Ruan Xiaoer

Ruan Xiaoer (阮小二), also known as Ruan the 2nd, is a character in the "Water Margin".

Ruan was nicknamed the 'Lord who stands on his land (立地太歲)'. He was the elder brother of Ruan Xiaowu and Ruan Xiaoqi (the Ruan brothers), and they lived at Shijie Village. They made their living as fishermen, and also some illegal trading. Ruan Xiaoer was born with a sharp face, a wide mouth, and a cold gleam in his eyes. He had yellow hair growing on his chest, and a muscular body.

When Chao Gai wanted to rob the convoy of birthday gifts, Wu Yong recommended the Ruan brothers to help. Wu managed to convince the brothers to join in and a total of seven of them robbed the gifts. After that incident, the seven heroes defeated He Tao and fled to Liangshan for refuge.

Wang Lun, the leader of the Liangshan band did not want to accept the heroes. Wu Yong provoked Lin Chong into killing the incompetent Wang Lun. Then, Chao Gai was elected as the new leader. Ruan Xiaoer was ranked 6th among all the heroes after that.

The government sent Huang An to attack Liangshan after He Tao's defeat, but Huang was defeated and caught by the Ruan brothers. The Ruan brothers also followed the heroes as they stormed the execution ground in Jiangzhou and rescued Song Jiang, their saviour. When Huyuan Zhuo and the imperial forces attacked Liangshan, Wu Yong used a trick to lure Ling Zhen into the river, where the Ruan brothers capsized Ling's boat, and captured him alive. Ling was then persuaded to join the band.

Ruan became one of the leaders of the Liangshan navy and 36 Heavenly Spirits. He was adept in naval warfare and led the navy into victory many times. During the Fang La campaign, Ruan was assigned to attack the naval base at Wulongling. The enemy bombarded Ruan's ship heavily with cannon fire. Ruan was trapped and he was afraid of being caught and suffer humiliation, thus he slit his own throat.

Films and TV adaptations

In the 1997 TV serial from Mainland China based on the novel, Ruan Xiaoer was played by Liu Weihua and he died together with Ruan Xiaowu when both of them fell into a pit full of sharp objects during the Fang La campaign.