The Legend of Li San, the Swallow

The story of Li San the Swallow is widely known throughout the country, but he is usually portrayed as a crafty thief. This book depicts him instead as a chivalrous hero who fights for justice, a folk hero who never steals and always stands up for the oppressed.

He was a historical figure with a real-life counterpart. His real name was Li Fen, and he came from Jizhou in eastern Beijing, in what is now Ji County, Tianjin. He was born in 1868 and died in 1933.

This Li San was active during the turbulent final years of the Qing dynasty. From childhood, he studied martial arts under Master Yunhai, a monk of the Northern Shaolin Temple on Tianpan Mountain. He was known in martial circles as Li San the Swallow because he was skilled with swallow-shaped throwing knives. In 1985, the renowned Tianjin writer Liu Xi interviewed Li Fen’s descendants while writing The Legend of Li San the Swallow, but most of the plot was based on Li Yunlong, known as Li Si the Swallow, from Xian County, Hebei.

The first book about Li San focused mainly on his thefts and robberies, as well as his practice of robbing the rich to help the poor. As a result, readers came to think of him as a heroic master thief. This book completely reimagines the original, portraying a different kind of hero: Li San the Swallow. He once joined the Boxers and led the Black Hawk Gang in the Northeast. He gathered grain and seeds so the people of the three northeastern provinces could cultivate their fields and survive a famine. He also once saved a prince of the Qing dynasty, and Empress Dowager Cixi adopted him as her godson.

In a turbulent era, extraordinary experiences give rise to a string of episodes that are by turns hilarious, heartrending, and deeply moving. This is The Further Adventures of Li San the Swallow. Readers are warmly invited to follow along.