Lü Fang

Lü Fang
Water Margin character
Nickname "Little Marquis of Wen"
小溫侯
Rank 54th, Aid Star (地佐星) of the 72 Earthly Fiends
Central Camp Defendant General of Liangshan
Origin Bandit leader
Ancestral home / Place of origin Tanzhou (around present-day Changsha, Hunan)
First appearance Chapter 35
Weapon "Sky Piercer" (方天畫戟)
Names
Simplified Chinese 吕方
Traditional Chinese 呂方
Pinyin Lǚ Fāng
Wade–Giles Lü Fang
This is a Chinese name; the family name is .

Lü Fang is a fictional character in Water Margin, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. He ranks 54th of the 108 Liangshan heroes and 18th of the 72 Earthly Fiends. He is nicknamed "Little Marquis of Wen".

Background

Lü Fang is from Tanzhou (潭州; around present-day Changsha, Hunan). He dons a suit of fiery red armour over a flowery robe, along with a silk belt and a headdress. He rides on a red steed similar to the Red Hare, and wields a halberd called "Sky Piercer" (方天畫戟). He is nicknamed "Little Marquis of Wen" after Lü Bu (who held the title "Marquis of Wen") because he not only admires the mighty warrior but also resembles him in appearance.

Initially a medicine trader, Lü Fang decides to become an outlaw after he made losses from trading in Shandong and had insufficient money to return home. He settles down at Mount Duiying (對影山) and leads a group of bandits. He becomes famous in the region after defeating many powerful warriors. When Guo Sheng hears of Lü Fang's reputation, he goes to Mount Duiying to challenge Lü to a one-on-one duel. Neither of them is able to overcome his opponent after fighting for over 10 days.

Joining Liangshan

Song Jiang, Hua Rong and other outlaws are on their way back to Liangshan Marsh after the battle at Qingfeng Fort (清風寨; in present-day Qingzhou, Weifang, Shandong) when they pass by Mount Duiying and see Lü Fang and Guo Sheng engaging in their duel. At that time, the blades of Lü Fang and Guo Sheng's jis are caught up and entangled in their tassels, and the two warriors are struggling to disentangle their weapons. Hua Rong sees that and fires an arrow, which directly hits the entangled point and separates the weapons. The crowd cheers. Lü Fang and Guo Sheng stop fighting and greet Song Jiang, who successfully persuades them to join the outlaw band at Liangshan.

Campaigns and death

Lü Fang becomes one of the leaders of the Liangshan cavalry and one of the Central Camp Defendant Generals after the Grand Assembly of the 108 Stars of Destiny. He and Guo Sheng serve as Song Jiang's personal bodyguards during the battles against Liangshan's enemies.

Lü Fang follows the heroes on the campaigns against the Liao invaders and rebel forces after they have been granted amnesty by Emperor Huizong. During the campaign against the rebel leader Fang La, Lü Fang is assigned to attack the enemy at Black Dragon Ridge (烏龍嶺; northeast of present-day Meicheng Town, Jiande, Hangzhou, Zhejiang), where he encounters Fang La's general Bai Qin and fights with him. Neither of them is able to defeat his opponent after several rounds of fighting, so they discard their weapons and start fighting with their bare hands. Both of them eventually fall off a cliff to their deaths.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 3/9/2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.