Wu Song 武松
Wu Song (武松) is a hero of the Chinese novel The Water Margin, a strongman famed for his victory over a tiger. He is one of the 108 heroes of Liangshan Marsh — men whom injustice and clashes with the authorities drove to a life of outlawry. Several of the most famous episodes in Chinese literature are bound up with Wu Song: the killing of the tiger, avenging his brother, and the bloody reckoning with those who tried to destroy him.
The novel is set in the early twelfth century, during the Song dynasty, but there is no reason to regard Wu Song as a historical figure. Stories about him were told orally and performed on stage long before they found their way into The Water Margin, whose authorship is usually attributed to Shi Nai'an. "The Pilgrim Wu" is already mentioned in a thirteenth-century collection; the same century contains a reference to a play about his fight with the tiger, the text of which has not survived. In the novel these tales, long familiar to listeners, were given a common continuation.
In the book Wu Song is the younger brother of Wu Dalang, a poor seller of flatbreads who took the place of their parents, who died early. Hence the hero's other name, Wu Erlang: "the second son of Wu." The brothers are strikingly different from each other. The elder is short, timid and accustomed to enduring mockery; the younger is tall, strong, hot-tempered and acutely sensitive to insult. Wu Song is sincerely devoted to his brother. The death of Wu Dalang becomes a shock to him and determines his entire subsequent fate.
The famous encounter with the tiger takes place on Jingyang Ridge. Wu Song drinks eighteen cups of wine in a tavern and, despite the owner's warnings, sets off across the mountain. When the tiger lunges at him, the hero tries to fight it off with his staff, but breaks it against a tree. He then pins the beast to the ground and beats it to death with his fists. For this feat Wu Song receives a post in the county guard: for a short time he becomes a servant of the law.
In the same county he meets his brother again and becomes acquainted with his wife, Pan Jin-Lian. She tries to seduce Wu Song, is rebuffed, and then takes a lover — the wealthy Ximen Qing. Together they poison Wu Dalang. Returning from a journey, Wu Song learns how his brother died, but cannot obtain a trial for the guilty. So he kills them both himself and confesses to what he has done. The story of that same family opens the novel Jin Ping Mei, though the circumstances and the subsequent course of events differ in the two books.
After exile Wu Song is once again drawn into other people's quarrels. The people he helped betray him. Bribed escorts try to kill him, and Wu Song deals with the participants in the plot. To hide, the hero puts on the garb of a wandering Buddhist ascetic; this is the origin of his nickname, the Pilgrim. Monastic clothing, prayer beads and paired blades become Wu Song's recognizable marks. Later he joins the outlaws of Liangshan Marsh. In the full editions of the novel, where the story continues after the brotherhood's amnesty, he loses an arm in the campaign against Fang La and withdraws from worldly affairs.
In cinema, three films with Ti Lung are especially well known. In The Water Margin (1972) he appears among the novel's other heroes, while Delightful Forest (1972) is devoted to Wu Song's own adventures. Tiger Killer (1982) returns to his feat and his brother's death. In television series the story of Wu Song is shown in greater detail: in the series Water Margin (1998) Wu Song was played by Ding Hai-Feng, and in the series All Men Are Brothers (2011) by Johnny Chen Long.
For a feature film, directors usually choose a single feat of Wu Song or the story of his revenge. In a series it is possible to trace his entire path: from a hero rewarded by the county magistrate to a fugitive seeking protection among bandits. For all of Wu Song's fabled strength, his misfortunes usually have thoroughly earthly causes — money, bribery and the impunity of the powerful.
