Lu Zhishen
fictional character in Chinese novel "The Water Margin"
Lu Zhishen is a fictional character in Water Margin, one of the four great classical novels in Chinese literature. He is the main character in the first segment of the novel, which spans about six chapters. Nicknamed "Flowery Monk", he ranks 13th among the 36 Heavenly Spirits, the first third of the 108 Stars of Destiny.
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.
Background
The novel depicts Lu Da (魯達), who later becomes a monk with the name Zhishen, as having a round face, big ears, a straight nose, a squarish mouth and a beard which nearly obscures his face. He originally serves as a garrison major in Weizhou (渭州; around present-day Pingliang, Gansu).
One day Lu meets and makes friends with Shi Jin and Li Zhong when he is off duty. As the three are drinking in an inn, they overhear the singer Jin Cuilian crying over her misfortunes. A wealthy butcher, known as Butcher Zheng, has lured Jin, who is stranded in Weizhou with her elderly father, to be his concubine in exchange for money to bury her mother, who has died of illness. But actually no money was handed over.
“Lu Zhishen” enters the record as fictional character in Chinese novel "The Water Margin". Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Zhishen, fictional and character can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Lu Zhishen” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Zhishen, fictional and character provides the most credible route into that argument.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1075357. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Lu Zhishen” 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.