three chiefs of Qingfeng Mountain in Water Margin. A native of Suzhou who once worked as a silversmith, he practices spear and staff fighting before taking to the roads. When he passes Qingfeng Mountain, he fights Wang Ying for fifty or sixty bouts without defeat; Yan Shun admires his skill and keeps him as the stronghold’s third leader.
Zheng Tianshou is present when the outlaws seize Song Jiang and prepare to cut out his heart. Once Song’s name is recognized, the three leaders release him, feast him, and treat him as an honored guest. They later help rescue Song Jiang and Hua Rong from the Qingfeng authorities, fight Huang Xin’s troops, and follow the group that ultimately enters Liangshan.
At Liangshan he is ranked seventy-fourth under the Earthly Strange Star and serves as an infantry officer. His pale, handsome face explains the nickname, while his earlier equal fight with Wang Ying establishes that it belongs to a trained fighter rather than a courtly idler. Zheng Tianshou survives the imperial campaigns until the war against Fang La. During the assault on Xuanzhou, a millstone thrown from the wall strikes and kills him, giving the former mountain chief a battlefield death far from Qingfeng.
