Wu Song

Wu Song
Water Margin character
First appearance	Chapter 23
Nickname	1. "Traveller" (行者); 2. "Tiger-fighting Hero" (打虎英雄)
Also known as	1. "Chief Wu" (武都頭); 2. "Grandmaster Qingzhong" (清忠祖師)
Rank	14th, Harm Star (天傷星) of the 36 Heavenly Spirits
Infantry leader of Liangshan
Origin	Constable from Yanggu County
Ancestral home / Place of origin	Qinghe County (present-day Dongping County, Tai'an, Shandong)
Weapon	Pair of sabers, Staff
Names
Simplified Chinese	武松
Traditional Chinese	武松
Pinyin	Wǔ Sōng
Wade–Giles	Wu Sung

Template:Chinese-name Wu Song is a fictional character in the Water Margin, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. He ranks 14th of the 36 Heavenly Spirits of the 108 Liangshan heroes and is nicknamed "Traveller".

Wu appears in Jin Ping Mei, a spinoff of Water Margin, as well. He is famous for killing a tiger with his bare hands and avenging the murder of his older brother. According to legend, he is a student of Zhou Tong.

Water Margin

Wu is from Qinghe County (present-day Dongping County, Tai'an, Shandong). He is good-looking, with eyes that shone like stars, thick eyebrows, a wide chest and a muscular body. He stands at eight chi and gives people an impressive bearing. Once, he knocked out a person in a drunken fit. Misunderstanding that he had killed that person, he flees to Chai Jin's residence for security and meets Song Jiang there. The two later become sworn brothers.

Slaying the tiger

On his way home, Wu passes by Jingyang Ridge and kills the fierce man-eating tiger there with his bare hands. He makes his name for his heroic deed and is offered the post of a chief constable in Yanggu County. Coincidentally, he meets his older brother "Three-inch Nail" Wu Dalang, who has moved there recently.

According to The Oral Traditions of Yangzhou Storytelling, several popular folktales about Wu Song, from the "Wang School" of Yangzhou storytelling, state that he killed the tiger "in the middle of the tenth month" of the "Xuanhe year [1119]" (the emphasis belongs to the original author). Thus, he killed the tiger in the middle of the tenth lunar month of 1119. This date, however, is a fictional one.

Wu Song kills the man-eating tiger (top left).

Avenging his brother's death

Wu Dalang brings Wu Song home and introduces his wife Pan Jinlian to his brother. Wu learns that his older brother and sister-in-law had moved to Yanggu to avoid gossip. Previously in the town where they lived, the neighbours would often call out "a rose placed on a pile of cow dung" (一朵鮮花插在牛糞上) to describe Wu Dalang and Pan Jinlian's marriage. Wu Dalang is short and ugly so he is the "cow dung" while in contrast, Pan is pretty and is represented by the "rose".

Pan is attracted to Wu Song and attempts to seduce him. Wu rejects her firmly and warns her, "My eyes recognize you as my sister in law, but my fist will not recognize you." He accepts an assignment from the magistrate to transport gold to Dongjing (present-day Kaifeng) to avoid Pan's adulterous advances. Two months later when he returns home, he is shocked to see that his brother had died, apparently from illness.

Wu does not believe Pan and conducts a thorough investigation secretly. He discovers that Pan had an adulterous affair with Ximen Qing and both of them had murdered his brother. Wu goes to the county office to present his case, with a bone from his brother's cremated body as evidence and two witnesses. However, the magistrate has been bribed by Ximen and he dismisses the case with an excuse of "lack of evidence".

Wu decides to take matters into his own hands, he invites the surrounding neighbors for a belated wake including Granny Wang from the tea house (whom helped Ximen Qing to seduce Jinlian). He confronts Pan and forces a full confession out of her before decapitating her while he also forced Wang to make a full confession in front of the guest. He confronts Ximen and kills him after an intense fight. After avenging his brother, Wu goes to the county office to surrender himself, bringing Wang with him to face justice.

Becoming an outlaw

Wu is sentenced to face-tattooing and exile in Mengzhou. He passes by Cross Slope along the way and meets Zhang Qing and Sun Erniang and befriends them. In the Mengzhou prison, the prison governor's son Shi En helps him get an easy life and they become friends. Shi treats Wu well and Wu decides to repay Shi's kindness. Shi owns a restaurant called the "Forest of Delight" (快活林), which has been overtaken by a hooligan called Jiang Zhong. Wu defeats Jiang in a fight and helps Shi take back the restaurant.

