Chinese Tales: DRUNK MONK - Outlaws of the Marsh (Water Margin) - Lu Zhishen

Lu Zhishen （魯智深） of Outlaws of the Marsh also called Water Margin （水滸傳）

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Drunk Monk Lu Zhishen - Outlaws of the Marsh (Water Margin)

One of China’s four literary classics, Outlaws of the Marsh (also known as Water Margin), is a compilation of stories loosely based in the Song dynasty.

As the story begins there is a plague upon the land and the emperor orders one of his officials to get help from a Taoist monastery. While there, he accidently releases 108 spirits who’d been banished from heaven. 36 of them were good spirits, while 72 were not so nice. Upon being released, they soon reincarnate as humans, and gathered on Liang Shan, or Mount Liang.

Unlucky number 13 of the 36 good spirits is Lu Zhishen, originally named Lu Da, a brash 8-foot-tall giant covered in tattoos who likes to fight and drink, but also has a strong sense of justice.

In his town lives a butcher who forces a young townswoman to marry him. This thoroughly upsets Lu Zhishen. The two got into a fight. Lu Zhishen hits him three times and the butcher goes down, and never gets back up. To avoid execution, Lu Zhishen seeks refuge in a Buddhist monastery. The abbot felt he was extraordinary, possibly seeing he was actually from the heavens, and gave him the opportunity to hide out in the temple, but Lu had to become an actual monk. So he shaved his head and the abbot gave him the name zhishen. Zhi means wisdom and shen means deep, as the abbot felt he would attain great enlightenment. Many around him though simply referred to him as hua heshang the flowery monk. Heshang means a buddhist monk, and hua means flower, but also refers to something with a lot of colors and patterns, and since Lu Zhishen was covered in tattoos, what better than to call him the Flowery Monk.

But Lu Zhishen refused to obey the rules, eating meat and getting plastered non-stop. The final straw was when he accidentally smashed a temple pavilion and some Buddha statues in a drunken rampage. He was then sent to a different monastery and placed in charge of the vegetable garden. Soon enough, though, came his first moment of glory—he single handedly subdued 23 thieves, and then, for good measure, uprooted a tall willow tree with his bare hands.

One day, he came across General Lin Chong, who was in charge of 800,000 imperial guards. The two hit it off and became sworn brothers. But Lin Chong was soon framed by corrupt officials and exiled. When the guards escorting Lin Chong tried to kill him, Lu Zhishen suddenly leaped out from behind a tree to protect his blood brother. It turned out Lu Zhishen was secretly following Lin Chong to make sure he didn’t get killed. The pair eventually reunited on Mount Liang, and joined the Outlaws of the Marsh.



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Additional Music Credits:
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yangkaiji - Emperor's Battle