Liao Tianding: The Habitual Thief in Police Files, the Righteous Outlaw in Taiwanese Opera Booklets

30-Second Overview: Liao Tianding, born in Qingshui, Taichung in 1883, was killed by Yang Lin in the Guanyin Mountain area of Bali in 1909, at the age of 27. Japanese police files record his thefts, robberies, murders, and the pursuit against him, while folk opera booklets, storytelling, temples, and video games rewrite him as a righteous outlaw who robs the rich to aid the poor. This article does not whitewash him, nor does it treat legends as verdicts; rather, it asks: Why is the name of a criminal preserved by an island using its own language? ^{1 2}

Preface: When reading about Liao Tianding, do not rush to decide whether he was a hero or a criminal. First, observe how the same name shifts identities four times across police files, Taiwanese Hokkien opera booklets, a Bali cemetery, and digital games.

Caption: Taiwan Governor-General's Police Bureau wanted order for Liao Tianding. Original image from Wikimedia Commons file page, work of the Taiwan Governor-General, Public domain. ³

First, Look at That Wanted Order

In November 1909, in the Guanyin Mountain area of Bali. The Japanese police viewed Liao Tianding as someone who had to be captured. The wanted order left by the Taiwan Governor-General's Police Bureau compresses a real, existing person into an image that is recognizable, traceable, and悬赏-worthy. This image contains no words like "righteous outlaw," "chivalrous thief," or "anti-Japanese hero"; it is first and foremost a document of the state pursuing a criminal. ³

The "Report on the Pursuit of Liao Tianding," preserved by the Academia Historica Taiwan Document and Records Office, first confirms for us an unromantic but important fact: Liao Tianding was not a figure of apocryphal history fabricated by later generations. The Taipei Prefect reported to the Taiwan Governor-General on how police investigated his hideouts, contacted accomplices, and finally, in the siege at Jian Shanwei (Peak Tail) of Guanyin Mountain, had him killed by Yang Lin with a hoe. ¹

Liao Tianding was born in Qingshui, Taichung, in 1883. He died in Bali in 1909, at the age of 27. These two years form a skeleton, but they do not yet explain why his name has survived for over a century. ²

When these three types of materials are placed together, Liao Tianding begins to take on a three-dimensional outline: Police records depict a security problem that needed to be eliminated, while folk preservation keeps a name that could serve as a vessel for grievances.

He Was Not First a Hero, Then a Criminal

Taiwan's Guanghua Magazine, based on household registration data from Qingshui, Japanese-language newspapers, and Taiwan Governor-General archives, has compiled a less romantic biography. Liao Tianding's father died when he was eight; his mother remarried. He first lived with his grandmother, then was supported by his aunt. Around age 18, he began committing crimes. At age 20, he was sentenced by the Taichung District Court for three theft cases; during his imprisonment, he escaped prison twice. ⁴

At age 22, he conspired with Chang Fu from Banqiao to rob a tea merchant, involving 3,000 yuan. During resistance to arrest, he accidentally injured an accomplice. At age 23, he and accomplices continuously stole from wealthy families; small firearms and Japanese saws were found on his person. These details do not make him likable, but they remind us that Liao Tianding was not a pure hero misunderstood by the masses and later blackened by officials. ⁴

In August 1909, he stole police firearms, ammunition, and a sword, becoming a high-priority target for Japanese police. He was then involved in the robbery of the Lin Benyuan family, the shooting of a secret agent named Chen Liangjiu, and the robbery of Li Hong's home in Wugukeng. From summer to November, several cases stacked up in a short time, pushing a recidivist into the role of the colonial police's number one pursuit target. ^{2 4}

Here, we need to place a familiar claim back in its proper context. Liao Tianding is often called an "anti-Japanese hero," but extant official files do not define him as a political prisoner or a member of an anti-Japanese organization. The statement from the Taiwan Document and Records Office is closer to the truth: Under Japanese colonial rule, he was a habitual thief and murderer, not an anti-Japanese bandit acting for political goals. ^{1 2}

📝 Curator's Note: Reducing Liao Tianding solely to an "anti-Japanese hero" seems to elevate him, but actually hands him back to another convenient myth. The truly difficult aspect is that he may have been simultaneously a criminal, a resister, and a figure later used by descendants to voice social grievances.

