The Story of Yue Fei
2 min readYue Fei was born from a humble background.He became a general of the Southern Song Dynasty and fought against the Jin Dynasty.
Before Yue Fei was a general，the Jin Dynasty had succeeded in its conquest of the north，forcing the Song Dynasty away from its capital in Kaifeng.Among the chaos，Emperor Huizong and his son were captured and this marked the end of the Northern Song Dynasty.The Southern Song Dynasty began under the rule of Emperor Gaozong in Lin’an，which is present-day Hangzhou，as the new capital.
As a general，Yue Fei fought a long campaign against the Jin Dynasty and eventually pushed them all the way back to Kaifeng where he planned to retake the city.During this time，Emperor Gaozong’s trusted grand advisor，Qin Hui，advised the Emperor to recall Yue Fei and begin peace talks，as the defeat of the Jin Dynasty at Kaifeng might result in the release of Emperor Huizong.
Naturally，Emperor Gaozong followed his advice because the return of the former emperor would threaten his claim to the throne.As Yue Fei refused to return，the Emperor issued his order 12 times，and Yue Fei eventually submitted.When he returned to Hangzhou，Yue Fei，his son，Yue Yun，and his faithful general，Zhang Xian，were arrested and imprisoned under false charges.
They were tortured in order that they admitted to the false charges，but after two months，there was still no progress.Knowing that there was no evidence to prove Yue Fei s fault，Qin’s wife devised the sentence“mo xu you”（“perhaps there is，”that is，“ mo xu you ”in Chinese），which means that despite the absence of evidence，the ambiguity of the charge was enough to declare him guilty.This allowed Qin to order an execution of Yue Fei，Yue Yun，and Zhang Xian.
Today，the term“mo xu you”remains in the Chinese language as a reference to innocent charges.
