Cai Fu
| Cai Fu | |
|---|---|
| Water Margin character | |
| First appearance | Chapter 62 |
| Nickname | "Iron Arm" 鐵臂膊 |
| Rank | 94th, Level Star (地平星) of the 72 Earthly Fiends |
| Chief executioner of Liangshan | |
| Origin | Prison warden and executioner |
| Ancestral home / Place of origin | Daming Prefecture (in present-day Handan, Hebei) |
| Names | |
| Simplified Chinese | 蔡福 |
| Traditional Chinese | 蔡福 |
| Pinyin | Cài Fú |
| Wade–Giles | Ts'ai Fu |
Cai Fu is a fictional character in Water Margin, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. He ranks 94th of the 108 Liangshan heroes and 58th of the 72 Earthly Fiends. He is nicknamed "Iron Arm". He shares the same nickname as the fictionalised persona of Zhou Tong, the archery teacher of Yue Fei.
Cai Fu and his younger brother, Cai Qing, are from Daming Prefecture (大名府; in present-day Handan, Hebei). Both of them work as jailers and executioners in the prison in Daming Prefecture. Cai Fu is nicknamed "Iron Arm" because of his great strength and expertise in performing smooth executions by beheading.
Lu Junyi is arrested and imprisoned after being betrayed by his adulterous wife and treacherous housekeeper, Li Gu. Li Gu bribes the Cai brothers to kill Lu Junyi in prison. Chai Jin meets them later and offers them an even larger sum of money to take good care of Lu Junyi and help him. Through the Cai brothers' intervention, Lu Junyi is spared the death penalty and is sentenced to exile on Shamen Island (沙門島; present-day Changdao County, Yantai, Shandong) instead.
Li Gu is not satisfied with Lu Junyi's fate so he bribes the guards escorting Lu to Shamen Island to kill him along the way. However, Lu Junyi is saved by his loyal servant Yan Qing, who shows up in time and kills the guards. Despite so, Lu Junyi is captured again shortly after Yan Qing saves him, and is sentenced to death. Cai Fu is assigned to be the executioner, but he deliberately delays the execution process because he intends to spare Lu Junyi. At the critical moment, Shi Xiu appears and storms the execution ground in his lone attempt to save Lu Junyi. He succeeds in freeing Lu Junyi but both of them are eventually outnumbered and captured again.
Grand Secretary Liang Shijie, the official in charge of Daming Prefecture, is afraid that the outlaws from Liangshan Marsh would attack Daming to save Lu Junyi and Shi Xiu, so he keeps them alive as hostages. The Cai brothers are tasked with watching over Lu Junyi and Shi Xiu and they treat the prisoners well.
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