Yue Fei's temple

Yue Fei (1103-1142) joined the Southern Song army at the age of 19 when the Nüzhen tribe, that later on formed the Jin Dynasty, invaded the Northern Song. When Yue Fei left home his mother inked on his back the now legendary words “Be loyal to the motherland”, the maxima he was loyal to even when executed as an innocent man. He was an outstanding soldier and was soon appointed general because of his skill and devotion to the Southern Song Dynasty and for years he was in charge of fighting off the forces of Jin.




The National Hero
The Nüzhen tribe captured the emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty and his father; the rest of the court fled to Hangzhou where the emperor’s son Gao Song founded the Southern Song Dynasty with Hangzhou as its capital. General Yue Fei succeeded in fighting the Jin Dynasty and was about to win the battle but instead of joy, the Emperor Gao Song felt threatened, because if General Fei had won, Gao Song would have to step down as emperor of the Song and his father would become the legitimate Emperor. General Fei and his armies were recalled to Hangzhou where he was accused by the Prime Minister, Qin Hui, and shortly after that poisoned, he died only 39 years old. Another general, Han Shizhong, asked Prime Minister Qin Hui what crime Yue Fei had committed and Qin Hui replied “Mo xu you” which means “Something quite possible”. Since then, “Mo xu you” is a synonym for false accusation in China.

It should last another twenty years until Yue Fei’ s name was cleared of those false accusations. A tomb and a shrine were built in 1221 at the southern foot of Qixia hill to honour this mighty man and commander. This is simply a must to see when you are visiting Hangzhou.