Lu Zhishen is a fictional character in Water Margin, one of the four great classical novels in Chinese literature.

One folk tale derived from the novel says he is a sworn brother of the martial artist Zhou Tong, who purportedly trained the Song dynasty general Yue Fei in archery.

While on the run, Lu Da accidentally meets Jin Cuilian's father, who has settled down at Yanmen county as his daughter is married to a local squire surnamed Zhao.

Zhao suggests Lu conceal his identity by becoming a Buddhist monk at the Manjusri Monastery on nearby Mount Wutai.

When the monks on Mount Wutai see Lu Zhishen coming back intoxicated, they immediately shut the gate on him.

But Lu smashes the two towering jingang statues flanking the gate, breaks into the monastery, beats up the monks and messes up the meditation hall.

On his journey to Dongjing, Lu Zhishen passes by Plum Blossom Village and is offered free lodgings for the night at Squire Liu's manor.

He overhears the family crying and finds out that Zhou Tong, a bandit leader from the nearby Mount Plum Blossom, is coming that very night to forcibly marry Squire Liu's daughter.

Zhou Tong escapes and asks Li Zhong, the chief of Mount Plum Blossom, to get back at Lu for him.

One day Lin Chong, instructor of the imperial guard, comes across Lu working out with his hefty staff and is amazed by his martial skill.

When Lin Chong is exiled to Cangzhou after being framed by Grand Marshal Gao Qiu, whose god son covets the instructor's wife, Lu secretly tails him and his two escorts.

Lu Zhishen has to flee Dongjing when he is found to be the monk who ruined Gao Qiu's plan to kill Lin Chong.

Cao and Yang pretend that Lu has been drugged and take him up Mount Twin Dragons to be presented to Deng Long.

Lu Zhishen goes to Huayin County to invite Shi Jin and his gang at Mount Shaohua to join Liangshan.

At Mount Shaohua, he is told that Shi is caught by Prefect He of Huazhou when he tries to rescue a woman the official has abducted, desiring to make her his concubine.

Lu goes to Huazhou alone to rescue Shi, but he is spotted behaving strangely in a crowd by He when he contemplates assassinating the official upon running into his entourage.

Lu Zhishen is appointed as one of Liangshan's infantry leaders after the 108 Stars of Destiny came together in what is called the Grand Assembly.

When the run of campaigns ends with Fang La's rebellion snuffed out, Lu Zhishen insists on remaining at the Liuhe Pagoda in Hangzhou instead of returning to Dongjing with the lot.

The monks of Liuhe Pagoda tell Lu Zhishen that in Buddhist terminology yuanji – made up of the characters yuan (圓; "complete the circle") and ji (寂; "enter silence") – means death.