Dou Xiaowen

Biodata

Background / History

Family Ruin and Life Beyond Shaqing Pass

Dou Xiaowen was born into a wealthy household on Dragon’s Mouth Plain. Bandit troubles ruined his family, forcing him to become an itinerant merchant. His ventures failed over several years, exhausting his remaining fortune, and his wife remarried. With no other prospects, he headed for Shaqing Pass to seek opportunities in the Nine Ridges and Ten Mountains 2.

He obtained the Turtle-Snake Stance in the mountains, but began martial training after his muscles and bones had already set. Largely self-taught, he attributed his limited achievements to this late start. Although he established himself at the foot of the mountains, he never gained admission to the mountain gates 4 11 50.

His wandering years left him with numerous enemies, a formidable reputation, and a collection of martial manuals taken from defeated opponents. He also killed practitioners of occult arts, giving him practical experience against enemies whose abilities differed from conventional martial skills 15 50.

Past Adventures

About twenty years before giving Lu Sui his flexible sword, Dou Xiaowen fell for a woman in the Nine Ridges and Ten Mountains and planned to elope with her. Their departure was stopped by her husband, who was over fifty. Dou recounts the episode wistfully when explaining the history behind Finger-Wrapping Softness 64.

He also participated in Yang Kunbing’s expedition to Consort Dong’s Tomb. According to Yang, Dou remained inside for seven days and nights instead of the expected two days. Yang eventually entered and found him lying in Noble Consort Dong’s coffin, whose lid had a bowl-sized hole punched through it. Lu Sui later suspected a connection between this incident, Dou’s Iron Crotch Art, and his recurring illness, but the account does not establish the exact cause 58 59.

Service to the Lu Household

By the discussion of Lu Sui’s future, Dou had served the Lu Family for ten years. Though formally chief steward, he had passed most household business to Duan Fusheng and settled into a quieter life in the outer courtyard, teaching selected guards and protecting the estate 4 7 49 58.

When Lu Sui began learning martial arts, Dou initially expected him to abandon training. Lu Sui’s rapid recovery and grasp of the Turtle-Snake Stance overturned that judgment. Dou checked his Qi circulation, supplied the original manual, taught him the moving exercise, and recommended a proper martial school once his own instruction could no longer meet Lu Sui’s needs 6 7 10 11.

After Lu Sui discovered a cursed straw doll in his bedding, Dou identified the attack and arranged a countermeasure using rooster-comb blood and a peachwood axe. He subsequently informed Lu Yulin, leaving Duan Fusheng to handle the household investigation and aftermath 18 19 20.

As Lu Yulin considered using the family’s final incense stick to awaken Lu Sui’s Root and Nature, Dou warned that doing so could diminish the family’s allotted fate. He opposed exposing Lu Sui to that inherited danger and remained uneasy about his prospective entry into the mountains 49 50 66.

Appearance

• Build: Tall and thin, with powerful hands that Lu Sui compares to vises during a physique examination 3 10.
• Face and hair: Closely cropped graying hair, knife-carved wrinkles, and bright, unclouded eyes 3.
• Clothing: Introduced wearing a short indigo jacket, with an old tobacco pipe tucked into his waistband 3.
• Hands: Smooth and callus-free, with a faint jade-like hue and shifting luster 16.
• Apparent age: At sixty, he is vigorous and resonant-voiced enough to look barely past fifty 4.

Personality

Dou is an exacting instructor who treats students differently according to their position and needs. He patiently explains martial principles to Lu Sui but sharply rebukes the household guards for weak stances and poor striking. His concern is nevertheless practical: he advises Heiwa to balance exertion with rest and arranges to save him food when he insists on continuing practice 4 6 11.

He respects household hierarchy without insisting on a master’s ceremony from Lu Sui. He refuses the young master’s offer to kowtow, reasoning that the Lu Family already provides his food, clothing, lodging, and wages. His consideration also appears in smaller gestures, such as leaving his pipe unlit around the frail Lu Sui 3 4.

Experienced and difficult to fool, Dou recognizes Lu Sui’s flattery and evasive explanations but often indulges them. He enjoys good tobacco, warm wine, and opportunities to recount his exploits. With Yang Kunbing, his manner becomes blunt and argumentative, complete with insults and threats to blow tobacco smoke in his face 15 16 44 67.

Abilities & Skills

Turtle-Snake Stance

Dou obtained this guarded martial art in the mountains and teaches its nurturing methods to Lu Sui 3 4.

• Turtle-Breathing Tuna: The still exercise, centered on breathing, sensing Qi, and guiding its circulation 4 6.
• Spirit Snake Circulating Qi: The moving exercise, taught through precise stance alignment and a demanding wooden-ball drill 10.
• Health preservation: Dou credits his nurturing art, together with years without fighting or losing his temper, for helping him reach sixty despite the damage caused by his harder training 16.

