Yue Fei Temple and Tomb

The Yue Fei Temple and Tomb, on Beishan Street beside West Lake in Hangzhou, commemorates Yue Fei, the Southern Song dynasty general executed in 1142 after being falsely accused of treason by the chancellor Qin Hui. The temple was first built in 1221, decades after Yue Fei's posthumous rehabilitation and reburial with honors near this site. The current temple halls date largely from Ming- and Qing-era reconstructions, having been damaged and rebuilt multiple times over eight centuries, most recently restored in the 1980s. The main hall houses a large seated statue of Yue Fei beneath a ceiling inscription reading "Return Our Rivers and Mountains," flanked by murals depicting his military campaigns against the Jin dynasty. Behind the hall, Yue Fei's tomb and that of his son Yue Yun sit beneath cypress trees, fronted by a row of stone guardian statues. At the foot of the tomb kneel cast-iron figures of Qin Hui, his wife, and two collaborators, a centuries-old tradition allowing visitors to symbolically express contempt for those held responsible for the general's death. Stone stelae throughout the complex record poems and inscriptions added by visitors and officials across the Ming and Qing dynasties, making the site a layered record of how Yue Fei's memory was maintained as a symbol of loyalty.