Yue Fei (1103-1142), courtesy name Pengju, was born in Xiaotili, Yonghe Township, Tangyin County, Xiangzhou (now Tangyin County, Anyang City, Henan Province). He was posthumously named King Yuewu Mu and was a famous general in the Southern Song Dynasty in China. .
Life
Yue Fei lost his father when he was young and was raised by his mother. Legend has it that his mother tattooed the words "Serve the country with devotion" [1] on his back to remind him of the hatred of his country and his family. He once worshiped Zhou Tong as his teacher to learn martial arts.
In 1124, he joined the army at the age of 21 and served as Zongze's subordinate. He made many military exploits and once defeated 10,000 Wujin soldiers with 800 troops, which made him famous. Li Guan Yuqian had Zhongwu Tongjun, Ezhou garrison envoys all over the army, and Heyang and other three towns' Jiedushi envoys.
In the Jingkang Incident in 1126, the Jin soldiers captured Kaifeng and the Northern Song Dynasty fell. In 1134 (the fourth year of Shaoxing), Yue Fei made his first expedition to the Jin Dynasty and recovered six counties including Xiangyang and Xinyang. In 1136 (the sixth year of Shaoxing), the Northern Expedition was launched again, occupying Yiyang and Luoyang. Later, due to fighting alone, he was forced to withdraw to Ezhou. Yue Fei's ambition was not fulfilled during this Northern Expedition, so he wrote "Man Jiang Hong".
In the spring of 1140 (the tenth year of Shaoxing), Wushu of the Jin Dynasty invaded the south. Yue Fei sent troops to defeat the Jin soldiers, regained Zhengzhou and Luoyang, and approached Zhuxian Town (20 kilometers south of today's Kaifeng, Henan), directly forcing the Jin Dynasty. The capital is Bianjing. The morale of the Yue family army was high and they shouted "Go straight to Huanglong". The leader sent Qin Hui to propose a plan to Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty, and summoned Yue Fei with twelve gold medals. Before Yue Fei withdrew his troops, he sighed: "Ten years of work have been destroyed in one day! All the states and counties have been shut down in one day! It is difficult to revive the country! There is no way for the world to be restored!" As a result, Yue Fei's Northern Expedition failed due to political reasons. Later, Yue Fei and his son were arrested and interrogated by Qin Hui on the charge of rebellion. Since no evidence could be found, there was no trial result. In the end, Qin Hui charged him with "unfounded" charges (Han Shizhong questioned Qin Hui face to face, but Qin Hui evaded: "The matter is unfounded (maybe)") ), was sentenced to death in the Fengbo Pavilion of Dali Temple in Hangzhou on the night of New Year's Eve, the 11th year of Shaoxing (1142), the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month. .
In the thirty-second year of Shaoxing (1153), Emperor Xiaozong of the Song Dynasty came to the throne and prepared for the Northern Expedition. He issued an edict to vindicate Yue Fei and named him King of E. He was given the posthumous title of Wumu and Zhongwu. He was buried in Qixialing, West Lake, that is, Hangzhou. The "Tomb of King Yue'e of the Song Dynasty" is located on the bank of the West Lake, and a temple is built to enshrine him in Wuchang, Hubei Province.
Reason for being executed
There are many reasons why Yue Fei and his son were executed by Song Gaozong:
Song Gaozong was worried that if Yue Fei won, he could welcome the second emperor of Huiqin After returning to the dynasty, Song Gaozong's status as emperor may not be guaranteed. But some people think that Song Gaozong was not worried about this matter. Huizong was already dead at the time, but Gaozong repeatedly emphasized the need to welcome Qinzong back to the Song Dynasty when negotiating peace with Jin State Shaoxing. Later, Qinzong was not released because of the Jin Kingdom's repentance. Qinzong himself had already wanted to quit when he was in power, but Gaozong was not afraid of losing power.
In order to please the Jin people and facilitate peace talks.
Qin Hui is a spy of the Jin Kingdom. This theory is considered by most people to be nonsense.
Yue Fei interfered with Gaozong's issue of heirs because he was highly favored. Gaozong himself had no heirs, but Yue Fei repeatedly wrote letters suggesting that Gaozong establish an heir as soon as possible for the sake of the stability of the country, which violated Gaozong's taboo. It only took twelve gold medals for Yue Fei to be recalled, which shows his self-respect. The so-called "unfounded" charge refers to the fact that he supported troops to interfere in the establishment of an heir, and he can be executed without proving the crime of treason.
A bold guess is that Yue Fei may be the son of Song Huizong living among the people and the brother of Zhao Gou. After Zhao Gou found out about this, in just one year, he switched from trusting Yue Fei highly to instructing Qin Hui to kill Yue Fei on "unfounded" charges.
