Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1
1.1
According to the History of Song, Yue Fei was named 2 Birth and early life
Fei, meaning to y, because at the time he was born,
a large bird like a swan landed on the roof of his house Several sources state that Yue was born into a poor tenant farmer's family in Tangyin County, Anyang prefec.* [8]
ture, Henan province.* [6]* [9]* [13]* [14] According to
the Shuo Yue Quanzhuan, the immortal Chen Tuan, dis1.2 Story of Yue Fei
guised as a wandering priest, warned Yue Fei's father,
Yue He (), to put his wife and child inside a clay
Yue Fei's second biography, a wuxia novel titled Shuo jar if the infant Yue Fei began to cry. A few days later,
Yue Quan Chuan (; ; Shu Yu Qun a young child squeezed Yue Fei's hand too hard and he
Chun;Telling the Complete Biography of Yue Fei), began to cry. Soon, it began to rain and the Yellow River
was written by Qian Cai (), who lived sometime dur- ooded, wiping out the village. Yue Fei's father held onto
ing the reigns of the Kangxi and Yongzheng (16611735) the clay jar as it was swept down the river, but eventually
1
drowned. Although the much older Biography of Yue Fei young Yue Fei later becomes the adopted son and stualso mentions the ood, it states Yue Huo survived. It dent of the Wang family's teacher, Zhou Tong, a famous
reads,
master of military skills. (Zhou Tong is not to be confused with the similarly named "Little Tyrant" in Water
Margin.) Zhou teaches Yue and his three sworn brothers After [the death of his teacher Zhou Tong],
Wang Gui (), Tang Huai () and Zhang Xian (
[Yue Fei] would oer sacrices at his tomb.
) - literary lessons on odd days and military lessons, inHis father praised him for his faithfulness and
volving archery and the eighteen weapons of war, on even
asked him, When you are employed to cope
days.
with the aairs of the time, will you then not
have to sacrice yourself for the empire and die
After years of practice, Zhou Tong enters his students
for your duty?" (
into the Tangyin County military examination, in which
-
)* [6]
Shuo Yue Quanzhuan gives a very detailed ctional account of Yue's early life. The novel states after being
swept from Henan to Hubei, Yue and his mother are saved
by the country squire Wang Ming () and are permitted to stay in Wang's manor as domestic helpers. The
2.2
China. Sakyamuni sent Dapeng down to earth to protect in these sources is ji guan (Chinese: ; pinyin: j
China. Dapeng descended to Earth and was born as Yue gun; literally:conferring headdress), an ancient ChiFei.* [17]
nese term that means20 years oldwhere a young man
was able to wear a formal headdress as a social status of
adulthood.* [22]* [23] So he gained all of his martial arts
2.1 Martial training
knowledge by the time he joined the army at the age of
19.* [6]* [19]
These chronicles do not mention Yue's masters teaching
him martial arts style; just archery, spearplay and military
tactics. However non-historical or scholarly sources state,
in addition to those already mentioned, Zhou Tong taught
Yue other skills such as hand-to-hand combat and horseback riding. Yet again, these do not mention any specic martial arts style. One legend says Zhou took young
Yue to an unspecied place to meet a Buddhist hermit
who taught him the Emei Dapeng qigong (
) style. This is supposedly the source of his legendary
strength and martial arts abilities.* [13]* [17] According to
thirteenth generation lineage Tai He (Great Harmony)
Wudangquan master Fan Keping (), a collector of
rare martial arts manuals,* [24] Zhou Tong was a master
of various hard qigongexercises.* [25]* [26]
Yue Fei's mother writes jin zhong bao guo on his back, as depicted in aSuzhou stylebeam decoration at the Summer Palace,
Beijing.
)* [6]
4
era novels titled The Story of King Yue Who Restored the
Song dynasty () states that after the
Jurchen armies invaded China, young heroes in Yue's village suggest that they join the bandits in the mountains.
