![]() ![]() At the wake, he forces Pan Jinlian at knife point to make a full confession on the murder, and then decapitates and disembowels her in vengeance. He invites neighbours of the Wu house, including Granny Wang, to a belated wake for his brother. However, the magistrate, who has been bribed by Ximen, dismisses the case on grounds of insufficient evidence.ĭenied legal avenue, Wu Song takes the matter into his own hands. Wu Song then goes to the magistrate to demand legal justice. Wu Song finds the coroner, who has kept some remains of Wu Dalang which show signs of poisoning. Ximen then coerced a coroner to quickly cremate the body. Abetted by Granny Wang and Ximen, Pan murdered him by poisoning his medicine. But he was left injured and bedridden after being kicked hard in the abdomen by Ximen. Tipped by a bun-selling youth Brother Yun ( 鄆哥), Wu Dalang had caught Ximen and Pan in bed together. He learns that Pan is having an affair with a local merchant Ximen Qing ( 西門慶), a well-off scoundrel who has seduced the woman with the help of the tea house owner Granny Wang ( 王婆), who lives next door to the Wus. ![]() Not believing his sister-in-law's account that his brother succumbed to a sudden illness, he conducts a private investigation. He returns home two months later to find his brother had died and his body had been cremated. Later, Wu Song is assigned to escort some gold to the imperial capital Dongjing (present-day Kaifeng, Henan). Meeting Wu Song, Pan is immediately attracted to her handsome and well-built brother-in-law, but he sternly spurns her attempt to seduce him. The harassment got worse after he married Pan, as he looks starkly incompatible with his young and attractive wife, who was originally a maid of a rich man and had been forced to marry Wu Dalang as punishment for resisting her boss' advances. Wu Dalang, who is a dwarf selling flatbread for a living, is widely taunted in Qinghe as "Three-Inch Nail Tree Bark" ( 三寸丁谷樹皮) for his short stature. Wu Song learns that they had moved to Yanggu to avoid harassments by neighbours in Qinghe. Wu Dalang brings Wu Song home and introduces him to his wife Pan Jinlian ( 潘金蓮). Wu Song accepts it and settles down, and surprisingly runs into his long-separated brother Wu Dalang, who has also moved to Yanggu from Qinghe.Īccording to some narrations in Yangzhou storytelling, particularly the "Wang school", Wu Song's slaying of the tiger took place "in the middle of the tenth (lunar) month" of the " Xuanhe year ". Impressed, the local magistrate of the nearby Yanggu County (in present-day Liaocheng, Shandong) offers him the job of chief constable. Exhausted and fearing another tiger might appear, he then flees the spot after a short rest, and runs into some local hunters, who are amazed to learn of his incredible feat. After punching the tiger unconscious, he picks up his broken staff and whacks the tiger till he is sure it is dead. He then rains blows on its head using his bare fist. Unarmed, he summons all his might and manages to pin the tiger face down with his arms. After narrowly dodging the tiger‘s first three charges, Wu Song attempts to fight back but breaks his staff on a tree. As he is falling asleep, the tiger leaps out from the woods, shocking him out of his stupour. As he moves on, he starts to feel the effect of the wine. Not to lose face, he could not turn back. Near the ridge, Wu Song spots an official notice warning of a tiger ahead. Ignoring the advice, he continues his journey, armed with only a quarterstaff. Wu Song suspects that the man is hoaxing him to spend the night at his inn. He is about to leave when the innkeeper stops him and warns him about a fierce tiger on the ridge. By the end of his meal, he has consumed 18 bowls of wine but still looks steady. Still sober after three bowls, Wu Song demands for more. ![]() The innkeeper explains that the inn's home-brewed wine is so strong that customers would get drunk after having three bowls and could not cross the ridge ahead. On the way, he passes by an inn near Jingyang Ridge, which puts out a banner that reads "After Three Bowls, Do Not Cross the Ridge" ( 三碗不過崗), and goes in for a break. Learning later that the man he hit is not dead, Wu Song decides to go home. Wu Song kills the man-eating tiger (top left). ![]()
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