Iron Cloth Shirt and Iron Crotch Art

Dou’s specialty is external body-hardening, the basis of his reputation as the Iron-Robed General 11 22.

• His Iron Cloth Shirt has seven levels, each eliminating a vulnerable point; Iron Crotch is its first level 11.
• He describes its deeper training as progressing from external vulnerable points into the internal organs until the body forms a seamless whole 20.
• He considers such training painful and damaging to vitality, making him reluctant to pass it to Lu Sui despite wanting a talented disciple 15 16.
• A past training deviation causes his Qi and Blood to become icy and congeal every midmonth, leaving him shivering and nearly corpse-stiff 20.

Martial Instruction and Assessment

Dou can assess physique, Qi circulation, and the practical difference between fighters’ cultivation 7 10 43.

• Training oversight: Checks Lu Sui’s pulse for harmful circulation problems and examines his sinews, bones, shoulders, spine, and waist 7 10.
• Guard instruction: Teaches selected household guards fighting methods, strength exercises, and moving stances 4.
• Recovery: Supplies blood-activating ointment and prescribes massage after prolonged stance training to prevent accumulated injuries 11.
• Weapon selection: Recommends concealed short weapons to complement Lu Sui’s footwork, while explaining swords’ disadvantages against armor and body-hardening experts 64.

Countermeasures Against Witchcraft

Dou explicitly distinguishes his knowledge of breaking spells from the ability to conduct a magical duel at a distance 18.

• Identifies the straw doll’s use of blood, hair, birth characters, and Baleful Intent to attack Lu Sui 18 19.
• Uses rooster-comb blood to destroy the birth characters anchoring the curse 19.
• Directs Lu Sui to strike the doll three times with a peachwood axe to sever their connection, warning him against the resulting visions and mental interference 19.
• Explains Calamity Qi, Calamity Artifacts, warding objects, and the procedures used by the Five Great Trades to suppress evil calamities 21 44 45.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Tobacco pipe — His habitual accessory, used while teaching, relaxing, and discussing past adventures 3 6 16.
• Golden-thread nanmu chest — Stores manuals, medicines, and valuables. Dou borrowed money from Lu Yulin to commission it and jokes that the debt requires another ten years of service 15 18.
• Golden Silkworm materials — Dou believes that nurturing valuable objects in the nanmu chest for eight or ten years can produce a Golden Silkworm that eats copper and iron and excretes gold. Lu Sui privately suspects a scam; no successful result is shown 18.
• Original Turtle-Snake Stance manual — Contains Qi-circulation diagrams and essential instructions; given to Lu Sui 7.
• Incomplete Heavenly Sight and Earthly Hearing Great Art — Acquired after defeating its practitioner. Dou never learned it himself and gives it to Lu Sui only after warning him about the incomplete text’s dangers 16.
• Peachwood axe — Supplied as Lu Sui’s suppressing object during the straw-doll counter-ritual 18 19.
• Finger-Wrapping Softness — A three-foot flexible sword forged from jade-pattern steel and concealed in a specially lined belt. Dou demonstrates its sharpness by cutting a hardwood table corner, then gives it to Lu Sui 64.

Relationships

• Lu Sui / Lu Zhan’ao — Martial pupil and the young master he protects. Their familiarity grows through lessons, gifts of tobacco, and private consultations; Lu Sui eventually considers Dou the person around whom he feels most at ease in the household 15 18 64.
• Lu Yulin — Employer and trusted superior. Dou observes the distinction between master and subordinate while advising him on Lu Sui’s training, the family’s occult dangers, and the risks of lighting its last incense stick 7 49 50.
• Heiwa — Student taught the Subduing Tiger Stance. Dou encourages him toward becoming Lu Sui’s sparring partner and later permits him to enter Lu Sui’s service 6 16 43.
• Yang Kunbing — Longtime companion and frequent verbal sparring partner. Beneath their hostility lies a history of mutual assistance: Yang retrieved Dou from Consort Dong’s Tomb, while Dou recalls tending Yang after a treasure-hunting curse left him incapacitated 59 65.
• Duan Fusheng — Fellow Lu household steward who handles much of the administration Dou has relinquished and manages the aftermath of the straw-doll incident 7 20.

Notable Quotes

“I eat the Lu family's food, wear their clothes, live under their roof, and draw their silver. A mere Turtle-Snake Stance doesn't warrant such a grand gesture from you, Young Master.” 4

“Though I lack the ability to duel with magic, I happen to know a few ways to break it.” 18