However, Yue objects and has one of them tattoo the
aforementioned characters on his back. Whenever others want to join the bandits, he ashes them the tattoo to
change their minds.* [27]
ADULT LIFE
3 Adult life
3.1 Portrait
3.2 Character
In his From Myth to Myth: The Case of Yeh Fei's Biography, noted Sinologist Hellmut Wilhelm* [33] concluded
that Yue Fei purposely patterned his life after famous
Chinese heroes from dynasties past and that this ultimately led to his martyrdom.* [5] Apart from studying literature under his father Yue He (), Yue Fei loved to
read military classics. He favored the Zuo Zhuan commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals and the strategies of Sun Tzu and Wu Qi. Although his literacy afforded him the chance to become a scholar, which was
3.3
Family
5
during the early part of his military career. Yue drank
in great excess because he believed it tted the image of
heroes of old. However once he nearly killed a colleague
in a drunken rage, the emperor made him promise not to
drink any more until the Jurchen invaders had been driven
away.* [5]
3.3 Family
ADULT LIFE
China from the Jin dynasty ... [In 1140,] Yue Fei initiated
a general counterattack against the Jin armies, defeating
one enemy after another until he set up camp within range
of the Northern Song dynasty's old capital city, Kaifeng,
in preparation for the nal assault against the enemy. Yet
in the same year Qin [Hui] ordered Yue Fei to abandon
his campaign, and in 1141 Yue Fei was summoned back
to the Southern Song capital. It is believed that the emperor then ordered Yue Fei to be hanged.* [43]
3.4
Military record
7
poorly trained variety. In this way, one superior soldier counted for as much as one hundred inferior soldiers. One example used to illustrate this was when
the armies of Han Ching and Wu Xu were transferred into Yue's camp. Most of them had never
seen battle and were generally too old or unhealthy
for sustaining prolonged troop movement and engagement of the enemy. Once Yue had ltered
out the weak soldiers and sent them home, he was
only left with a meager thousand able-bodied soldiers. However, after some months of intense training, they were ready to perform almost as well as the
soldiers who had served under Yue for years.* [5]
4 Death
4 DEATH
There are conicting views on how Yue died. According to The History of China: (The Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations) and other sources, Yue died
in prison.* [13]* [44] The Chronicle of Yue, Prince of
E of Song says he was killed in prison.* [6] Shuo Yue
Quanzhuan states he was strangled to death. It reads,
"...[Yue Fei] strode in long steps to the Pavilion of Winds
and Waves ... The warders on both sides picked up the
ropes and strangled the three men [Yue Fei, Yue Yun,
and Zhang Xian (), Yue's subordinate] without further ado ... At the time Lord Yue was 39 years of age
Statues
and the young lord Yue Yun 23. When the three men returned to Heaven, suddenly a erce wind rose up wildly of Moqi Xie ( ) and Zhang Jun () at the Yue
and all the res and lights were extinguished. Black mists Fei Temple, Hangzhou
lled the sky and sand and pebbles were blown about.
*
[9]
Shuo Yue Quanzhuan states after having Yue Fei, Yue
The Secrets of Eagle Claw Kung Fu: Ying Jow Pai com- Yun, Zhang Xian arrested under false charges, Qin Hui
ments,Finally, [Yue Fei] received the 'Twelfth Golden and his wife, Lady Wang ( ), were sitting by the
Edict' [from the emperor calling him back to the capi- eastern window, warming themselves by the re, when
tal], which if ignored meant banishment. Patriotism de- he received a letter from the people calling for the release
manded that he obey. On his way back to the capital he of Yue Fei. Qin was worried because after nearly two
stopped to rest at a pavilion. Qin Hui anticipated Yue months of torture, he could not get Yue to admit to treaFei's route and sent some men to lie in wait. When Yue son and would eventually have to let him go. However,
Fei arrived, Qin's men ambushed and murdered him. Just after a servant girl brought fresh oranges into the room,
39 years old, Yue Fei like many good men in history, Lady Wang devised a plan to execute Yue. She told Qin
had a swift, brilliant career, then died brutally while still to slip an execution notice inside the skin of an orange
and send it to the judge presiding over Yue's case. This
young.* [45]
way, Yue and his companions would be put to death beAccording to A Chinese Biographical Dictionary, "[Father
fore the emperor or Qin himself would have to rescind
and son] had not been two months in connement when
an open order of execution.* [9] This conspiracy became
Qin Hui resolved to rid himself of his enemy. He wrote
known as the East Window Plot.* [51] A novel about
out with his own hand an order for the execution of Yue
this incident, titled Dong Chuang Ji (; Tale of
Fei, which was forthwith carried into eect; whereupon
the Eastern Window), was written during the Ming dyhe immediate reported that Yue Fei had died in prison
nasty by an anonymous writer.* [52]
*
, [14] which meant that Qin Hui had Yue and his son
When asked by Han Shizhong on what crime Yue had
executed but reported they both died in captivity.
