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General Yue Fei, the national hero of the Southern Song Dynasty, was born in a poor and humble family. But he later became an accomplished general and a man of integrity. In his day, minority nationalities on the northern border, such as the Jins, invaded central China repeatedly. As a valiant and wise commander, he once defeated an enemy said to be 500,000 strong with only 800 soldiers on the outskirts of today's Kaifeng. So a commander of Jin sighed, 'It is easier to shake Mount Tai than to shake Yue Fei's army.' Thanks to Yue Fei and a contemporary general, Han Shizhong, the shaky regime of Southern Song maintained itself for the time being.

Although Yue Fei and other war hawks had won brilliant victories and recovered the most part of the territory, it was the capitulationists like Qin Hui who wielded real power at court. They even resorted to false accusations to eliminate the war party and finally had Yue Fei sent to prison and executed. At the news, General Han Shizhong asked Qin Hui, 'What crime in the world did Yue Fei commit?' To this, Qin Hui replied evasively, 'Mo Xu You' which meant 'something fairly likely.' Later the phrase 'mo xu you' entered Chinese to mean a trumped-up charge or a fabricated charge. Yue Fei was only 39 at the time he was executed.

After the emperor Xiao Zong succeeded to the throne, Yue Fei was cleared of the groundless charges and a temple was built in his memory at the foot of Qixia Ling by West Lake in Hangzhou. Before Yue Fei's tomb are four cast-iron kneeling figures, with chests bare and hands bound behind their backs. They are responsible for the murder of Yue Fei. The two on the left are Qin Hui and his wife who master-minded the whole thing and the two on the right are their lackeys, Zhang Jun and Mo Qixie. As people cherished the love of Yue Fei and hated Qin Hui and his followers, they had these four casts in iron, to kneel forever before the tomb. A couplet reads as follows: Honored the green hill is to provide eternal resting-place for the loyal soul; Innocent is the iron used to cast the images of the hated traitorous ministers.

The story says that after Yue Fei was executed, a pastry vendor kneaded a piece of dough into two human shapes, standing for Qin Hui and his wife. He then twisted them together and put them into the boiling hot oil in his cauldron. And the local people all came, bought the fried dough, and had bites of it. This is said to be the origin of today's Youtiao, a common breakfast food in China.

Written by our column writer Hao Zhuo.

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