Background
The Water Margin describes Sun Erniang as a fierce woman with a vicious and murderous look on her face. She has strong arms and legs that resemble clubs. She is well dressed and uses heavy cosmetics, which makes her resemble a yaksha and earns her the nickname "Female Yaksha". She is highly-skilled in martial arts.
Sun Erniang's father passes by Cross Slope one day and Zhang Qing attempts to rob him. Sun Erniang's father defeats Zhang Qing in the fight. He recognises Zhang Qing's talent for martial arts and accepts Zhang as an apprentice and marries his daughter to him later.
Zhang Qing and Sun Erniang run a tavern at Cross Slope in Mengzhou. They lure unwary travellers into their tavern for drinks and knock them out using drugs. They kill their victims and rob them of their valuables. They also make meat buns with human flesh fillings from their victims and serve them to customers. Sun Erniang attends to the tavern most of the time while her husband travels around and mingles with other jianghu figures.
Read more about this topic: Sun Erniang
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“They were more than hostile. In the first place, I was a south Georgian and I was looked upon as a fiscal conservative, and the Atlanta newspapers quite erroneously, because they didn’t know anything about me or my background here in Plains, decided that I was also a racial conservative.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“... every experience in life enriches one’s background and should teach valuable lessons.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)