committed, Qin Hui replied, Though it isn't sure
*
*
Other sources say he was poisoned to death. [46] [47]
whether there is something that he did to betray the dyStill, a great number simply say he was executed, murnasty, maybe there is.The phrase perhaps there is
*
*
*
dered, or treacherously assassinated. [48] [49] [50]
or could be true(Chinese: ; pinyin: m x
yu, often mistranslated from Ancient to Contemporary
Chinese asyou committed no crime) has entered the
Chinese dictionary as an expression to refer to fabricated
4.1 Kneeling iron statues
charges.* [53] Decades later, his grandson, Yue Ke (
), had retrieved documentary evidence of his grandfather's achievements, and published an adulatory biography of him. Emperor Xiaozong eventually posthumously
pardoned and rehabilitated Yue. For their part in Yue's
death, iron statues of Qin Hui, Lady Wang, and two of
Qin's subordinates, Moqi Xie ( ) and Zhang Jun (
), were made to kneel before Yue Fei's tomb (located
by the West Lake, Hangzhou). For centuries, these statues have been cursed, spat and urinated upon by people.
The original castings in bronze were damaged, but later
were replaced by images cast in iron, but these were similarly damaged. However now, in modern times, these
Statues
statues are protected as historical relics.* [54]
of Lady Wang () and Qin Hui () at the Yue
There is a poem hanging on the gate surrounding the statFei Temple, Hangzhou
5.1
Martial arts
ues that reads,The green hill is fortunate to be the burial founder of t'ai chi; Xingyi's ve st attacks, which are
ground of a loyal general, the white iron was innocent to based on the Five Chinese Elements theory, are simibe cast into the statues of traitors.* [55]
lar to tai-chi's Yin-yang theory"; and both theories are
*
According to one source, In 1162 Emperor Xiaozong Taoist-based and not Buddhist. [62] The book Henan Orof Song restored his honours, and gave proper burial to thodox Xingyi Quan, written by Pei Xirong () and
his remains. A [tomb] was put up in his memory, and he Li Ying'ang (), states Xingyi master Dai Longwas designated Zhongwu (; Loyal and Martial). bang
In 1179 he was canonized as Wumu ().* [14]
According to the novel Xi You Bu, a satire of Journey to
the West, written in 1641 by the scholar Dong Ruoyu (also
known as Dong Yue, 16201686), the Monkey King enthusiastically serves in hell as the trial prosecutor of Qin
Hui. At one point, the Monkey King asks the spirit of
Yue Fei if he would like to drink Qin's blood.* [52]
5
5.1
Talents
Martial arts
)* [63]* [64]
10
FOLK HERO
7 Folk hero
Yue Fei's stature in Chinese history rose to that of a national folk hero after his execution.* [83] Qin Hui, and in
some cases Emperor Gaozong, were blamed by later historians for their supposed role in Yue Fei's execution and
conciliatory stance with the Jin dynasty.* [84] The allegations that Qin Hui conspired with the Jin to execute Yue
Fei are popular in Chinese literature, but have never been
proven.* [85] The real Yue Fei diered from the later
myths that grew from his exploits.* [86] The portrayal of
Yue as a scholar-general is only partially true. He was
a skilled general, and may have been partially literate in
Classical Chinese, but he was not an erudite Confucian
9.1
Citations
11
[5] Wright, Arthur F., and Denis Crispin Twitchett. Confucian Personalities. Stanford studies in the civilizations of
eastern Asia. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press,
1962 (ISBN 0-8047-0044-3)
7.1
[9] Qian, Cai. General Yue Fei. Trans. Honorable Sir T.L.
