A tatooed Lu Zhishen pulling out a willow tree. Lu Zhishen (鲁智深), called the "Flowery Monk" (花和尚), is a major fictional character in the classic Chinese novel Water Margin. He is the lead in the first major story cycle of novel, in which he comes to epitomise loyalty, strength, justice but also rash action.
Originally Lu Da (鲁达), a minor prefectural military official of Weizhou, in Song Dynasty China, he is introduced via acquaintance with Shi Jin, a fugitive hero. Whilst drinking with Shi, he learns of the plight of old man Jin and his daughter, who have been tricked into debt by the butcher Zheng. Lu takes it upon himself to rescue the father and daughter. He inadvertently kills Zheng and is then forced to become a fugitive from the law himself.
Eventually Lu makes his way to Yanmen, near the northern frontier, where he is reunited with old man Jin. Jin's new son-in-law, a prominent local landowner, arranges for Lu Da to join the monastery of Mount Wutai as a Buddhist monk, where he will be safe from the reach of the law. Lu Da is given the name "Zhishen", meaning "deep in wisdom" and suitably ordained. He soon runs afoul of the church authorities, however, by eating meat and in a drunk stupor, fighting his way into the monastery, damaging and befouling the temple grounds. The abbot decides that he's a troublemaker and sends him off to another monastery, in the eastern capital Kaifeng.
On the journey the Water Margin relates a number of other adventures in which Lu Zhishen continues to right wrongs. At one point he reconciles a village head and local bandit chiefs. Reaching Kaifeng, Lu is placed in charge of a vegetable garden and soon attracts a gang of locals denizens as followers. By chance he befriends Lin Chong, who is in charge of drilling 80,000 imperial troops. When Lin is framed by the villain Gao Qiu and accused of an attempted assassination, Lu accompanies him on exile, protecting him from murder attempts. Eventually Lu Zhishen becomes a mountain bandit chief. When his band is defeated by imperial troops, he is forced to flee to Liangshan, where he meets with other heroes, including Lin Chong.
Throughout chapters 2-5, where he features most prominently, Lu Zhishen is represented as an illiterate rustic, sometimes brutish in his propensity to violence, but always fiercely loyal and righteous. His physical appearance is impressive and he is reputed to have superhuman strength, being compared with Guan Gong, the God of War. One famous story relates how he pulled out a willow tree because the crows nesting in its branches were disturbing his drinking.
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