Yue Fei

Yue Fei, styled Pengju, was a native of Tangyin County, Xiangzhou Prefecture, and a renowned general of the Southern Song dynasty who led fierce resistance against the Jin invaders. Commanding the Yue Family Army, he repeatedly defeated Jin forces; the decisive victory at Yancheng so stunned the Jin troops that they lamented, 'It is easier to shake a mountain than to shake the Yue Family Army.' Yue Fei steadfastly advocated northern expeditions to recover the Central Plains. The widely known story recounts how his mother inscribed the four characters 'Utmost Loyalty and Devoted Service to the Nation' onto his back. In the eleventh year of the Shaoxing reign (1142 CE), Yue Fei was falsely accused by the treacherous minister Qin Hui under the baseless charge of 'perhaps having committed' treason and unjustly executed at the Fengbo Pavilion at the age of only thirty-nine. Emperor Xiaozong of Song later exonerated him, posthumously bestowing the honorific title Wumu ('Martial and Solemn') and enfeoffing him as Prince of E. Before the Yue Wang Temple in Hangzhou stand iron statues of Qin Hui and his wife, kneeling in perpetual penance; generations of worshippers bow before Yue Fei—not only to honour his unwavering loyalty but also to mourn his tragic injustice, and to pray for the enduring presence of righteous integrity and the peace and security of home and nation.