Liu Hezhen (simplified: 刘鹤真, traditional: 劉鶴真, pinyin: Liú Hèzhēn, jyutping: lau4 hok6 zan1) is a senior member of the Weituo School in Jin Yong’s Side Story of the Flying Fox. He is the shixiong of the late zhangmen Wan Hesheng (万鹤声), with whom he was known as the “Weituo Twin Cranes” (韦陀双鹤), though few in the jianghu know which man the second crane is (SIDE ch. 6). A man of sixty or so, thin and sallow as a consumptive, with a rat-tail moustache, a skullcap and a thin white queue, he has sharp eyes and a fierce dislike of officials (SIDE ch. 6).
Biography
The contest at Maple Leaf Manor
At the feast for Wan Hesheng’s funeral at Maple Leaf Manor (枫叶庄), where Yuan Ziyi has just taken the school’s zhangmen seat by beating Wan’s three disciples, Liu sits weeping and jeering in a corner at the imperial guard He Sihao. When He Sihao and a second guard go for him, he throws them both across the hall. He names himself, says he could have been zhangmen long before had he wished, and sets three conditions: the zhangmen must be a true disciple, must not court the powerful in the capital, and should not be chosen by fighting alone (SIDE ch. 6).
He challenges Yuan Ziyi on the school’s treasured art, the Tiangang Plum Blossom Posts (天罡梅花桩), laid out as thirty-six wine bowls turned upside down on the floor, and they fight on them in Six Harmonies Fist (六合拳). He wins the centre posts and presses her, but she turns her fingers into a spear and her hand into a dao and strikes him off the bowls. Hu Fei, unseen, slides two bowls under his feet. In the second bout she flips every bowl but the two he stands on, leaving him unable to move, and he concedes, sallow as gold paper (SIDE ch. 6).
The poisoned letter
Soon after, Zhang Yunfei, a disciple of Tian Guinong, comes to Maple Leaf Manor claiming to mourn Wan Hesheng and attaches himself to Liu. On the road north Zhang talks in his sleep of a letter that must reach Miao Renfeng or scores of righteous men will die, and says the Three Heroes of the Zhong Clan will try to stop it. Liu takes on the errand. He is beaten by Zhong Zhaowen and his brothers, and his young second wife Qingping (青萍), whom he had married after losing his first wife, comes to his aid and is beaten too (SIDE ch. 7, 8).
Fleeing wounded through a storm, they hide in the shrine of the Xiangfei Temple (湘妃庙), and a peasant lad, Hu Fei in disguise, turns the Zhong brothers away. Liu thanks him warmly and, overheard by Hu Fei, tells his wife they are doing this for countless righteous men and not for themselves. The couple then feign worse wounds so that Hu Fei will hold off the Zhongs, and slip away (SIDE ch. 7, 8). Taking up the three weapons the Zhongs had dropped, Liu goes to Miao’s house claiming to carry a letter from the Zhong brothers, and hands it over. When Miao tears it open, poison flies into his eyes; the letter was Tian Guinong’s (SIDE ch. 8).
Realising he has been duped, Liu fights Zhang Yunfei with his bare hands until Hu Fei throws both into a well; the Zhong brothers haul them out. Liu begs Miao to let him deal with Zhang, but Miao lets Zhang go. Saying that he has never before failed anyone and that his blindness has cost Miao dear, Liu puts out his own right eye with his finger, and walks off into the dark tapping the road with a branch while his wife cries out (SIDE ch. 8). Zhong Zhaowen calls him a true man for it (SIDE ch. 8).
Yuan Ziyi later tells Qin Naizhi that Liu Hezhen could not beat her (SIDE ch. 14).
Relationships
- Wan Hesheng (Shidi): His partner in the Weituo Twin Cranes; zhangmen until his death.
- Qingping (Wife): Née Wang (王氏); refuses to leave him when he is wounded (SIDE ch. 7, 8).
- Sun Fuhu (孙伏虎): Wan’s eldest disciple, who calls him Shibo (SIDE ch. 6).
- Yuan Ziyi: Beat him for the zhangmen seat.
- Zhang Yunfei: Duped him into carrying the poisoned letter.
- Miao Renfeng: Whom he blinded without meaning to; Miao bore him no grudge.
Martial arts
Liu has practised the Tiangang Plum Blossom Posts for decades and uses the Six Harmonies Fist with the three-cornered fist for striking acupoints and the backhand “Anguish Fist” (苦恼拳). He throws a wine bowl so that it lands whole and upright (SIDE ch. 6). His weapon is a short chain spear (链子枪) (SIDE ch. 7, 8).