Gong Wang, nicknamed the “Flowery-Necked Tiger,” first appears as one of Zhang Qing’s two deputies at Dongchang in Water Margin. Zhang Qing’s stones have already struck a succession of Liangshan champions when Gong Wang and Ding Desun ride out to protect their commander. Gong Wang fights with a spear that he can cast from horseback, giving the Dongchang trio three different sudden attacks: Zhang Qing’s stones, Gong Wang’s flying spear, and Ding Desun’s flying fork.
His defeat shows both the usefulness and the limit of that role. Lin Chong and Hua Rong cut him off from Zhang Qing. Gong Wang throws his spear in alarm, misses both opponents, and is left without his main weapon; the two Liangshan veterans seize him alive. Song Jiang treats the captured deputies generously and later brings Zhang Qing into the brotherhood as well. At the grand assembly Gong Wang ranks seventy-eighth among the 108 Stars and receives duties with the cavalry scouts, often remaining beside the comrades with whom he entered the story.
After amnesty he rides through the imperial campaigns, but the southern war ends his service. At Deqing he fights the defender Huang Ai and pursues him across a stream. Horse and rider lose their footing and crash into the water, where the southern soldiers close in and stab Gong Wang to death with their spears. The ending is brutally appropriate to his career: an officer defined by a thrown spear and rapid mounted pursuit is killed when pursuit carries him beyond secure ground.