Jiang is furious after his defeat and he collaborates with Inspector Zhang to frame Wu for theft. Wu is arrested and sentenced to exile to Enzhou. The guards escorting him there have been bribed by Jiang to kill him along the way at Flying Cloud Pool. Wu senses the guards' ill intentions and he manages to overpower and kill them before they could finish him off. He returns to Mengzhou to take his revenge and kills Inspector Zhang and his family, and Jiang Zhong, at Mandarin Ducks Tower. He flees from Mengzhou after that and reaches Cross Slope. Zhang Qing and Sun Erniang help to disguise him as a wandering priest and Wu escapes. As such, Wu earns his nickname "Traveller" and becomes an outlaw.

Wu goes to Mount Twin Dragons and joins the outlaw band there. He joins Liangshan after the battle at Qingzhou (in present-day Shandong) and becomes one of the leaders of the Liangshan infantry. Wu follows the heroes on their campaigns against the invading Liao army and rebel forces after they are granted amnesty by the emperor. During the Fang La campaign, Wu's left arm was sliced off by Bao Daoyi during the battle of Muzhou. Luckily, he is saved by Lu Zhishen in time. Wu is one of the few survivors of Liangshan after the campaigns but he refuses to take up any official posts despite his contributions. Instead, he goes to Liuhe Pagoda to practise Buddhism and dies peacefully at the age of 80.

Jin Ping Mei

The beginning is roughly the same as Water Margin. After his sister-in-law murdered his brother, he wanted to take revenge. At first, he tried to kill Ximen Qing, the lover of his sister-in-law, but he killed the wrong person instead. He was exiled to Mengzhou. He came back later, but Ximen had already died of sickness. He then killed his sister-in-law, and fled to Mount Twin Dragons.

While Jin Ping Mei is famous in its sexually explicit content, there is nothing sexual about Wu Song in the novel.

Wu Song becomes Zhou Tong's student

The following tale alternatively known as "Meeting Zhou Tong By Chance" and "Swordplay under the Moon" belongs to the "Wang School Shuihu" of Yangzhou storytelling. It acts as a shuwai shu (lit. 'story outside of the story'), meaning it takes place in the same setting Water Margin, but is independent of the main story line. The tale takes place after Wu Song kills the man-eating tiger, resists the charms of his sister-in-law and accepts a mission from the magistrate to transport money to Kaifeng, but before he becomes a bandit. It explains how he came to learn swordplay from Zhou Tong:

Wu was given orders to travel on assignment to Kaifeng after becoming a constable in Yanggu District. When he arrived in Kaifeng, Wu took his introduction letter to the office of the local administration building and retired to an inn to await his summons. The following day, he left his inn to explore the bustling city.

Kaifeng was one of the largest in the world at this time and it was full of various kinds of shops and heavy traffic from people coming in and leaving the city. As Wu walked along enjoying the organized chaos, the sky changed color and it became a torrential downpour. It rained so much that waves flowed across the ground and mist rose around the houses. The rain hurt the top of Wu's head so he huddled under the roof of a small shop along with several other people vying for safety. However, as soon as it started, the rain suddenly stopped.

Wu continued on his way when he came to the Tianhan Bridge. It was arched, so people had to use steps to ascend to the top. When he stepped onto the bridge, Wu lifted up his clothing and looked down at his feet so he could avoid the huge puddles of water left from the freak rain shower. Unbeknownst to him, he was walking directly towards an elderly man who was descending the stairs right above him. Wu continued to walk up the bridge without looking in front of him. This old man was Zhou Tong and he was in a hurry. When Zhou saw Wu approaching him on the bridge without watching in front of him, he took Wu to be another martial arts master who wished to tarnish his reputation by throwing him off the bridge with a shoulder strike. Zhou prepared for a counter-attack and began to swallow air with a subtle "Hm!" and directed his energy to his right shoulder, which turned red then purple and became as hard as rock underneath his clothing. When the two men brushed shoulders, despite being a master of Iron Shirt and Drunken Eight Immortals boxing, Wu was nearly knocked off the bridge and the pain caused saliva to pour from his mouth. The attack left him weak in the knees and one side of his body was completely numb. He thought after all of his years of martial arts practice his body was nearly invincible, but he had met his superior in Zhou. Instead of cursing and reprimanding the old man, Wu held his tongue, which greatly impressed Zhou. In lieu of a kind word, Zhou simply bowed in apology and went on his way since he was in a rush.

