Huangfu Duan

Huangfu Duan (皇甫端) is a character in the "Water Margin".

Huangfu Duan was from Youzhou, and was born with a weird appearance. He had green eyes and long yellow beard which gave people an impression that he was not of the Han ethnic group. Thus, he was nicknamed 'Purple-bearded uncle' (紫髯伯).

Huangfu Duan served as a veterinarian in Dongchangfu. He specialises in healing wounded horses and curing them of their illnesses. He could cure 408 different types of diseases contracted by horses and was rumoured to possess the ability to bring dead horses back to life.

After the Liangshan heroes had conquered Dongchangfu and subdued Zhang Qing, Zhang joined the Liangshan band. He also recommended Huangfu Duan to join the Liangshan band as well. Song Jiang was overjoyed and immediately agreed.

Huangfu Duan became the veterinarian of Liangshan and was in charge of taking care of the horses. After Song Jiang had obtained amnesty from the emperor, Huangfu Duan followed the heroes on their campaigns against the Liao Tartars, Wang Qing and Tian Hu. On the eve of the Fang La campaign, the emperor summoned Huangfu Duan and Jin Da-jian back to the capital city, so they did not participate in the campaign. Huangfu Duan then continued to serve as an imperial veterinarian.