According to historical records, the real Wu Dalang was tall and burly, nearly 1.8 meters tall. He could be said to be a standard man with an extraordinary appearance. Moreover, he is not just a low-level commoner who makes a living by selling cooking cakes, but a scholar who has gained fame through his intelligence. After high school, he served as a county magistrate. He is an honest official and loves the people, so he is deeply supported by the people.

Wu Dalang's original name was Wu Zhi. Although he had lost his parents since he was a child, he was diligent and studious and studied poetry and books on his own. He finally passed the Jinshi examination and was appointed by the court to serve as the county magistrate in Yanggu, Shandong. Wu Dalang's wife was indeed named Pan Jinlian, but the real Pan Jinlian was not as miserable as described in Water Margin. Pan Jinlian was born in a wealthy family. Pan Jinlian's father saw that Wu Dalang, who worked in Pan's family in the early days, was really motivated, so he betrothed his daughter to Wu Dalang. Pan Jinlian who married Wu Dalang was a virtuous and virtuous woman. .

The reason why Wu Dalang and Pan Jinlian appeared in Water Margin, and their images were completely inconsistent with their real images, was because of Wu Dalang’s classmate and friend Huang Tang. Because Huang Tang failed to pass the exam several times, and his home happened to be caught in a fire again, Huang Tang was helpless and went to Yanggu to seek help from Wu Dalang. Because Wu Dalang was busy with official duties, he only briefly met Huang Tang once on the day he arrived, and did not see Huang Tang again during the half month that Huang Tang lived in the Wu family. This made Huang Tang, who had no choice but to put down his dignity and ask for help, felt that he had been humiliated and mistakenly thought that Wu Dalang was deliberately avoiding him, so he left the Wu family in anger.

On his way home from shame and anger, Huang Tang wrote insulting words against Wu Dalang on a tree in order to vent his anger. Because he lost his mind due to excessive anger, the words he wrote were basically fabricated. However, when Huang Tang returned home, he found that the house that had been damaged by the fire had been repaired and his family had already lived a comfortable life. Only then did Huang Tang know that it was Wu Dalang who deliberately helped Huang Tang privately out of concern for Huang Tang's dignity. After knowing Wu Dalang's good intentions, Huang Tang hurriedly turned around and tried to destroy the bad words against Wu Dalang. Unfortunately, it was a step too late. These fabricated false truths had been seen by Shi Naian, the author of Water Margin, and adopted into "Water Margin". 》, so there were Wu Dalang and Pan Jinlian that we are familiar with today.