Friday, September 19, 2008

Lu Qian

Lu Qian is a character in the epic tale, the ''Water Margin''.

Lu was a friend of Lin Chong's and he also served as an official to the Song Dynasty. Lu was not a trustworthy person and he had repaid Lin Chong's kindness with evil twice. He diverted Lin Chong's attention away from his wife by asking Lin out for drinks with him. Meanwhile, Gao Yanei, Gao Qiu's foster son, seized the opportunity to dishonour Lin's wife by trying to rape her. Lin later found out about the incident and went to his wife's rescue, and managed to chase Gao Yanei away. When he went back to find Lu Qian, the latter was gone.
Later, Lin Chong was framed with attempting to assassinate Gao Qiu by bringing a weapon into the White Tiger Hall and sentenced to exile. Even when Lin Chong was in exile, Gao Qiu did not want to let him off as Lin had offended him and his foster son. Gao sent Lu Qian to bribe the prison commander of the prison where Lin was held captive in exile to finish off Lin. Lu Qian and the prison commander were killed after a vicious fight with Lin Chong when Lin caught them trying to set fire to the storage field in his charge.

The Lu-Lin story was manifested on film in a Hong Kong movie in the late 1990s.

Liu Menglong

Liu Menglong is a character in the epic Chinese tale, the ''Water Margin''.

Liu Menglong got his name when his mother dreamt of a dragon in her sleep while she was pregnant and gave birth to him shortly afterwards. She named him 'Menglong', as 'Menglong' is literally translated as 'Dream Dragon' in Chinese.

Liu featured in various parts of the novel, but rose to prominence in chapters 78-80 in the 5th imperial assault on Liangshan, serving as the chief naval commander for Gao Qiu's forces, of which a massive fleet had been commissioned to defeat the Liangshan rebels once and for all. The assault failed and all of Liu's troops died or captured; Liu was captured and released, but eventually executed by Gao for his failure and also due to him being obsolete as he had no more troops to command.

Liangshan County

Liangshan County is a in Shandong province, China. Within its administrative territory is the famous Mount Liang . The area is the setting for the classic novel the ''Water Margin''.

Li Tianrun

Li Tianrun is a character in the epic Chinese novel, the ''Water Margin''.

Li was an officer of the Southern rebel Fang La, and is best remembered as the one who killed some of Liangshan's best officers including , Dong Ping and .

Li Shishi

Li Shishi is a character in the epic Chinese novel, the ''Water Margin''.

Li was a famous prostitute in the capital, and the Emperor Huizhong was a regular client of hers.

Li encounters the Liangshan heroes on two occasions; on the second, more important encounter, she befriends Yan Qing and agrees to become his sworn elder sister. She then promises Yan then she will tell the emperor about the heroes' plight and desire to be granted an amnesty.

Huang Wenbing

Huang Wenbing was an official in the Chinese novel ''Water Margin'' who almost caused Song Jiang to be executed. During his exile period in Jiangzhou, Song Jiang wrote a poem on the wall of a restaurant criticizing the Imperial Court in a drunken stupor. Huang Wenbing read the poem by chance and reported it to Cai Jiu, the Governor of Jiangzhou.

Cai had Song Jiang arrested and thrown into prison. Huang used torture to force Song Jiang to confess everything as Song had feigned madness as suggested by Dai Zong. Cai Jiu found Song Jiang guilty of plotting to overthrow the government and ordered his execution. Wu Yong had Xiao Rang and Jin Da-jian forge a letter by Cai Jing, Cai Jiu's father, to release Song Jiang. Huang found out the forgery as the seal in the letter had a mistake. Cai Jiu was furious and had Dai Zong arrested as well and both Song and Dai were to be executed. The Liangshan heroes stormed the execution ground and rescued both of them. Later, Huang Wenbing was caught by Zhang Shun while escaping from the Liangshan heroes who sought revenge on him. In the end, Huang was stabbed to death by .

Hu Cheng

Hu Cheng is a character in the epic Chinese novel, the ''Water Margin''.

Hu was not one of Liangshan's 108 heroes, but was instead one of the chieftains of the Hu village - one of several villages that the Liangshan heroes would encounter in a skirmish.

Hu was also the elder brother of eventual Liangshan bandit Hu San Niang; however upon the decimation of the Hu family, Hu Cheng went his own way.