Shi En, nicknamed the “Golden-Eyed Tiger Cub,” is a character in Water Margin closely connected with Wu Song. He is the son of the superintendent of the prison camp at Mengzhou and uses his family position to operate the tavern and business district known as the Happy Grove.
After the powerful Jiang Menshen seizes control of the Happy Grove, Shi En is unable to defeat him directly. When Wu Song is exiled to Mengzhou, Shi En deliberately treats him well and gradually explains how his property was taken.
Wu Song agrees to intervene. He goes to the Happy Grove and challenges Jiang Menshen, defeating him in a celebrated fight and restoring Shi En’s control. The episode becomes one of the best-known adventures of Wu Song.
The situation later changes again when Wu Song is drawn into a new conspiracy involving local officials, and Shi En can no longer maintain his former position. Although Shi En occupies a relatively limited portion of the novel, his relationship with Wu Song makes him an essential figure in the Mengzhou sequence and in the story of the Happy Grove.
