Wu Song

Wu Song
Water Margin character
First appearance	Chapter 23
Nickname	1. "Pilgrim" (行者); 2. "Tiger-fighting Hero" (打虎英雄); 3. "Song the Skyman" (天人松)
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 (Chinese: 武松), also known as Wu the Second (武二郎) and his nickname "Pilgrim" (行者) , is a fictional character in the novel 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.

Wu Song appears in Jin Ping Mei, a spin-off novel 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 the famous martial artist Zhou Tong.

Water Margin

Wu Song 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 Song passes by a tavern near Jingyang Ridge, where a large sign reads "Three Bowls Do Not Cross Ridge" (三碗不過崗). This arouses his interest and he stops there for a break. The waiter explains to Wu Song that the wine sold at the tavern is so strong that customers would become drunk after having three bowls and be unable to cross the ridge ahead, hence the sign. Wu Song manages to remain sober after drinking three bowls and he demands that the waiter continue serving him wine even though the latter is reluctant. By the end of his meal, Wu Song had consumed 18 bowls of wine in total and appears tipsy. He is about to leave when the waiter stops him, warning him about the presence of a fierce man-eating tiger at Jingyang Ridge. Wu Song suspects that the waiter is lying to him because he wants him to spend the night there so as to earn extra money, so he ignores the waiter and proceeds with his journey.

While crossing Jingyang Ridge, Wu Song sees a warning sign bearing an official endorsement and is now convinced that there is really a tiger at the ridge. However, he refuses to turn back because he knows he would be scorned and laughed at by the waiter if he did. He moves on and does really encounter a ferocious tiger while trying to take a nap to get over the effect of alcohol. While trying to fend off the beast, Wu Song accidentally breaks his staff, rending himself weaponless. Under the stimulation of alcohol, he ends up slaying the cat by pinning and bashing its head with his bare hands. This makes his name for the heroic deed and he is offered the post of a chief constable in Yanggu County. Coincidentally, he meets his older brother Wu Dalang (武大郎), who has moved into the town 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

Wu Dalang brings his brother home and introduces him to his wife Pan Jinlian (潘金蓮). Wu Song learns that his older brother and sister-in-law had moved to Yanggu to avoid gossip and harrassment. Wu Dalang is a short, ugly and physically inferior man previously teased as the "Three-Inch Tree Bark" (三寸丁谷树皮), while Pan Jinlian is an attractive woman. In the previous town they lived, the neighbors 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.

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

Wu Song does not believe the story and secretly conducts a thorough investigation. He discovers that Pan Jinlian had an adulterous affair with a local underworld leader named Ximen Qing (西門慶), Wu Dalang was injured by Ximen Qing while catching the pair with their pants down and evidence of his brother being poisoned with arsenic. Wu Song goes to the county court to present his case, with a bone from his brother's cremated body as evidence and two other witnesses (including the coroner who examined the body). However, the magistrate has been bribed by Ximen Qing and he dismisses the case with an excuse of "lack of evidence".

Denied of proper legal options, Wu Song is forced to take matters into his own hands. He invites the neighbors for a belated wake, including the teahouse owner Granny Wang (王婆), who pimped for Ximen Qing and abetted the murder of Wu Dalang. He confronts Pan Jinlian and forces a full confession out of her at knifepoint, before decapitating and disemboweling her in a ritual to avenge his brother. He then coerces Granny Wang to make a statement about the murder in front of the neighbors, before going to the Lion Restaurant (獅子樓) to confront and kill Ximen Qing in an intense fight. After avenging his brother, Wu Song goes to the county office to surrender himself, bringing Granny Wang with him to face justice.

Becoming an outlaw

Because the locals all sympathize with Wu Song, the court ends up sentence him to exile to Mengzhou with face-tattooing. He passes by Cross Slope along the way and meets Zhang Qing and Sun Erniang and befriends them. In the Mengzhou prison, the chief prison warden's son Shi En (施恩) helps him get an easy life and they become friends. Shi En owns a restaurant called the "Delightful Forest" (快活林) but has been forcefully taken by a powerful hooligan called Jiang Zhong (蔣忠), who is also called "Jiang the Door God" (蔣門神) for his fearsome fighting skills. To repay Shi's kindness, Wu Song defeats Jiang Zhong in a single fight and helps Shi En take back the restaurant.

Jiang Zhong collaborates with his boss Instructor Zhang (張團練) and local official Inspector Zhang (張都監) to frame Wu Song for theft. Wu Song is arrested and sentenced to exile to Enzhou. The guards escorting him have been bribed by Jiang Zhong to kill him along the way at Flying Cloud Pool, along with two other assassins. However, Wu Song manages to overpower and kill all the assailants before returning to Mengzhou to settle the score. He tracks down Jiang Zhong, Instructor Zhang and Inspector Zhang at the Mandarin Ducks Restaurant (鴛鴦樓) and kills them all along with Inspector Zhang's entire family. After leaving a blood note acknowledging his role in the killing, he flees from Mengzhou and reaches Cross Slope. Zhang Qing and Sun Erniang help to disguise him as a wandering Buddhist pilgrim to aid his escape. As such, Wu Song earns his nickname "Pilgrim" and becomes an outlaw.

Wu Song 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 Song 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 Song's left arm was sliced off by Bao Daoyi's sneak attack during the battle of Muzhou. Luckily, he is saved by Lu Zhishen in time. Wu Song 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 in Hangzhou to practise Buddhism and dies peacefully at the age of 80.

In 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 Qing 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 Song was given orders to travel on assignment to Kaifeng after becoming a constable in Yanggu District. When he arrived in Kaifeng, Wu Song 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 Song 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 Song 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 Song 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 Song 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 Tong saw Wu Song 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 Tong 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 Song 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 Tong. Instead of cursing and reprimanding the old man, Wu Song held his tongue, which greatly impressed Zhou Tong. In lieu of a kind word, Zhou Tong simply bowed in apology and went on his way since he was in a rush.

After Zhou Tong disappeared into the bustling crowd, Wu Song 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 Tong 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 Song became mesmerized by Zhou Tong's display of superior swordsmanship. When he twirled around and ended up facing in his direction, Wu Song recognized Zhou Tong as the old man he had bumped into on the bridge earlier in the day. He realized that Zhou Tong must be a great master adapt in the art of the "deep breath" technique.

Wu Song tomb

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

This shouting interrupted Zhou Tong 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 Tong used his magical X-ray eyes to peer through the brick wall and into Wu Song's bone structure to see he was a special person indeed. When Wu Song praised Zhou Tong's performance, he formed an instant friendship with the old man. Zhou Tong invited Wu Song over the wall to partake in the festivities.

When Zhou Tong asked for his name, he was delighted to learn Wu Song 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 Song learned who Zhou Tong was, he immediately dropped to his knees, kowtowed and pleaded to become his student. Wu Song 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 Tong helped Wu Song 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 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