岳庙英文简介

Yue Fei’s Temple and Tomb

Unlike Buddhist temple, the Yue Fei’s temple is a memorial one, dedicated to

a national hero by the name of Yue Fei. He fought against the invaders from the

north and recovered much of the lost territory. Unfortunately, a traitor named Qin

Hui, who was the Prime Minister then, murdered him. The story took place in the

Southern Song Dynasty over 800 years ago, during that time Hangzhou was the

capital.

Yue Fei grew up in a turbulent period of time. In the north of China, there lived

a nomadic tribe named Nuzhen. At the beginning of the 12

th

century, the Nuzhen

Nationality established a kingdom named Jin. The Great Jin became very strong

and started massive attacks against the Northern Song. On the other hand, the

Northern Song Dynasty, which had been in existence for over 150 years, became

corrupt and the armies were not as good as fighting at all.

Very soon, the capital fell into the invaders’ hand and to make things worse,

the last two emperors were captured, resulting in the fall of the North Song

Dynasty. The ninth son of the last but one emperor Zhao Gou fled to the south and

established the Southern Song Dynasty with Hangzhou as its capital.

Yue Fei came from a peasant family in Henan Province. Beginning his career as

a petty officer, he repeatedly distinguished himself by his valor and wisdom on the

battlefield. Finally, he became an outstanding general. But the capitulationists,

headed by Emperor Gao Zong and his Prime Minister Qin Hui, tried hard to put a

spoke to the wheel of Yue’s peace expedition. They feared that victory would be

disadvantageous of them personally and the anti-Jin volunteers, once becoming

powerful, would threaten their position as rulers. The moment when the final

victory was near at hand, Gao Zong ordered Yue to withdraw his army. Back in

Hangzhou, Yue was thrown into jail on a fabricated charge and killed with poison

soon after, when he was not yet 39.

Twenty-one years after his death, Yue Fei was cleared of the false accusation. A

shrine and a tomb were built in Hangzhou in his memory-a permanent institution

that has a special appeal to the Chinese at home and overseas.

Yue’s temple and Tomb are situated at the southern foot of Qixia Hill.

Surrounded by the imposing red walls, the temple and tomb face Yue Lake, a part

of West Lake. On March13, 1961, the State Council of the People’s Republic of

china declared Yue Fei’s Tomb a major historic relic under the State protection.

Yue Fei’s Temple was first built in 1221. The last time it got rebuilt was 1923.

Over the double-tiered entrance gate hangs a vertical board decorated with

the dragon and the phoenix, the ancient symbols of power as well as

auspiciousness, which announces in gold print on a black background: “King

Yue’s Temple”. Going through the entrance gate, the visitor walks up a flag-

stone path with tall and age-old camphor trees on either side to approach the

multi-eaved gate of the hip-roofed temple itself. In 1980, Ye Jianying, one of

China’s ten marshals, inscribed “The Loyalty Is As Bright As Sunlight” for the

plaque, which now hangs outside the temple’s main hall. At the center of the

main hall, with two rows of 12 red-lacquered pillars at either side, is a new

4.54-meter(15-foot) –high statue of Yue Fei, cast in plaster by the staff of the

Sculpture Department of China Academy of Fine Arts and based on the traditional

style of Chinese colored clay sculpture. The previous Buddha-like statue has been

replaced by the new one which, according to Song Dynasty records, makes the

portrayal of the general as authentic as possible. He weras a red-tasseled

commander’s helmet, a war robe with gold designs of pythons and military

boots. Holding a sword in his left hand and clenching his right fist, he appears to

be both a brave general and a scholar- general. Right above the statue hands a

plaque inscribes in Yue’s calligraphy, “Rover our lost Territories”. Signifying Yue

Fei’s integrity are over 370 white flying cranes in different posed painted on the

ceiling. Along the walls towards the back of the main hall are eight mural paintings

done in 1981 by the staff of the Chinese Painting Department of China Academy of

Fine Arts. These paintings, presented in a form Chinese visitors will find easy to

appreciate, outline the true story of Yue’s life, representing different aspects of

his career.

