The 108 Liangshan heroes, name by name
Appendix A of the Chaoyang yingge face-paint standard sets the 108 Liangshan heroes into plates, one hero to a plate, with a line of small type beneath each: number, star, nickname, name, and nothing else. This page transcribes those 108 lines as a table, and lists separately the places where the standard and the common editions of the novel part company.
1. How the 108 lines are arranged
Appendix A belongs to Intangible cultural heritage: Chaoyang yingge, standard number DB 4405/T 315—2025, approved and issued by the Shantou Administration for Market Regulation on 24 February 2025 and in force from the 25th. The text runs to seven chapters and two appendices: A holds the figures and face paint, B the costume. A is an informative appendix, titled “Yingge character figures and face paint, taking the Water Margin heroes as the example”.
The order follows the stone tablet in Water Margin: the thirty-six Heavenly Spirits first, the seventy-two Earthly Fiends after, one number to a hero, one plate to a hero. Nine plates go to a page; the first page carries only six because the introduction comes first, and the last page has three left over. The caption is one line, number at the front, then star, nickname, name.
The plates were supplied by the Houxi yingge team of Mianbei, Chaoyang district, Shantou, as a footnote on the appendix’s first page states. The body of the standard does not explain where these star names and nicknames come from, and writes not a word about brushwork for any one of the 108.
The appendix leaves itself room: what it collects is “only one expression of the traditional yingge face paint”, it says, and “within different schools, the face paint of the same character may present a different pattern”. So the 108 lines below are a list of names, not the only scheme.
2. The thirty-six Heavenly Spirits
From number one, Song Jiang, to number thirty-six, Yan Qing.
3. The seventy-two Earthly Fiends
From number thirty-seven, Zhu Wu, to number one hundred and eight, Shi Qian.
4. Three places where the standard and the common editions disagree
The 108 lines were checked plate by plate, not copied from the text layer: the text layer renders the “藏” of number ninety-three as the Japanese form “蔵”, while the plate prints “藏”. The plates themselves differ from the common editions in three places, and are transcribed here without correction.
| No. | As printed in the standard | Common editions |
|---|---|---|
| 55 | “Earthly Blessing / Xiang Rengui / Guo Sheng” — the first character of the nickname is printed as xiang (襄) | Sai Rengui (赛), “Rival of Rengui” |
| 78 | “Earthly Swiftness / Flower-Necked Tiger / Gong Wang” and “Earthly Speed / Arrow-Struck Tiger / Ding Desun” are both numbered 78; there is no 79 anywhere in the table, and the count to 108 still comes out at 108 | Gong Wang 78, Ding Desun 79 |
| 81 | “Earthly Garrison / Butcher Demon / Cao Zheng” — the star name collides with number 80, Mu Chun | Earthly Survey (地稽) |
All three are typesetting-level slips and none of them stops you identifying anyone: no hero of the 108 is missing, and every star name and nickname can be matched in Water Margin; the only real fault is the star name on the line for number 81. Quote this appendix as printed, and add a note when comparing it with the novel — do not pass “Xiang Rengui” or the repeated “Earthly Garrison” on as the common reading.
5. The plates have 108; the formation often fields 107
The listing page puts the upper limit on numbers at 108, taking the count of Liangshan. Appendix A is complete at 108, and the second of them is Lu Junyi.
On the ground another arrangement applies: in some teams’ own accounts and in reports, a full-strength formation is laid out at 107, and the empty place is Lu Junyi’s — what is danced is the rescue of Lu Junyi, and the man being rescued does not stand in the file that rescues him. The listing page says nothing of this, and it is not a rule the teams apply uniformly (see 107 and 108 are two different counts).
Kept apart, the two do not conflict: Appendix A governs which characters have face paint, and all 108 have a plate; the formation governs who stands in on a given day. Read “a hundred and eight yingge dancers” without needing to correct it, and read a hundred and seven without needing to doubt it.
6. Sources
| Source | Where it is | Type |
|---|---|---|
| National standards information platform — the registration page for this standard | Registration pageThe standard number, issue and effective dates, administering body and filing number are taken from here; checked 25 October 2026 and re-checked 26 October, still consistent | Standard registration |
| Intangible cultural heritage: Chaoyang yingge (DB 4405/T 315—2025) | Full text, PDF40 pages; Appendix A runs from page 17 to page 29, one plate and one caption line per hero; plates supplied by the Houxi yingge team, Mianbei | Local standard |
| On this site: the face-paint table | What each role paints, and in what colourThe body of the same standard: two kinds of scheme, base, secondary and auxiliary colours, outline and rubbed painting, order of work | Page on this site |
| On this site: Yingge, what it is | 107 and 108 are two different countsWhere the 107 figure comes from, and how far it can be pushed | Page on this site |
The 108 lines were checked against pages 17 to 29 of the standard’s PDF on 31 October 2026, page by page; the four doubtful glyphs were looked at again at eight times magnification.
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Last revised: 4 November 2026