In the Water Margin
Zhang Qing is the one hundred and second hero of Liangshan, born under the star Dixing (地刑星). He is not to be confused with Zhang Qing the stone-thrower; the two names sound the same but are written differently. This Zhang Qing once tended the vegetable garden of the Guangming Temple, which is how he got his nickname, the Gardener (菜园子). After a quarrel he killed the temple's monk, burned the temple down and took to robbing travellers on the road at Crossroads Slope.
One day he tries to rob an old man who turns out to be stronger than he is. The old man, a veteran of the road himself, likes the young robber, takes him home, teaches him the trade and marries him to his daughter, Sun Erniang. The couple open the inn at Crossroads Slope on the road to Mengzhou, where travellers worth robbing are served drugged wine. Zhang Qing is the one who sets limits: wandering monks and priests, women of the entertainment quarters and exiled convicts must never be harmed. Those limits make him friends with two of the greatest heroes in the book. With them he later goes to Mount Erlong, then to Liangshan, where the couple again keep a tavern to watch the roads.
Key episodes
Lu Zhishen in the kitchen. A huge monk once drank the inn's drugged wine and was dragged to the back. Zhang Qing came home, saw the monk's iron staff and the scars on his back, revived him in time and learned that he was Lu Zhishen.
Wu Song at the inn. Zhang Qing returns to find his wife pinned to the floor by an exiled convict who had only pretended to drink. He bows, apologises and recognises the man as Wu Song, the tiger-slayer. The three become sworn friends.
The road to Mount Erlong. After Wu Song's revenge at the Mandarin Duck Tower, Zhang Qing helps hide him, has Sun Erniang disguise him as a wandering ascetic, and writes him a letter to Lu Zhishen at Mount Erlong.