Painting 1: Learning diligently

Yue was eager to learn since boyhood. He loved to read famous books like Sun

Zi’s Art of War and enjoyed listening to stories of historical heroes. As strong as a

horse, he could bend an over- 150- kilogram bow in his early teens. He learned

how to do Kungfu from Master Chen Guang and how to shoot an arrow from the

crack archer Zhou Tong. You can see in this painting that Yue is practicing shooting.

The old man beside him is Zhou Tong.

Painting 2: Mother tattooing Yue’s back

Yue lost his father young and his mother brought him up. In 1126, the Jinkang

Incident took place. The Jin invaders took the capital of Kaifeng and captured two

emperors. Fired by a strong desire to defend the motherland, Yue’s mother send

her 20-year-old son to the army. Before he left, she tattooed on his back four

characters---“Be loyal to the motherland”. This patriotic story has been dear to

the hearts of the Chinese for many generations.

Painting 3: Recapturing Jiankang

Jiankang (the present – day Nanjing) was a prefecture of strategic importance.

In winter 1129, the Jin troops mounted a large-scale offensive against the South. In

the year 1130AD, Yue Fei, with the help of the army led by Han Shizhong, another

famous general, defeated the invaders occupying the city and took it back. In this

victory the chief director of the invaders was almost captured. Since then, the

invaders became very afraid of Yue Fei’s troops. Among the invaders, there was a

saying, which goes like this: it’s easier to move a mountain than to beat Yue’s

army. Yue Fei was promoted repeatedly ever after.

Painting 4: uniting with anti- Jin forces

To defeat the Jin invaders, Yue laid down the policy to unite with anti- Jin loyal

militiamen who lived to the north of the Yellow River. Later, these militiamen

became the main force of Yue’s army, playing an important role in fighting back

the Jin invaders.

Painting 5: recovering our lost territories

On the way from the capital back to Jiangzhou (today’s Jiujiang city in Jiangxi

Province) under him, Yue ascended the mountain to look northward at the native

land. He was so impressed that a strong patriotic feeling welled up in his mind. He

wrote down the four character: “ recover our lost territories” .

Painting 6: A vital victory won at Yancheng

The Jin invaders had a special troop. All the cavalrymen wore thick and solid

armors while the horses also were wrapped with iron sheets. In this way, they could

hardly be hurt. The Song armies suffered a great loss.

Yue Yun, eldest son of the general, organized a garrison troop to breast it. He

had some of his men held sickle spears with a sickle fastened behind the

spearhead and others held shields chopping the horse legs when the cavalry came.

In this way, the special troop of the invaders was totally destroyed near the city of

Yancheng in Henan Province, central china.

Painting 7: Forced to Withdraw

After the great victory at Yancheng, a town ony 22.5 km away from Bianliang

(today’s Kaifeng), capital of the fallen Northern Song. That means Yue Fei was to

recover the lost capital very soon. At this critical moment, the new emperor in

Hangzhou became worried. When he realized that he was going to lost his power,

he ordered Yue Fei to stop fighting and decided to make peace with the invaders.

By doing this, the invaders could occupy the northern part of the territory and

keep the last two emperors in prison and he could continue being the emperor

ruling half the nation.

So, within 24 hours, 12 identical imperial orders were issued to Yue Fei, urging

him to retreat. Yue Fei was angry and sad but had no way out except to obey the

emperor.

Painting 8: unjust Charge at Fengbo Pavilion

When Yue returned to the capital, he was caught in a trap. Emperor Gaozong

and Prime Minister Qin Hui kicked him upstairs while stepping up their frame- up.

Not long after, he was thrown into prison along with his son on the charge of some

“probable” crimes. Both of them were killed with poison at the Fengbo Pavilion

in the prison on January 27, 1142. Then , he was not yet 39 and his son, only 22.

Before his death, Yue Fei was asked to write a confession. This painting represents

his eight- character response. “ the sun is bright! The sun is bright!”

The confession means that the bright sun can see an innocent man. In other

words, heaven has eyes. There will be final justice after all.