Tao Zian (simplified: 陶子安, traditional: 陶子安, pinyin: Táo Zǐ’ān, jyutping: tou4 zi2 on1) is the son of Tao Baisui, the “Terror of Guandong”, and young chief of the Yinma Creek Stockade in Jin Yong’s Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain. He is betrothed to Tian Qingwen, daughter of Tian Guinong of the Tianlong School. Handsome, with slanting brows, about twenty-three or twenty-four, he is a fine archer and fights with a single dao (ch. 1).
Biography
The betrothal
Tian Guinong, once a bandit with Tao Baisui as his deputy, betrothed his only daughter to Tao Zian. Tao Baisui believed the match was meant to buy his silence (ch. 7). In company Tian Qingwen blushed and avoided Tao Zian, but in private the two talked warmly, and whenever he brought her a present she gave him something in return, an embroidered pouch or a waistcoat. They signalled each other to meet with three taps on her window (ch. 7).
The night of Tian Guinong’s death
Tao Zian comes with his father to Tian Guinong’s retirement banquet and finds his betrothed haggard and angry with him. In the garden pavilion she tells him that if the fault were his, all would be well, but it is someone else’s, and she would rather be dead. That night he climbs into her room and finds a dead infant under the quilt of her bed. Hidden beneath the bed, he hears her weep over the child she smothered. He follows her to a graveyard, watches Zhou Yunyang bury a long bundle, and hears the two swear to keep each other’s secrets. He follows them home with a poisoned hidden weapon in his hand, ready to kill Zhou at the first sign of intimacy, and afterwards stands under her window weighing whether to cut her down, burn the manor or expose her, before resolving to say nothing until he knew the man’s name (ch. 7).
Ruan Shizhong then summons him to Tian Guinong, who lies frightened in bed and gives him a long bundle to bury in secret beyond the pass, saying it may save his life and that no one, not even his father, may know. Tian notices the bow and weapons Tao has hidden under his robe and asks for the bow and arrows. Opening the bundle with his father, Tao finds the iron box empty, and suspects a plot to have him caught on the road and accused of stealing the school’s treasured dao. He goes back to return it and finds Tian Guinong dead, one of Tao’s own arrows in his chest, with the treasured dao and the dead infant lying on the bed. Taking the dao, he snatches a paper from under the mattress. Footsteps drive him under the bed, where someone else is already hiding. As Ruan, Cao Yunqi and Zhou come in, the stranger puts out Zhou’s lantern, and Tao breaks out with the dao and flees with his father that night (ch. 7).
The fight at the pit
Tao Zian and his father come to the Changbai Mountains to dig up the box they had buried. He shoots down a goose and loosens three arrows at Cao Yunqi in quick succession, high, middle and low. As the Taos dig, Xiong Yuanxian of the Pingtong Armed Escort and his allies spring from a hidden pit in the snow. Tao Zian holds off Xiong and the monk Jingzhi together. When Jingzhi will not stop, Tao throws down his dao, dares him to strike, and punches him in the nose (ch. 1).
He digs out the box and offers it to Liu Yuanhe, who had watched him at Tian Guinong’s banquet, then springs its catch. Three short arrows fly out. Liu pulls Jingzhi in front of himself, and two arrows kill the monk while the third lodges in Xiong’s shoulder (ch. 1). When the Tianlong party attacks, Ruan seizes the box and calls him the man who murdered his father-in-law for the school’s treasure. Tao chases Tian Qingwen, who has run off with it, and kneels in the snow to swear he did not harm her father (ch. 1).
Caught by Cao Yunqi, he proposes that Zheng Sanniang join him against Cao, then turns a feint on Cao into a cut at her leg and moves to kill her; Cao blocks the stroke, and Tao claims he was only helping. When Zheng Sanniang, wounded, rises and cuts him across the buttock, Tian Qingwen’s awl saves his life. He hurls his dao at Zheng’s chest, and Baoshu’s prayer bead knocks it aside (ch. 1).
On Jade Brush Peak
Wounded, he still joins the fight against Hu Fei’s page boys to relieve Tian Qingwen, dodging Cao’s fist, and the elder boy cuts through his dao (ch. 2). He helps Miao Ruolan haul up the silk line, catches Tian Qingwen when she faints and trades blows with Cao in the rush for the door (ch. 6).
When Yin Ji reveals that Cao and Tian Qingwen had a child, Tao Zian goes for Cao with his dao, then holds back his father so that the company can judge. He tells his story in tears, now calling Tian Guinong “Uncle Tian” instead of father-in-law, and produces the paper he took from the bed: Hu Fei’s card congratulating Tian on his retirement. He hands it not to Baoshu but to Miao Ruolan. Ruan admits they had wronged him (ch. 7). Liu Yuanhe, the man under the bed, then tells the company that Tian Guinong killed himself (ch. 7).
The treasure cave
He is the first to see Hu Fei racing across the snow, and he leaps with Cao into a hollow after Tian Qingwen (ch. 8). In the tunnel Cao accuses him of giving her the golden pen and spits in his face; Tao kicks him in the belly and strikes with Swallow Returns to Its Nest (燕归巢), and the two brawl in the dark until Tian Qingwen threatens never to speak to either again. When she calls him her husband and says she has wronged him, he swears he will still marry her; when she tells him never to see her again, he blames Cao and rushes at him, and Liu Yuanhe disarms him. Baoshu sends him out with Zhou and Xiong to gather firewood (ch. 8). He is among those Hu Fei seals inside the cave, and the novel leaves their fate open (ch. 10).
Relationships
- Tao Baisui (Father): Chief of the Yinma Creek Stockade, who flees with him and backs him throughout.
- Tian Qingwen (Betrothed): He discovers her secret child yet swears he will marry her.
- Tian Guinong (Prospective father-in-law): Tao believes Tian set him up to be accused of theft.
- Cao Yunqi (Rival): Tian Qingwen’s shixiong, who tries to kill him and fights him over her.
- Zheng Sanniang (Enemy): Widow of an escort captain killed by the stockade; each tries to kill the other.
- Liu Yuanhe (Enemy): The guard who shared his hiding place under Tian Guinong’s bed.
Martial arts
Tao Zian fights with a single dao and is a skilled archer. The text calls his bladework very fine (ch. 2). Named moves include Removing the Beam and Replacing the Pillar (抽梁换柱), Step Forward and Strike the Groin (上步撩阴), which he turns mid-stroke into Retreating Horse-Chopping Dao (退步斩马刀), and Swallow Returns to Its Nest (燕归巢) (ch. 1, 8).