Wu Song
Wu Song, also known as Second Brother Wu, is a legendary folk hero recounted since the 13th century; and one of the well-known fictional characters in the Water Margin, one of the Four Great Classic Novels in Chinese literature.
Nicknamed "Pilgrim", he ranks 14th among the 36 Heavenly Spirits of the 108 Heroes. In folk tales derived from the novel, Wu Song is a martial arts student of Zhou Tong and specialises in Chuojiao. In the novel he fights well with bang or a pair of broadswords.
Attestations
Legends surrounding the heroic figure of Wu Song have existed since the late Song dynasty. A passing mention of a story about Pilgrim Wu occurs in the 13th-century author Luo Ye's collection Stories Told by an Old Drunkard. The earliest record of a tale in which Wu Song fights a tiger comes from a zaju play written by a late-13th-century writer who wrote under the pen name "Red-Tattooed Second Li", but the play itself is no longer extant. The oldest surviving Chinese drama version of the tiger-slaying episode is the chuanqi or "miraculous" play by Shen Jing dating to the late 16th century, and the earliest editions of the Water Margin that contain the tiger episode also date around the end of the 16th century.Background
A native of Qinghe County, Wu Song is tall and good-looking with shining eyes, thick eyebrows, a muscular build and an impressive bearing. His parents having died early, he was raised by his dwarf elder brother Wu Dalang, whom he respects and loves very much. Wu Song's nickname Wu Erlang is reference to him being the secondborn son.''Water Margin''
Wu Song knocks a man unconscious at his hometown after getting into a fight when drunk. He flees, thinking that the man has died. When taking shelter in the residence of the nobleman Chai Jin, he meets Song Jiang, who is also fleeing the law after killing his mistress Yan Poxi. They become sworn brothers.Slaying the tiger
Learning later that the man he hit earlier is not dead, Wu Song decides to return home. On the way, he passes by an inn near Jingyang Ridge, which puts out a banner that reads "After Three Bowls, Do Not Cross the Ridge", and goes in for a break. The innkeeper explains that the inn's home-brewed wine is so strong that customers would get drunk after having three bowls and could not cross the ridge ahead. Still sober after three bowls, Wu Song demands more. By the end of his meal, he has consumed 18 bowls of wine but still looks steady. He is about to leave when the innkeeper stops him and warns him about a fierce tiger on the ridge. Wu Song suspects that the man is hoaxing him to spend the night at his inn. Ignoring the advice, he continues his journey, armed with only a quarterstaff.Nearing the ridge, Wu Song spots an official notice warning of a tiger ahead. Not to lose face, he could not turn back. As he moves on, he starts to feel the effects of the wine. So he takes a nap on a big rock. As he falls asleep, the tiger leaps out from the woods, shocking him out of his stupor. After narrowly dodging the tiger's first three charges, Wu Song attempts to fight back but breaks his staff on a tree. Unarmed, he summons all his might and manages to pin the tiger face down into a pit with his arms, and raining blows on its head using his bare fists. After punching the tiger unconscious, he picks up his broken staff and keeps whacking the tiger till he is sure it is dead. Exhausted and fearing that another tiger might appear, he then flees the spot after a short rest, and runs into some local hunters, who are amazed to learn of his incredible feat. Impressed, the local magistrate of the nearby Yanggu County offers him the civil servant position of chief constable. Wu Song accepts the job and settles down in Yanggu, and surprisingly runs into his long-separated brother Wu Dalang, who has coincidentally also moved to Yanggu from Qinghe.
According to some narrations in Yangzhou storytelling, particularly the "Wang school", Wu Song's slaying of the tiger took place "in the middle of the tenth month" of the "Xuanhe year ".
Avenging his brother
Wu Dalang brings Wu Song home and introduces him to his wife Pan Jinlian, who was originally a maid for a rich man and had been forced to marry Wu Dalang as punishment for resisting her boss' sexual advances. Wu Song learns that they had moved to Yanggu to avoid harassments by neighbours in Qinghe, where Wu Dalang, a vendor selling flatbread for a living, had been widely taunted as "Three-Inch Nail Tree Bark" for his short dwarfish stature. The harassment got worse after he married Pan, as he looks starkly incompatible with his young and attractive wife. Meeting Wu Song, Pan is immediately attracted to the handsome and well-built brother-in-law, but Wu Song sternly spurns her attempt to seduce him.Later, Wu Song is assigned to escort some gold to the imperial capital Dongjing. He returns home two months later to find his brother had already died and his body cremated. Not believing his sister-in-law's account that his brother succumbed to a sudden illness, he conducts a private investigation. He learns that Pan is having an affair with a wealthy local gentry Ximen Qing, a well-connected scoundrel who has seduced the woman with the help of the teahouse owner Granny Wang, who lives next door to the Wus. Tipped by a bun-selling youth Brother Yun, Wu Dalang had caught Ximen and Pan in bed together, but was left injured and bedridden after being kicked hard in the abdomen by Ximen. Abetted by Granny Wang and Ximen, Pan murdered him by poisoning his medicine and Ximen then coerced a coroner to quickly close the case and cremate the body. Wu Song finds the coroner, who has kept some remains of Wu Dalang's bones as evidence of signs of poisoning. Wu Song then goes to the magistrate to demand legal justice. However, the magistrate, who has been bribed by Ximen, dismisses the case on grounds of insufficient evidence.
