When it comes to Yue Fei, I think everyone is no stranger, he is not only a famous anti-Jin hero of the Southern Song Dynasty, but his deeds have also been put on the screen many times. A loyal minister who carved his loyalty to the country on his back and remembered it in his heart, but in the end he was killed by the adulterous people of the Emperor. So what is the condition of the descendants of this famous general, and are they still alive?
In the eleventh year of Shaoxing (1142 AD), after more than ten years of struggle between the Southern Song Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty, in order to avoid embarking on the same road of subjugation as Emperor Huizong and Emperor Qinzong, and also to avoid the embarrassment of returning to the Second Emperor, Emperor Gaozong of Song took the initiative to declare peace with the Jin Dynasty and signed the so-called "Shaoxing Peace Agreement". To this end, he recalled Yue Fei, a general who strongly advocated the War of Resistance, from the battlefield, and the following month killed Yue Fei and Yue Yun's father and son in the Fengbo Pavilion on the charge of "false accusations", and the Yue clan members were all sent to Lingnan.
In the process of Yue Fei's murder and the Death of the Yue family, Qin Juniper played an important role. As a loyal lackey of Emperor Gaozong of Song, Qin Ju controlled the public opinion of the imperial court on the one hand, and on the other hand, he wantonly colluded with the powerful magnates of the Jin Dynasty, and in order to avoid Yue Fei taking the lead in making "noises", he also advised the emperor to kill him and raid his home. Therefore, Yue Fei's descendants regarded the Qin clan as a feud, and so far there has not been a single case of intermarriage between the two clans. Although this provision was not explicitly written into the Yue family rules, this hatred had been integrated into their bloodline, and the descendants of the Yue family consciously avoided marrying the Qin family. In fact, the Yue family did not actually intermarry with the surname Gong, which started from the exile of the Yue clan to Lingnan.
In ancient times, exile was a severe punishment second only to the death penalty, especially exile to Lingnan, which was full of miasma, and the long distance and inconvenient transportation would lead to many deaths on the way. Even if you are lucky enough to rush from the capital to Lingnan, it is difficult to endure the harsh local environment, and basically go to wait for death. Therefore, Lady Yue Fei asked her third son, Yue Lin, to carry a letter to Yue Fei's former friend, praying that she would leave a pulse of life for the Yue family.
Fortunately, the guards also admired Yue Fei's loyalty and turned a blind eye to Yue Lin's escape. In this way, with the help of everyone, Yue Lin escaped from Lin'an and fled south overnight according to his mother's instructions, along the way to prevent the pursuit and killing of the government and the wind, and soon became seriously ill. After passing by a river beach, he finally collapsed on the side of the road. At this point, after learning the news of the Yue family's distress, Gong Zuwen, who was Yue Fei's confidant, also rushed to Lin'an overnight, hoping to keep a blood vein for Yue Fei, only to meet Yue Lin, who was fainting in the reeds, and found Lady Yue's letter from him: "Brother Zuwen is like a face, Lin'er is entrusted, and will be reported in the next life."
At this time, Yue Lin had been in a coma for three days, and the high fever made him die. Gong Zuwen hurriedly asked the doctor to help him diagnose and treat him, and spent a lot of silver to buy tonics to save his life. Due to the multitude of people in the army, in order to help Yue Lin hide his identity, Gong Zuwen resigned from the posts of Moling Commandery and Wu De Dafu in a letter, and moved his family to Qu'a Liutang (present-day Liuru Village, Danyang City, Jiangsu Province). Since then, Yue Lin has lived in the Gong family for a long time, the Gong family treats him like a parent, and also let him receive education, ten years later Yue Lin grew up, Gong Zuwen helped him marry and settle down, Yue Lin had five children after marriage, and finally left offspring for Yue Fei.
When Emperor Xiaozong of Song ascended the throne, Zhao Xuan (shèn) officially rehabilitated Yue Fei and pardoned Yue Fei's exiled family, and the Yue family was finally able to live in a bright and upright way. After learning of Gong Zuwen's deeds of sacrificing his life to protect Yue Fei's son Yue Lin, Emperor Xiaozong of Song praised him as "loyal to the king and beloved friend", and after Gong Zuwen's death, he was given the title of "Wen Xian" and his wife Huang Shi posthumously honored him as "Lady of the Commandments" in recognition of his "meritorious military achievements" and "the merits of protecting the descendants of Zhongliang".
However, for Yue Lin, the grace of decades of nurturing cannot be forgotten, Yue Lin and Gong Zuwen's sons Gong Tie and Gong Xian married brothers with different surnames, and stipulated that the next two families would be brothers for generations to come. In order to commemorate the life-saving grace of the ancestors of the Gong clan, the Yue clan set a family rule not to intermarry with the Gong clan, and in the Yue Clan Ancestral Hall, there are still gong zu wen tablets, and the status of the Gong clan in the hearts of the descendants of the Yue clan can be seen. It can be said that the reason why the Yue family does not intermarry with the Qin and Gong surnames is that the former stems from hatred, and the latter stems from affection, and the distinction between love and hatred is the most simple emotional expression of Chinese.
bibliography:
History of the Song Dynasty