To promote understanding about Chinese classical literature, Chunghwa Post released today a series of stamps based on Outlaws of the Marsh or sometimes known as The Water Margin.
The first set of four stamps features “Demons Released”, “Slaying the Tiger on Jingyang Ridge”, “Mountain God Temple on a Stormy Night” and “Knocking the Lord of the West Dead”.
The stamp designs are:
1. Demons Released (NT?5): Seeing the plague raging, the Song emperor Renzong sends Marshal Hong to Dragon and Tiger Mountain to summon the Divine Teacher to come and pray for the plague to go away. When Marshal Hong sees the inscription on the stele in the Hall of the Subdued Demons, which reads “open when Hong is here” he orders the stele to be pushed over and the ground dug open. Suddenly, a puff of black air rises from underground. Thus transpires the birth of the 108 heroes of the Liangshan Marsh and the start of the novel.
2. Slaying the Tiger on Jingyang Ridge (NT?5): A tiger shows up on Jingyang Ridge. Cocky Wu Song crosses the ridge alone. Suddenly, a huge tiger with a white forehead and fierce-looking eyes leaps out at him. Though in a state of shock, Wu Song bravely fights the tiger and eventually paralyses it.
3. Mountain God Temple on a Stormy Night (NT?10): Lin Chong is sentenced to face-tattooing and exiled to Cangzhou to manage a fodder depot. But who would guess that the grand marshal would send Lu Qian after him? On one stormy night, Lin Chong stays in a mountain god temple instead of the fodder depot which Lu Qian sets fire to, so as to get out of the murder. After that, Lin Chong gets mad and kills them and eventually becomes an outlaw of Liangshan Marsh.
4. Knocking the Lord of the West Dead (NT?25): Butcher Zheng Tu, a.k.a. Lord of the West, is a bully in Weizhou. To save Jin Cuilian and her father from his clutches and to uphold justice on their behalf, Lu Da intentionally pisses Zheng Tu off while pretending to purchase meat from him. A fight breaks out, and Lu Da punches Zheng Tu to death.