After Zhou disappeared into the bustling crowd, Wu rubbed his shoulder and returned to his inn. He ate his lunch and supper in turn, but felt it was too early to go to bed. He went outside into a quiet courtyard behind the inn to do a little shadowboxing underneath the starry night sky. He untied his belt and wrenched it to the left and right until it was very tight and tied it into a knot. He then focused his energy and began to practice his Drunken Eight Immortals boxing. Before he was even half way done with his routine, the loud screams of another person's martial arts practice interrupted his concentration. He grabbed a bench to steady himself on and looked over the top of a brick wall that opened into the hall of a large mansion to the east of the inn.

In the middle of the hall sat three tables laden with all the myriad kinds of food. However, the stately-looking people attending this sumptuous feast were underneath the eaves of the hall watching a person practice his swordplay in the manor's courtyard. This person was Zhou and he had his beard tied into a knot so he would not accidentally cut it off with his double swords. Zhou wielded his swords to and fro and did it so fast that the flashes of light cast from the blades made it look like his entire body was wrapped in snow. Even if a person threw a bowlful of ink at him, not a single drop of it would tarnish his clothing. Wu became mesmerized by Zhou's display of superior swordsmanship. When he twirled around and ended up facing in his direction, Wu recognized Zhou as the old man he had bumped into on the bridge earlier in the day. He realized that Zhou must be a great master adapt in the art of the "deep breath" technique.

Wu Song tomb

During his practice, Zhou let out a mountain-crumbling scream and fell onto his back while kicking one leg into the air. Wu felt sorry for Zhou because he thought maybe the man was too old to practice the martial arts and had lost his balance. However, Zhou screamed once more and this time he shot high into the sky with his swords pointed upward towards the moon. After watching him land and perform a few punches and kicks, it finally dawned on Wu that Zhou was indeed practicing the boxing routines of the immortals Iron-Crutch Li and Han Xiang from the Drunken Eight Immortals style. Zhou was so good at this style that his performance once caused a fellow warrior to become intoxicated. Puzzled, Wu remembered back to his own martial arts master who had told him there were only two people in the world (including Wu and his master) who could perform such boxing. Zhou also knew the style too. Because Zhou's performance was so great, Wu went against the rules of etiquette and shouted praise from the top of the wall.

This shouting interrupted Zhou before he could finish the forms for the rest of the Eight Immortals. He spun around and asked his aristocratic audience who it was that was shouting praise of his performance. They were unable to answer because their snobbery prevented them from noticing anything outside of their own amusement. However, one of their level-headed servants heard the noise and pointed towards the brick wall. Zhou used his magical X-ray eyes to peer through the brick wall and into Wu's bone structure to see he was a special person indeed. When Wu praised Zhou's performance, he formed an instant friendship with the old man. Zhou invited Wu over the wall to partake in the festivities.

When Zhou asked for his name, he was delighted to learn Wu was the same fellow who became famous for killing a man-eating tiger with his bare hands on Jingyang Ridge in Shandong in the previous year. When Wu learned who Zhou Tong was, he immediately dropped to his knees, kowtowed and pleaded to become his student. Wu was thrilled to meet this "master of the older generation". who was famous throughout the Jianghu for his skill in military and civilian martial arts. Zhou helped Wu up and began to teach him swordplay under the moon.

Trivia

• The Wu Song story is probably the only one that has been remade many times in Chinese media, due to the fact that adultery in China was/is a serious offence (and a huge dishonour to the family). There are various parodies and remakes of this chapter, which is also known as the "Lion's Bar".
• Additionally, the Hong Kong comic Old Master Q has also done a special edition animated cartoon with Water Margin characters, with the primary focus being on Wu Song. However, this version is extensively modified and presents a skewed version of Wu and the original story.

See also

• List of Water Margin minor characters#Wu Song's story for a list of supporting minor characters from Wu Song's story.

References

• Li, Mengxia. 108 Heroes from the Water Margin, page 29. EPB Publishers Pte Ltd, 1992. ISBN 9971 0 0252 3. Template:Zh icon