Denied legal avenue, Wu Song takes the matter into his own hands. He invites neighbours of the Wu house, including Granny Wang, to a belated wake for his brother. At the wake, he forces Pan Jinlian at knifepoint to make a full confession on the murder, and then decapitates and disembowels her in vengeance in front of the guests. Next he makes the fear-stricken Granny Wang sign a confession in front of the neighbours. After that, he rushes to Lion Restaurant, where Ximen Qing is dining with his friends, and kills the man after a brief fight. Wu then goes to the county office to surrender himself.
Becoming an outlaw
The local residents sympathise with Wu Song and plead on his behalf. Granny Wang is sentenced to death by lingchi while Wu Song is exiled to Mengzhou. On the way, Wu and his two escorts pass by Cross Slope, where they take a rest in Sun Erniang's inn. Wu senses the woman is up to no good and pretends to have taken her drugged wine and fall unconscious. When Sun tries to lift him, he easily overpowers her. Just then, Sun's husband Zhang Qing comes back and stops the scuffle. The couple apologise and befriend Wu. They host him for some time before seeing him off to Mengzhou.Shi En, the son of the superintendent of Mengzhou prison, has heard of Wu Song's exploits and hopes he could help him retake control of Happy Forest, a bustling cross-roads. Shi is in fact a local mob leader most of whose "profit" is protection money from businesses and tolls from travelers which he collected through a restaurant at that location, but the restaurant has been snatched from Shi by a newcomer Jiang Zhong, a burly wrestler nicknamed "Jiang the Door God". Invited to Mengzhou by his relative, local militia instructor Zhang, Jiang beat up Shi En and forcefully seized control of Happy Forest. Needing Wu Song's help as an enforcer, Shi tells his father to spare Wu the mandatory caning of newly arrived exiles and ensures him a comfortable life in prison. Wu Song initially thinks all this is just a run-up to murdering him in prison as he has refused to bribe the officials to escape the beating. Upon knowing the real reason, Wu Song agrees to help Shi take back the restaurant. Shi doubts he has recovered his strength after days of ordeal.p, but Wu demonstrates his physical might by lifting with one hand a hefty urn. He also says his fighting ability is at its peak when he is drunk, so he asks to be served three bowls of wine at every inn he comes by on his way to Happy Forest, and has taken an enormous amount of alcohol by the time he reaches the restaurant. He provokes Jiang Zhong into a fight and soundly beats him with a set of martial arts moves known as "Jade Circle Steps and Mandarin Ducks Kicks". Jiang is forced to apologise to Shi En, return Happy Forest to him and leave Mengzhou for good.
Humiliated, Jiang Zhong collaborates with Instructor Zhang and garrison inspector Zhang Mengfang to get back at Wu Song. Inspector Zhang pretends to admire Wu Song for his mighty strength and invites him to stay at his manor. Wu is caught in an ambush and is sent to prison on the false charge of theft. After being jailed for six months, during which Shi En thwarts a plot to murder him in prison, Wu is exiled to another place. Shi En warns him of danger when sending him off. Indeed, Jiang Zhong has bribed Wu's escorts to murder him on the way with the help of two of his students. When the group attempted to commit the murder at a bridge above Flying Cloud Pool, Wu breaks out of his cangue, overpowers the assailants and kills all the four men. He returns to Inspector Zhang's manor and finds his way to the Mandarin Ducks Tower, where the trio — Jiang and the two Zhangs — are drinking in celebration of his presumed death. He kills all three men and practically slaughters the whole family of Inspector Zhang, overall 15 people, then signs with blood "The killer is Wu Song the Tiger-Slayer" on a wall before leaving.
After fleeing Mengzhou, Wu Song runs into Sun Erniang and Zhang Qing again, who advise him to go to Mount Twin Dragons to join the outlaw band there. Sun suggests that he disguise as an untonsured Buddhist pilgrim to avoid being recognised since his wanted notice bearing his portrait is posted everywhere. Earlier on, Sun had butchered a Buddish pilgrim, who left behind a Buddhist robe, a necklace of skulls, a headband and a pair of broadswords. Wu Song puts on the robe and lets down his hair, as Buddhist pilgrims do, thus concealing the exile tattoo on his face. He is thenceforth nicknamed "Pilgrim".
On his way, Wu Song passes by a temple where a Taoist Wang, nicknamed "Flying Centipede", keeps a kidnapped woman for sexual pleasure. Wu Song kills the priest and his servants, saves the woman, and burns down the temple. Next he comes by an inn and gets into a fight with Kong Liang as the latter is served food more palatable than his. He does not accept the explanation from the innkeeper that Kong has supplied his own ingredients. Kong is beaten up badly. Later, with the help of his brother Kong Ming and their men, Kong Liang tracks down Wu Song, who has gotten so drunk that he falls unconscious at a creek. They overpower him easily, ties him to a tree and beats him up. Song Jiang, who is living at the Kongs‘ manor at that time, recognises Wu, and asks the brothers to release him. Wu Song reaches Mount Twin Dragons where he joins Lu Zhishen and Yang Zhi.
After his defeat by the bandits of Liangshan Marsh, the imperial general Huyan Zhuo flees to Qingzhou in the hopes of redeeming himself by wiping out the bandits there. One of the strongholds is Mount Twin Dragons, which, finding Huyan a tough opponent, requests help from Liangshan. Song Jiang, Liangshan's then second-in-command, comes to Qingzhou with a force and captures Huyan. The bandits of Mount Twin Dragons, including Wu Song, are absorbed into Liangshan.