Yue Fei in Literature
Yue Fei’s legendary and tragic story has become an important material for later literary works. He was also the leader of the Han people from the Yuan Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, and even during the Revolution of 1911 when the Han people resisted the foreign regime. The spiritual banner of the struggle for communism. These works with strong subjective color and even national prejudice have "symbolized" him, so that no one cares about his real life.
Filial piety
In all the stories, Yue Fei is simultaneously portrayed as a perfect soldier with both civil and military skills and as a model of abiding by Confucian ethics. Some of these stories emphasize the nationalist spirit that he was born with, such as (Mother-in-law's tattoo). His mother tattooed the four words "loyalty to serve the country" on his back to remind him of the hatred of the country and the family. This folk fabricated story also reflects his "filial piety" and has special meaning in ancient Chinese society where "family and country are homogeneous".
Military
Some stories emphasize his military genius. In folk literature such as "The Yue Family Army", the Yue Family Army starved to death without grabbing food, froze to death without demolishing their houses, and followed orders and prohibitions. , even made the enemy lament that "it is easy to shake a mountain, but it is difficult to shake the Yue family's army." He was victorious in every battle and won a great victory in Zhuxian Town, defeating the Jin soldiers. Almost all works focus on depicting his personal tragedy and link it with the fate of the nation. .
Politics
The most common paradigm of these descriptions is as follows: When the war situation went smoothly and he could have gone straight to the Huanglong Mansion of the Jin Kingdom, Yue Fei was captured by Zhao Gou, the emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty. Dao Jin was recalled and executed on "unfounded" charges. These descriptions reflect the unconscious "pan-moralization" tendency of Chinese society, that is, using moral standards to evaluate political events and depicting political conflicts as moral conflicts between political figures' "loyalty" and "treachery."
It is worth mentioning that Yue Fei was framed to the point of death but preferred to die rather than rebel. This embodies the Confucian principle of loyalty to the emperor and is also affirmed by these works. This moral paradox also became one of the focuses of controversy in later generations. In the Ming Dynasty storybook "Huanglong Mansion", the author adopted an anti-historicist stance and rewrote history as Yue Fei defeated the Jin Dynasty army and "attacked Huanglong directly." Similar propositions about grievance and loyalty can also be found in works such as "Water Margin".
In fact, until the founding of the People's Republic of China, many controversies about Yue Fei continued. For example, in the 1950s and 1960s, official historians criticized his "foolish loyalty" from a Marxist perspective. By the late 20th century, based on the reality and history that China was and has always been a "multi-ethnic country" according to official ideology, the Ministry of Education's agency responsible for middle school history teaching once issued a document and no longer praised him as a "national hero" , but this is just an isolated incident. For example, the "History Teaching Syllabus for Full-time Senior High Schools" (Trial Revised Edition) edited by Yu Guiyuan mentioned that "the national wars in our country's history should be scientifically analyzed from the perspective of historical materialism. This kind of national war is different from the opposition of the Chinese nation National wars caused by foreign aggression are wars between domestic ethnic groups. They are "brothers fighting against each other and families fighting". There is a difference between justice and injustice. It is not appropriate to refer to aggression and counter-aggression... For Yue Fei and Wen Tianxiang, Although we affirm their role and status in opposing national plunder and oppression, we do not call them national heroes. "It is undeniable that Yue Fei's story has become a symbol of Chinese people all over the world, especially as a subject. The Han people of the nation recite the unique memory of the suffering and glory of their own long history. This memory is so deep that related allusions have become "idioms" and fixed expressions in Chinese, such as "Go straight to the Yellow Dragon" and "Serve the country with all your loyalty".
Poetry
Like many generals and politicians in ancient China, Yue Fei is also known for his literary talent. The impassioned and popular "Man Jiang Hong" "Thirty years of fame and dust, eight thousand miles of clouds and moons, don't wait for a moment, a young man's head is gray, empty sorrow", is well known to Chinese people all over the world. However, it is still controversial in the literary circles whether this famous poem was written by him. In fact, because there are many "posthumous words" in it, there is a high possibility that future generations may forge it for political or other purposes.
Yue Fei also wrote a poem called "Little Heavy Mountain", which describes his worry about his country but being isolated and helpless in the court.
Military and martial arts
Except In addition to poetry, it is said that there are Yue Wu Mu's Art of War, Yue Family Boxing, and Yue Family Spears. And he is respected as the founder of Xinyi Liuhe Quan Sect.
Calligraphy
Yue Fei's calligraphy is also commendable. The four words "Give me back my rivers and mountains" are majestic and are now on the plaque of Yue Temple in Hangzhou.
The most important thing about Yue Fei is his "loyalty to serve the country". It is that Yue Fei's wealth cannot be lustful, and his power cannot be subjugated. Feng Xu controls the wind and ascends to immortality. Yue Fei is immortalized as a great spirit, and becomes a hero as the incarnation of the spirit of resistance.