There is plenty of evidence throughout Outlaws of the Marsh to suggest that very few people fear subverting the laws in China during the Song Dynasty. With alarming suddenness, former public officials become outlaws, and the transition hardly weighs on their consciousness. This is in keeping with the story's complex portrait of nobility and rebellion. But it also reveals much about the characters who come to be known as "heroes": very often that word is used to describe those willing to fight a tyrannical authority. But those same people often uphold an older and more restrictive form of social order: patriarchy. The contradiction of the dual allegiances is embodied by the ultimate protagonist of the story, Song Jiang.
When we first meet Song Jiang, he is a relatively colorless government bureaucrat. His most revered quality seems to be his ability to fulfill his obligations with a minimum of fuss. As one might expect having grown to know characters like Song Jiang, it turns out that the lowly clerk has ulterior motives; he frequently aids and abets those who work to subvert the law, such as Chao Gai. So while it's clear that Song Jiang does not wish to upset the status quo with his behavior, in part because he personally doesn't seem to like fuss, he nevertheless puts his own interests before those of the law, and curries favor with those who become outlaws. But Song Jiang isn't a total renegade; despite his rebellious tendencies, he still adheres to traditional notions of authority; namely, he doesn't feel that a man should be threatened by a woman. This adherence to patriarchal norms is evident in the most shocking event of the story thus far: the brutal murder of PoXi.
