Song Jiang
The historical Song Jiang was turned into a fictional character in Water Margin, which became one of the four famous Classic Chinese Novels.
His name appears in the portion relating to Emperor Huizong (r. 1100–1126), which says: "[In the second month of the third year of the Xuanhe era, ...][a] Song Jiang, a bandit from Huainan, led a military attack on government forces in Huaiyang.
"[2]The fictional Song Jiang in Water Margin is based on the historical character as well as folktales that had been circulating in the Shandong region.
In Water Margin, Song Jiang is depicted as short, swarthy and having a big squarish mouth and eyes like those of a fenghuang.
After Chao, in conjunction with seven other men, hijacked valuables being escorted as birthday gifts to the Grand Tutor Cai Jing in the imperial capital Dongjing, the government of Jizhou is under pressure to solve the case as Yellow Mud Ridge, the site where the robbery took place, is within his jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, Song Jiang has taken Yan Poxi as his mistress at her mother's insistence as a way to repay him for paying for her father's funeral.
To convey his gratitude, Chao Gai sends Liu Tang to deliver one hundred pieces of gold each to Song Jiang and Zhu Tong, who has also aided his escape.
She threatens to report him to the authorities unless he meets three demands: divorce her and allow her to marry Zhang Wenyuan; let her keep all the things he has given her; and hand over all the gold pieces he has received from Chao.
As Yan refuses to believe him and repeatedly threatens to expose him, Song becomes agitated and kills her with a dagger that he always carries in his bag.
He runs into Wu again, who has become an itinerant priest to hide his identity after killing several people for revenge, when he is staying at the Kong Family Manor at Mount White Tiger.
When he comes near to the fort, he is trapped and nearly killed by the three bandit chieftains of Mount Qingfeng (清風山) -- Yan Shun, Wang Ying and Zheng Tianshou.
Song prevents Wang Ying from raping a woman he has abducted and gets her released when he finds out she is the wife of Liu Gao, the governor of Qingfeng Fort and Hua Rong's superior.
On the Lantern Festival night, Song Jiang, who is then living in Hua Rong's house, goes outdoor to watch the celebrations.
Liu Gao's wife spots him and lies to her husband that Song had abducted her at Mount Qingfeng and attempted to rape her.
Meanwhile, Hua is seized in an ambush by Huang Xin, a military officer sent from Qingzhou prefecture, which oversees Qingfeng Fort.
As Huang escorts Song and Hua back to Qingzhou, the convoy is intercepted by the bandits of Mount Qingfeng, who rescue the two prisoners.
But he leaves the group on the way there as he runs into Shi Yong, who hands him a letter from Song Qing which falsely claims that their father has passed on.
At Jieyang Town, Song generously tips Xue Yong, a street performer of martial arts, seeing that not one spectator awards him.
As Song is allowed to move freely in and out of jail by Dai, one day he goes alone to drink at a restaurant on the bank of the Xunyang River.
Huang Wenbing, a petty official, discovers the poem, which he concludes is seditious, and reports it to Cai Jiu, the prefect of Jiangzhou.
Fortunately Li Jun arrives with all the friends of Song Jiang from the Jieyang region in boats and the entire bunch are ferried to safety.
Falling into a nap, he dreams of meeting the goddess Jiutian Xuannü, who gives him three heavenly books which she says would guide him in his leadership of Liangshan.
He leads the three offensives on the Zhu Family Manor, the attack on Gaotangzhou to save Chai Jin, the fight against Huyan Zhuo's attempt to stamp out Liangshan, the battle at Qingzhou which ends with absorption of three strongholds, the effort to rescue Shi Jin and Lu Zhishen at Huazhou, the engagement with Fan Rui at Mount Mangdang, the assault on Daming to save Lu Junyi and Shi Xiu, the face-off against Guan Sheng, and the expedition against the Zeng Family Fortress to avenge the death of Chao Gai.
Chao was earlier killed in action when he, for the first time heading a military force of Liangshan instead of Song, battled with the Zeng Family Fortress.
Following his death Song Jiang becomes Liangshan's acting chief pending the capture of Chao's killer Shi Wengong.
Although in the end it is Lu Junyi who catches Shi, Song Jiang becomes the chief of Liangshan with wide support among the chieftains.
After many attempts, including enlisting the help of Li Shishi, a Gējì patronised by Emperor Huizong, Song Jiang finally wins an imperial amnesty for Liangshan.
But the emperor sends them on a series of expeditions against invaders from the Liao Empire and rebel forces in Song territory to prove their loyalty.
In the last chapter of Water Margin, the ghosts of Song Jiang and Li Kui appear in Emperor Huizong's dream and tell him about their wrongful deaths.
Although the emperor orders an inquiry, it comes to nothing as the key witness – the emissary who delivered the wine to Song Jiang – has died mysteriously on the way back to Dongjing.