Yang. Joint Publishing (H.K.) Co., Ltd. (1995) ISBN
978-962-04-1279-0
Modern references
[10] Jochen Degkwitz, Yue Fei und sein Mythos. Die Entwicklung der Yue-Fei-Saga bis zum, Shuo Yue quan zhuan,
Chinathemen 13, edited by Helmut Martin, Volker Klapsch and Martin Krott (Bochum: N Brockmeyer, 1983
(ISBN 3-88339-321-5)
The author Guy Gavriel Kay cites Yue Fei as having inspired the character Ren Daiyan in his novel River of
Stars (ISBN 978-0-670-06840-1), which is set in a fantasy world based on Song Dynasty China.
[11]
Yue Fei is one of the 32 historical gures who appear
as special characters in the video game Romance of the
Three Kingdoms XI by Koei.
[12]
See also
Media about Yue Fei
History of the Song dynasty
JinSong Wars
Timeline of the JinSong wars
Yue Fei Temple
Tomb of Yue Fei
Han Shizhong
Zhang Jun
9
9.1
References
Citations
Henning, Stanley E., M.A. Chinese General Yue Fei: Martial Arts Facts, Tales and Mysteries. Journal of Asian Martial Arts. Vol. 15 #4, 2006: 30-35
The Creation of Xingyi Archived September 28, 2007, at
the Wayback Machine. - Though it is presented as historical fact, the Yue Fei biography from this page is derived
solely from the ctional elements of this wuxia novel.
[4] Newly Recovered Anecdotes from Hong Mai's (11231202) Yijian zhi (PDF). Retrieved August 23, 2010.
[20] "
"
12
REFERENCES
[44] Wright, David Curtis. The History of China: (The Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations). Greenwood Press,
2001 (ISBN 0-313-30940-X)
[45] Leung, Shum and Jeanne Chin. The Secrets of Eagle Claw
Kung Fu: Ying Jow Pai. Tuttle Publishing; 1st edition,
2001 (ISBN 0-8048-3215-3)
[46] Lorge, Peter. War, Politics and Society in Early Modern China, 900-1795 (Warfare and History). Routledge;
1 edition, 2005 (ISBN 0-415-31691-X-)
[47] The Tomb and Temple of Yue Fei
[48] Markam, Ian S. and Tinu Ruparell. Encountering Religion:
An Introduction to the Religions of the World. Blackwell
Publishing Professional, 200 (ISBN 0-631-20674-4)
[49] Olson, James S. An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of China.
Greenwood Press, 1998 (ISBN 0-313-28853-4)
[50] Guy, Nancy. Peking Opera and Politics in Taiwan. University of Illinois Press, 2005 (ISBN 0-252-02973-9)
[52] Trapped Behind Walls: Ming Writing on the Wall China Heritage Quarterly.
9.2
Sources
[64] Heart Chinese boxing emphasizing exibility and confusing the opponent (Chinese only)
[65] Lu, Shengli. Combat Techniques of Taiji, Xingyi, and
Bagua: Principles and Practices of Internal Martial Arts.
Trans. Zhang Yun. Blue Snake Books/Frog, Ltd., 2006
(ISBN 1-58394-145-2)
[66] Wong, Kiew Kit. Art of Shaolin Kung Fu: The Secrets
of Kung Fu for Self-Defense Health and Enlightenment.
Tuttle Publishing, 2002 (ISBN 0-8048-3439-3)
[67] Ji Xing Chicken Form
[68] Ji Long Feng
[69] Chuo Jiao Fist Archived February 21, 2008, at the
Wayback Machine.
