Dai Zong is a fictional character in Water Margin, one of the Four Great Classical Novels in Chinese literature. Nicknamed "Magic Traveller", he ranks 20th among the 36 Heavenly Spirits, the first third of the 108 Stars of Destiny. Background The novel depicts Dai Zong as having a broad face, a squarish mouth and a lean body. He can cover 800 li in a day on foot by incanting a magical spell to activate power in two talismans tied to his legs. Because he is an incredibly fast runner, he is nicknamed "Magic Traveller". Meeting Song Jiang A chief warden of a prison in Jiangzhou (江州; present-day Jiujiang, Jiangxi), Dai Zong is a good friend of Wu Yong, the chief strategist of the outlaw band at Liangshan Marsh. When Song Jiang is exiled to Jiangzhou as a mitigated sentence for killing his mistress Yan Poxi, he passes by Liangshan and meets Wu Yong, who writes a letter for him to take to Dai Zong. The letter requests Dai to treat Song well. In Jiangzhou, Dai initially wants Song Jiang to bribe him in exchange for lenient treatment. After reading Wu Yong's letter, Dai Zong apologises and makes all efforts to ensure Song has a comfortable life in prison. In fact Song can go in and out of the prison camp at will. He also comes to know and develop a strong bond with Dai Zong's subordinate, the jailer Li Kui. Becoming an outlaw One day Song Jiang, feeling miserable over his misfortunes, writes a poem on the wall of a restaurant after getting drunk. The seditious poem is discovered by a petty official Huang Wenbing, who reports it to Cai Jiu, the prefect of Jiangzhou. Cai orders Dai Zong to take Song to him. Dai tells Song to pretend to be insane to suggest the poem is the scribble of a mad man. However, Huang Wenbing sees through the pretence and suggests giving Song a sound beating to make him "sober". Song eventually admits that his mind is sound. Viewing the case as a grave matter, Cai Jiu writes a letter to his father, the Grand Tutor Cai Jing, in the imperial capital Dongjing (東京; present-day Kaifeng, Henan), to seek advice. Dai Zong is assigned to deliver the letter. When resting at an inn of Liangshan run by Zhu Gui, Dai is drugged. Luckily the letter on him reveals his