"Robbing the rich to help the poor" cannot be directly treated as his ledger. What official files can prove are cases, pursuits, and death. Whether he frequently distributed stolen goods to the poor mainly comes from later oral accounts, opera booklets, temple legends, and storytelling. The National Taiwan Museum of History therefore adopts a more restrained statement in its collection descriptions: His records of theft, robbery, and murder are the true background, while "anti-Japanese hero" and "righteous outlaw" are images shaped by the gradual construction of legend. ⁵

Files Are Not Transparent Windows

Official documents are important, but they are not transparent windows. The "Report on the Pursuit of Liao Tianding" is a pursuit report written by police for superiors; the wanted order is a tool for police and citizens to identify the subject. They can tell us how the government described Liao Tianding, but they do not automatically tell us how residents of Qingshui, Dadaocheng, or Bali understood him. ^{1 3}

The position of Taiwan's Rixin Bao (Daily News) is more subtle. Reports compiled by Guanghua Magazine indicate that Liao Tianding appeared in the social news section over ten times; after the case escalated, he even occupied half a page or nearly a full page. These reports may have carried the official purpose of instilling fear in the public and discouraging harboring fugitives, but they also allowed his name to enter neighborhood alleys faster than that of ordinary criminals. ⁴

At the time, there were indeed people who provided him with food, shelter, or tools, some of whom were arrested by Japanese police as a result. These records cannot prove that everyone viewed him as a righteous outlaw, but they prove that the pursuit was not a two-person game involving only police and fugitives. Local residents, baozheng (community heads), accomplices, newspaper readers, and the colonial government were all jointly manufacturing the early version of this story. ⁴

Why the Common People Made Room for Him

The answer lies not just in "he stole from the rich." More critically, he made power appear embarrassed for the first time in everyday stories: Police could be tricked; police firearms could be stolen; wealthy homes were not always safe. Researcher Li Jihua argues that Liao Tianding's actions may not have had a clear political platform, but they carried a rebellious character of targeting only Japanese people or wealthy Taiwanese, and a fondness for teasing "Ah Ben-ais" (local Taiwanese collaborators). ⁴

The colonial government used newspapers to portray him as a vicious criminal, but the public read from the same news that "the government cannot catch him either." His heroization did not require proof of moral flawlessness first. It was more like a common person retelling a piece of bad news until a breath of resistance emerged from it.

Academic research also reminds us that the legend of Liao Tianding is not a fixed, old story. Research on the Typological Transformation of Liao Tianding Legends divides materials into three themes: anti-Japanese, loyalty/righteousness, and mythology, then observes how they changed continuously from the Japanese colonial period, through the post-war era, to the post-Martial Law era. In other words, every time descendants retold the story, they adjusted "what kind of person deserves to be called a hero" for their own times. ⁶

This table does not arrange the legend into a "progressive ladder getting closer to the truth." It is more like a media map, reminding us that each era places its own questions onto Liao Tianding. The colonial period asked who challenged the police; the post-war era asked who could represent resistance; the post-Martial Law era began to追问 how heroization itself occurred. ⁶

The Last Night: Historical Facts Have No Single Version

In November 1909, Liao Tianding hid in the Guanyin Mountain area of Bali. The official "Report on the Pursuit of Liao Tianding" records that Yang Lin provided clues to the police, who went to conduct a siege; Liao Tianding was finally killed by a hoe. The Taiwan Document and Records Office's compilation records the date of death as November 18, while the stone stele preserved at Hanmin Shrine is carved with November 19. ^{1 2}

Caption: Donation stele of Hanmin Shrine in Bali and Liao Tianding's tombstone. Original image from Wikimedia Commons file page, photographed by Outlookxp, CC BY 4.0. ⁷

As for why Yang Lin betrayed him, at least two explanations remain. One says it was for the bounty; another says it was to preserve the Yang family. Guanghua Magazine points out that neither claim can be easily accepted as the final truth. What is certain is that Yang Lin indeed cooperated with the police, and Liao Tianding did not die by Japanese police gunfire, but ended his life in a siege where acquaintances and police overlapped. ⁴

Caption: Liao Tianding Cave in Bali, New Taipei City. Original image from Wikimedia Commons file page, photographed by Taiwankengo, CC BY-SA 4.0. This is a site where later generations recalled his death; it does not mean every detail of the legend has been verified by historical materials. ⁸

This ending lacks the clean resolution common in heroic films. There was no duel that clearly distinguished good from evil, nor a suicide note that explained motivations for everyone. Only a pursuit report preserved by the colonial government, a tombstone later worshipped, and a Yang Lin whose position constantly shifted across different versions.

