Background
At the time Yue Fei was born, "a large bird like a swan landed on the roof of his house".
At the time Yue Fei was born, "a large bird like a swan landed on the roof of his house".
He received martial arts and a rudimentary education.
Yue Fei enlisted in the government army as a foot soldier and may have participated in a failed expedition to reclaim the Khitan Liao's "Southern Capital"(madern Beijing), during the Northern Song's strategic folly of an alliance with the Jurchen Jin.
By mid-year 1130, he was a military commissioner with a concurrent civilian appointment of Prefect in the Lower Yangtze delta. From 1133 on, Yue Fei held the commandership of the mid-Yangtze defence, making him one of the top four military commanders of the Southern Song.
Yue Fei enforced strict discipline, which made his soldiers very dependable; this raised his popularity enormously, as his troops came to be known as the "Yue family army ".
He led a number of northern expeditions against the Jin and its puppet buffer Qi regime, notably in 1134,1136 and 1140, reaching as far as the ancient Chinese capital Luoyang. He was so highly regarded at court that when his mother died in 1136, he was ordered to "relinquish his filial feelings", forgoing the long mourning period dictated by Confucian rules. His mother, a patriot like her son, was said to have tattooed the four characters meaning "ultimate loyalty to the country'" on his back.
IN the spring of 1138 Qin Hui was appointed concurrently Chancellor and Military Affairs Commissioner. With Emperor Gaozong's full trust, Qin Hui immediately started peace negotiations with the Jurchen, which led to humiliating cessions by the Southern Song. Yue Fei openly expressed his disapproval of the peace treaty and was relieved of his command in the spring of 1141. He was subsequently accused of treason and executed on 28 Janury 1142.
Yue Fei was exonerated in 1162 by a new Song emperor, and has remained a national hero.