Ximen Qing

Ximen Qing (Chinese: 西門慶) is a fictional Chinese Song dynasty merchant, womanizer, and murderer in Yanggu County, Shandong. He is the male protagonist in the classic Chinese novel Jin Ping Mei and a minor character in the classic Chinese novel Water Margin. In both novels, Ximen is portrayed as a lascivious and immoral man who starts a secret affair with Pan Jinlian and helps her murder her husband Wu Dalang by poisoning. Where the two novels differ is what happens when Wu Dalang's brother Wu Song confronts Ximen Qing at Lion Tower. In Water Margin, the older novel, Wu Song kills Ximen Qing in broad daylight and is exiled. In Jin Ping Mei, however, Ximen Qing escapes and bribes the county magistrate to have Wu Song arrested and exiled. Jin Ping Mei then follows Ximen Qing's degenerate pursuits of women and power until he dies from aphrodisiac overdose.