Li Li (Water Margin)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters.

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Li.

Li Li (李立) is a character in the epic Chinese novel The Water Margin.

Li Li was from Jieyang Mountain (揭陽山) in Jiangzhou (江州). He had a red beard, red round eyes like those of tiger, thus earning him the nickname 'Life-Summoning Judge from Hell' (催命判官).

Li Li ran a tavern at the foot of Jieyang Mountain and did some trading as well for a living. Once, Song Jiang was drugged by Li Li while taking a break in the tavern on his way to exile in Jiangzhou. Luckily, Li Jun arrived in the nick of time and saved Song Jiang. Li Li also recognised Song Jiang's identity as the famous philanthropist and they became good friends. Li Li tried to persuade Song Jiang to stay with them and not to go into exile in Jiangzhou, but Song Jiang firmly refused and went on.

Later, Song Jiang ran into trouble in Jiangzhou and was almost executed, but the Liangshan heroes stormed the execution ground and rescued him. They fled to White Dragon Temple (白龍廟) near the riverbank, where Li Jun, Li Li and several others were waiting for them with boats, and ferried them safely back to Liangshan. Li Li then joined the Liangshan band.

Li Li became in charge of hearing about news from customers at a tavern he ran near Liangshan, and played an important role in receiving imperial envoys from the Emperor. Li Li followed the heroes on their campaigns against the Liao Tartars and southern rebels after they had been granted amnesty by the Emperor, and made great contributions to the Imperial Court. However, he was critically wounded in the battle of Qingxi Prefecture (清溪縣) during the Fang Xi campaign and died shortly after the battle.

This literature article about a character is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.