Jiang Ping,

courtesy name A courtesy name ( zh, s=字, p=zì, l=character), also known as a style name, is an additional name bestowed upon individuals at adulthood, complementing their given name. This tradition is prevalent in the East Asian cultural sphere, particula ...

Zechang, is a fictional

Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...

knight-errant A knight-errant (or knight errant) is a figure of medieval chivalric romance literature. The adjective '' errant'' (meaning "wandering, roving") indicates how the knight-errant would wander the land in search of adventures to prove his chivalric ...

from the 19th-century Chinese novels ''

The Seven Heroes and Five Gallants ''The Tale of Loyal Heroes and Righteous Gallants'' (忠烈俠義傳), also known by its 1883 reprint title ''The Three Heroes and Five Gallants'' (三俠五義), is an 1879 Chinese novel based on storyteller Shi Yukun's oral performances. The ...

'' and '' The Five Younger Gallants''. Nicknamed "River Rat" or "River-Overturning Rat" () for his amazing swimming and

freediving Freediving, free-diving, free diving, breath-hold diving, or skin diving, is a mode of underwater diving that relies on breath-holding until resurfacing rather than the use of breathing apparatus such as scuba gear. Besides the limits of breat ...

skills, he is able to stay underwater seemingly forever. He is the fourth sworn brother of the "Five Rats", whose other members are Lu Fang,

Han Zhang Han Zhang is a fictional Song dynasty Chinese knight-errant, knight-errant from the 19th-century Chinese novels ''The Seven Heroes and Five Gallants'' and ''The Five Younger Gallants''. Nicknamed "Earth Rat" or "Earth-Piercing Rat" () for his e ...

Xu Qing Xu Qing (; born January 22, 1969), also known as Summer Xu, is a Chinese actress. Early life Xu was born at the 301 Hospital in Beijing. Her mother, of Tujia ethnicity, was the dance leader in the Central Military Commission Political W ...

and Bai Yutang. Highly witty, Jiang Ping is one of the most colorful characters in the original novel. He is scrawny, and his appearance more of a sick patient than a fighter, yet he often outsmarts opponents with clever tricks, disguises or lies. Researcher Susan Blader considers him the only "gallant" "whose intellectual, emotional, and physical prowess compares favourably with that of any 'heroes'".

References

The Seven Heroes and Five Gallants characters Fictional characters from Jiangsu Literary characters introduced in 1879 {{novel-char-stub