Yue Fei | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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![]() Portrait of Yue Fei in Liu Songnian's Four Generals of the Restoration. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Native name | 岳飛 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Tangyin, Anyang, Henan, Northern Song dynasty | March 24, 1103||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Died | January 28, 1142 Hangzhou, Zhejiang, Southern Song dynasty | (aged 38)||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Allegiance | Song dynasty | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Years of service | 1122–1142 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Battles/wars | Song–Jin wars | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 岳飛 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 岳飞 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Yue Fei (Chinese: 岳飛; March 24, 1103 – January 28, 1142),[1] courtesy name Pengju (鵬舉), was a Chinese military general of the Song dynasty and is remembered as a patriotic national hero, known for leading its forces in the wars in the 12th century between Southern Song and the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty in northern China. Because of his warlike stance, he was put to death by the Southern Song government in 1142 under a frameup, after a negotiated peace was achieved with the Jin dynasty.[2] Yue Fei is depicted in the Wu Shuang Pu by Jin Guliang.
Yue Fei's ancestral home was in Xiaoti, Yonghe Village, Tangyin, Xiangzhou, Henan (in present-day Tangyin County, Anyang, Henan). He was granted the posthumous name Wumu (武穆) by Emperor Xiaozong in 1169, and later granted the noble title King of E (鄂王) posthumously by the Emperor Ningzong in 1211. Since his death and after the fall of the Song dynasty in 1279, Yue Fei is widely seen as a culture hero in China; he has evolved into a paragon of loyalty in Chinese culture.