Fetching His Mother and Slaying Four Tigers
Li Kui leaves Liangshan later to fetch his mother to join him. Along the way, he encounters Li Gui, who impersonates him and robs passersby in the woods in his name. Li Kui defeats Li Gui after a fight and wants to kill the latter for discrediting him. However, after believing Li Gui's account that he has no choice but to rob to feed his 80 year old mother, Li Kui softens and lets Li Gui off. He even gives Li Gui some money and tells him to take good care of his mother. Shortly after, Li Kui runs into Li Gui again and overhears a secret conversation between Li Gui and his wife. They are plotting to capture him and hand him over to the authorities to claim the bounty on his head. Li Kui is furious and he bursts in and kills Li Gui but Li Gui's wife escapes.
Li Kui reaches home and meets his cowardly brother Li Da. Li Da scolds him for being an outlaw and leaves to get some men to help him capture Li Kui to claim the bounty. Li Kui flees from home with his mother and carries her on his back. They travel along a path through the woods and up the hill. Along the way, Li Kui's mother complains that she is thirsty so Li immediately rushes off to find water for her. When he returns, he is shocked to discover that his mother has been attacked and killed by tigers. Li Kui is overwhelmed with grief and he charges into the tigers' lair and slays all four tigers in blind rage. He becomes famous in the town later for his brave act but he is still deeply saddened by the loss of his mother.
The wealthy Squire Cao pretends to compliment Li Kui for his heroic deed. Actually, Cao met Li Gui's wife earlier and learnt that Li Kui is actually a wanted man by the authorities and a large bounty has been placed on his head. They plot to capture Li Kui and hand him over to the county office. Li Kui is unaware and he becomes unconscious after drinking drugged wine. The magistrate sends the constable Li Yun and some men to escort Li Kui, who is bound and carried on a stretcher, back to the county office. Along the way, Zhu Gui and Zhu Fu rescue Li Kui by serving the guards drugged food and wine. Li Kui kills the guards after getting free and he wants to kill Li Yun but is stopped. When Li Yun regains consciousness, he sees that he has no other choice but to become an outlaw and he follows them back to Liangshan.
Read more about this topic: Li Kui (Water Margin)
Famous quotes containing the words mother, slaying and/or tigers:
“When I hear the hypercritical quarreling about grammar and style, the position of the particles, etc., etc., stretching or contracting every speaker to certain rules of theirs ... I see that they forget that the first requisite and rule is that expression shall be vital and natural, as much as the voice of a brute or an interjection: first of all, mother tongue; and last of all, artificial or father tongue. Essentially your truest poetic sentence is as free and lawless as a lamb’s bleat.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The great tragedy of science—the slaying of a beautiful theory by an ugly fact.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895)
“When two tigers fight, one is sure to be wounded.”
—Chinese proverb.