After Death, He Truly Began to Transform

After Liao Tianding's death, the story did not stop; instead, it entered another life line. The Taiwan Document and Records Office records that Bali initially had only a small cemetery. After the Liao Tianding-themed movie was released in 1956, it became a media focus; in 1958, the local community built Hanmin Shrine, causing the cemetery, worship, and movie memories to overlap in one place. ²

_Caption: Stone statue of Liao Tianding in Tianding Park, Bali. Original image from Wikimedia Commons file page, photographed by Outlookxp, CC BY-SA 4.0. ⁹_

The New Song of Liao Tianding (Xin Ge Liao Tianding), recorded in the National Cultural Memory Bank, writes his story in seven-character lines, sung in Hokkien. The collection description directly presents that transformation: Liao Tianding, viewed as a vicious criminal by the Governor-General's office, became an anti-Japanese hero and legendary righteous outlaw as understood by Taiwanese people, through village oral accounts and opera embellishment. ¹⁰

This does not mean the folk culture "did not know" he killed people. A closer understanding is that folk culture did not stuff all of a person's actions into the same drawer. He could have crimes, and he could become a spokesperson for an unjust era. Heroes are not medals on a verdict; they are the way the masses redistribute responsibility and dignity within stories.

By the 1990s, storytelling, radio, television, and dance gave him new bodies again. Guanghua Magazine records Wu Letian's long-term storytelling of Liao Tianding, and how listeners understood him as a "righteous outlaw," valuing loyalty, and venting for those who dared not speak. The same report also reminds us that the story continuously added new characters and dramatic plots during transmission, becoming more and more like a "great hero." ⁴

From Hokkien Opera Booklets to Game Screens

Liao Tianding's next rebirth was not in a temple, but on screens. Openbook's compilation notes that the 2004 Flash game Shen Ying Wu Zong: Liao Tianding (The Shadowless Liao Tianding) became a childhood memory for many players. The 2021 game The Legend of Tianding (Liao Tianding: The Most End of the Rare Vicious Criminal) returns this name to a new generation using Hokkien text, voice, comic style, and Dadaocheng settings. ¹¹

When interviewed by the English game media Game Developer, the team explained they referenced books, photos, and Japanese-era Dadaocheng architecture, and frankly admitted the game prioritizes playability, not treating every battle as a historical reenactment. This admission is important. The game does not turn files into animation; it lets players walk through history, legend, and imagination. ¹²

Therefore, the ability to climb with a sash or escape Japanese police by leaping over eaves in the game does not mean historical materials proved every action. It means later generations needed an operable Liao Tianding. Opera booklets let people sing his story; storytelling lets people hear it; games let people use their own hands to carry him through the streets of Dadaocheng once more.

Leaving the Name, Not Whitewashing Him

What is most worth remembering about Liao Tianding is not the either-or question of "whether he was Taiwan's Robin Hood." That metaphor is easy to understand, but it quickly flattens Taiwan's own history. Robin Hood is someone else's template; Liao Tianding's materials come from Qingshui, Taipei, Dadaocheng, Bali, colonial police, Chinese-language newspapers, Hokkien opera booklets, and a constantly renovated cemetery.

Extant materials show us a boundary that cannot be omitted. Victims and violence do not disappear just because a legend sounds good; Liao Tianding's crimes cannot be rewritten as entirely just just because later generations sympathize. But equally inseparable is why people were willing to erect a stele, build a shrine, compose songs, tell stories, and make games for a criminal after his death.

Perhaps what Liao Tianding left Taiwan is not a hero's resume, but a continuously piercing question: When official files leave only charges, why did the folk still preserve the name of a criminal?

The answer lies not in overturning his case, but in understanding how memory works. What people preserved may not have been Liao Tianding himself, but the self that desperately wanted to see power embarrassed and had no other way to speak out. When we read his name again today, what is truly recalled is not just a fugitive in the mountains of Bali in 1909, but how Taiwan sang a person's crimes, resistance, fear, and hope into an endless song.

Further Reading

You can continue reading the National Taiwan Museum of History's Collection Data on _Righteous Soul Liao Tianding_, the Taiwan Document and Records Office's _The Elusive Liao Tianding_, and Openbook's _The Legend of Tianding: A New Milestone in the Translation of Taiwanese Historical and Literary Publications_.

References