The Story of Yue Fei in Song Dynasty

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Thanks to the resistance of patriots like the Yangs，the Liao didn’t conquer China.Finally they were wept out by the Jin .This Barbarian tribe was a much tougher enemy for the Song.They conquered the capital Kaifeng and took prisoners of the abdicated emperor，Huizong ，his son，the new emperor，Qinzong ，the empresses as well as the concubines.They robbed the capital and got all the properties in the palace.The ninth son Zhao Gou happened to be absent.He took the throne afterward.When another attack from the Jin came he run southward and founded South Song in Linan ，today’s Hangzhou ，Zhejiang Province.He became Gaozong in history.

As a result，the Song Dynasty was divided into two distinct periods:the North Song and South Song.The North Song（960-1127 AD）signifies the time when the Song capital was in the northern city of Kaifeng and the dynasty controlled all China.The South Song（1127-1279 AD）refers to the time after the Song lost control of northern China to the Jin Dynasty.The Song court retreated south of the Yangtze River and made their capital at Hangzhou.

Yue Fei（1103-1142 AD）was a Chinese war hero and general that lived during the South Song Dynasty.

An accomplished military man，he was hailed as a hero who defended against the Jin Dynasty that invaded centralChina during this time.His loyalty，however，was eventually questioned in the Chinese high court，and he was imprisoned and executed at 39 years of age.

General Yue Fei，the national hero of the Southern Song Dynasty，was born in a poor and humble family.But he later became an accomplished general and a man of integrity.In his day，minority nationalities on the northern border，such as the Jins，invaded central China repeatedly.As a valiant and wise commander，he once defeated an enemy of 500，000 with only 800 soldiers on the outskirts of today’s Kaifeng.So a commander of Jin sighed.So people like to say:“It is easier to shake Mount Tai than to shake Yue Fei’s army”.Thanks to Yue Fei and a contemporary general，Han Shizhong ，the shaky regime of Southern Song maintained itself for the time being.

Although Yue Fei and other war hawks had won brilliant victories and recovered the most part of the territory，it was the capitulationist like Qin Hui who wielded real power at court.They even resorted to false accusations to eliminatethe war party and finally had Yue Fei sent to prison and executed.At the news，General Han Shizhong asked Qin Hui，“What crime in the world did Yue Fei commit？”To this，Qin Hui replied evasively，“Mo Xu You” which meant“something fairly likely”.Later the phrase“Mo Xu You”entered Chinese to mean a trumped-up charge or a fabricated charge.Yue Fei was only 39 at the time he was executed.

After the emperor Xiao Zong succeeded to the throne，Yue Fei was cleared of the groundless charges and a temple was built in his memory by West Lake in Hangzhou.

Before Yue Fei’s tomb are four cast-iron kneeling figures，with chests bare and hands bound behind their backs.They are re-sponsible for the murder of Yue Fei.The two on the left are Qin Hui and his wife who masterminded the whole thing and the two on the right are two of their lackeys.As people cherished the love of Yue Fei and hated Qin Hui and his followers，they had these four casts in iron，to kneel forever before the tomb.A couplet reads as follows：Honored the green hill is to provide eternal resting-place for the loyal soul；Innocent is the iron used to cast the images ofthe hated traitorous ministers.