[70] Fanzi Quan (Tumbling Chuan) Archived February 4,
2007, at the Wayback Machine.
[71] Yuejia Quan (Yue-family Chuan) Archived February 3,
2007, at the Wayback Machine.
[72] HISTORY & DEVELOPMENT OF CHUOJIAO
Archived September 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
[73] Yang, Jwing-Ming. Qigong Massage, 2nd Edition: Fundamental Techniques for Health and Relaxation. YMAA
Publication Center; 2nd edition, 2005 (ISBN 1-59439048-7)
[74] Bisio, Tom. A Tooth from the Tiger's Mouth: How to Treat
Your Injuries with Powerful Healing Secrets of the Great
Chinese Warrior. Fireside, 2004 (ISBN 0-7432-4551-2)
[75] Yang, Jwing-Ming. Qigong Meditation: Embryonic
Breathing. YMAA Publication Center, 2003 (ISBN 1886969-73-6)
[76] Qian, Cai. General Yue Fei. Trans. Honorable Sir T.L.
Yang. Joint Publishing (H.K.) Co., Ltd. (1995) ISBN
978-962-04-1279-0
[77] Chuojiao (thrusted-in feet) Archived December 16, 2007,
at the Wayback Machine.
[78] Shi, Naian and Luo Guanzhong. Outlaws of the Marsh.
Trans. Sidney Shapiro. Beijing: Foreign Language Press,
1993 (ISBN 7-119-01662-8)
[79] Yuen, Man Kai. Northern Mantis Black Tiger Intersectional Boxing. Wanchai, Hong Kong: Yih Mei Book Co.
Ltd., 1991 (ISBN 962-325-195-5), pg. 7
13
9.2 Sources
Franke, Herbert (1994). The Chin dynasty.
In Denis Twitchett, Denis C.; John King Fairbank.
The Cambridge History of China: Volume 6, Alien
Regimes and Border States, 7101368. Cambridge
University Press. pp. 215320. ISBN 978-0-52124331-5 (hardcover).
Lorge, Peter (2005). War, Politics and Society in
Early Modern China, 9001795. Routledge. ISBN
978-0-203-96929-8.
Mote, Frederick W. (1999). Imperial China: 900
1800. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-67444515-5 (hardcover); ISBN 978-0-674-01212-7
(paperback).
Tao, Jing-Shen (2009).The Move to the South and
the Reign of Kao-tsung. In Paul Jakov Smith; Denis C. Twitchett. The Cambridge History of China:
Volume 5, The Sung dynasty and Its Precursors, 9071279. Cambridge University Press. pp. 556643.
ISBN 978-0-521-81248-1 (hardcover).
10 External links
Works by Yue Fei at Project Gutenberg
Works by or about Yue Fei at Internet Archive
Works by Yue Fei at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
(Chinese)History of the SongChinese Wikipedia
entry
(Chinese) 470 volume version of the History of
the Song
(Chinese) "The Story of Yue Fei"
[81] James T.C. Liu. Yueh Fei (1103-41) and China's Heritage of Loyalty.The Journal of Asian Studies. Vol. 31,
No. 2 (Feb., 1972), pp. 291-297
" Utmost Loyalty to the Country, a famous chinese song related to Yue Fei
[82] http://www.dartmouth.edu/~{}qing/WEB/YUEH_
CHUNG-CH'I.html
[83] Tao 2009, p. 686.
[84] Tao 2009, pp. 686689.
[85] Tao 2009, p. 687.
14
11
11
11.1
Yue Fei Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yue_Fei?oldid=730828427 Contributors: Kowloonese, Ktsquare, Olivier, Mgmei, Wshun,
Jiang, Mxn, Patrick0Moran, AnonMoos, Jusjih, PuzzletChung, Phil Boswell, Mandel, Spencer195, Python eggs, Tagishsimon, Comatose51,
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11.2
Images
11.3
Content license
15
11.3
Content license