Tang Pei (simplified: 汤沛, traditional: 湯沛, pinyin: Tāng Pèi, jyutping: tong1 pui3), known as the “Seven Provinces Benefactor” (甘霖惠七省) and addressed as Tang daxia (汤大侠), is the zhangmen of the Three Talents Jian (三才剑) in Jin Yong’s Side Story of the Flying Fox. Rich, generous and known to half the wulin, he is honoured as one of the four great zhangmen at Fuk’anggan’s Grand Assembly of Zhangmen under Heaven. Behind the reputation, he forced himself on Yuan Ziyi’s mother, who then hanged herself, and at the assembly he secretly fixes the contests for Feng Tiannan. Yuan Ziyi exposes him and later kills him (SIDE ch. 14, 17–20).
Biography
Yuan Ziyi’s mother
Tang Pei’s family home is in Nanchang, Jiangxi (SIDE ch. 19–20). Yuan Ziyi’s mother, Yuan Yingu, fled Foshan and Feng Tiannan with her baby daughter and went into service as a maid in Tang Pei’s household there. Tang, outwardly a benevolent gentleman, forced himself on her, and she hanged herself in shame (SIDE ch. 14, 19).
At the Grand Assembly
Now over sixty, Tang Pei is greeted at the assembly by nearly every zhangmen present; the old masters call him “Brother Ganlin”, and his followers hand out red packets to every junior who kowtows to him. The officer introducing him calls him zhangmen of the Three Talents Jian, and he sits as one of the four great zhangmen, alongside the abbot of Shaolin, the head of Wudang and Hailanbi, to judge the contests (SIDE ch. 17). He is on the closest terms with Tian Guinong, whom he calls his younger brother. When a young scholar, later named as Xinyan of the Red Flower Society, makes off with Jade Dragon Cups, Tang wraps him in a length of brocade, seals three of his acupoints through it and recovers the cups (SIDE ch. 17, 19).
Feng Tiannan, fleeing Hu Fei, had come to him for help. Feng promised Tang ten thousand taels a year if Tang would get rid of Hu Fei, and hinted that he knew about Yuan Yingu. Tang agreed. He wears a mechanism in the soles of his boots that shoots silver needles from the toe when he taps his heel, and every opponent Feng beats at the assembly falls to Tang’s needles. To throw off suspicion the two stage a quarrel, in which Tang scolds Feng for “wounding men with hidden arrows” (SIDE ch. 18–19).
Exposure
Moments after Hu Fei, in disguise, shears Feng Tiannan’s staff, two needles strike him in the back; they prove to be Tang’s. Yuan Ziyi, now revealed as the nun Yuanxing, draws them out and then accuses Tang of breaking the imperial cups and plotting with the Red Flower Society. She had sewn a forged letter to the society’s chief into a copy of his cap and swapped it for his own, and it is cut out of the lining in front of Fuk’anggan. Recognising her as Yingu’s daughter, Tang admits the rape to show that she is his enemy and framing him, and he names her as Feng Tiannan’s daughter. As she turns to confront Feng, he shoots a needle into her back. Hu Fei attacks him with the Tianlong dao, shears his green steel jian, and strikes him in the back with a palm that makes him spit blood; Tang breaks out through a window and escapes (SIDE ch. 19).
Death
Fuk’anggan orders Tang’s arrest (SIDE ch. 20). Guessing he would make for his home in Nanchang to warn his family, Yuan Ziyi rides south after him and catches him three days later at Qingfengdian. Still weakened by Hu Fei’s blow, he is killed by a ruse in a hard fight in a sorghum field, though she too is badly hurt. She later shows Zhou Tiejiao where his body lies buried, so that he can take the head back to Beijing (SIDE ch. 20).
Relationships
- Yuan Yingu: Yuan Ziyi’s mother, a maid in his house, whom he raped.
- Yuan Ziyi: Her daughter, who exposes him and kills him.
- Feng Tiannan: Paid and blackmailed him into rigging the assembly.
- Tian Guinong: His close friend, whom he calls his younger brother.
- Hu Fei: Shot by his needles; wounds him in return.
Martial arts
Tang Pei’s neili is deep. When he shifts his chair away from Feng Tiannan in disdain, its four legs leave deep prints in the brick floor, a feat the narrative credits to decades of cultivation. He fights with the palm and with point-striking, and carries a green steel jian (青钢剑). His secret weapon is the Shadowless Silver Needles (无影银针) fired from his boots (SIDE ch. 17–19).