Huang Xin
Water Margin character
Huang Xin is a fictional character in Water Margin, one of the Classic Chinese Novels. Nicknamed "Guardian of the Three Mountains", he ranks 38th among the 108 Heroes and second among the 72 Earthly Fiends.
Background
Huang Xin is first introduced in the novel as a military officer from Qingzhou (青州; in present-day Shandong) serving under the governor, Murong Yanda. A skilled fighter trained by Qin Ming (who also serves as a military officer in Qingzhou), he fights well on both foot and horseback, wielding a sword called "Sword of Death" (喪門劍). He earns himself the nickname "Guardian of the Three Mountains" after he once boasted that he can defeat the outlaw groups based on three mountains around Qingzhou: Mount Qingfeng (清風山), Mount Twin Dragons (二龍山), and Mount Peach Blossom (桃花山).
Becoming an outlaw
Huang Xin is sent to Qingfeng Fort (清風寨; in present-day Qingzhou, Shandong), which is under Qingzhou's jurisdiction, to deal with Hua Rong, a renegade military officer who has defied his superior Liu Gao, the fort commandant, and provided shelter to the fugitive Song Jiang. He pretends to mediate the conflict between Hua Rong and Liu Gao, luring Hua into an ambush and capturing him, while Liu Gao's men arrest Song Jiang in the meantime. Song Jiang and Hua Rong are then secured in prison carts to be escorted to Qingzhou by Huang Xin and his men, with Liu Gao accompanying them.
En route to Qingzhou, the convoy is ambushed by the outlaws from Mount Qingfeng whom Song Jiang has befriended earlier. Outnumbered, Huang Xin is forced to retreat and hold up in the fort, while Liu Gao is killed by the outlaws.
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This entry incorporates text from “Huang Xin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.