Yue King Temple (Yue Fei Temple)

The Yue Fei Temple in Jingjiang was originally a shrine built while Yue Fei was still alive. The renowned Yue Fei Temples in Tangyin of Henan (his hometown) and by West Lake in Hangzhou were both erected after his death. For this reason, the Yue Fei Temple in Jingjiang is likely the earliest shrine dedicated to Yue Fei under heaven.

The central main hall of the temple is named Siyue Hall, a stately building constructed in the Song architectural style. Carved on the vertical couplets flanking the central pillars are the lines from Yue Fei’s poem: “To dust is gone the fame achieved in thirty years; Like cloud-veiled moon the thousand-mile land disappears”, rendered in elegant, neat calligraphy. A seated statue of Yue Fei stands in the hall: he wears a military helmet trimmed with red tassels, a purple dragon-patterned official robe, golden armor bared on his arms, and military boots on his feet. His bearing is heroic and solemn, as if deep in contemplation on the eve of a decisive battle, or burning with anxiety after investigating the people’s hardships, stirring a warm sense of closeness in visitors. Flanking him stand lifelike stone statues of his eight chief generals.

The rear hall is Siyue Veranda, housing a stone stele carved with Yue Fei’s portrait. Poems and essays by Li Gang and Han Shizhong are embedded on its outer walls. Covered corridors wrap around the two halls, inlaid with stone tablets of ci poems, verses, and Yue Fei’s hand-carved stone inscription of The Former Chu Shi Biao.

According to History of the Song Dynasty: “An imperial edict ordered Yue Fei to return and defend Tongzhou and Taizhou. The decree stated that he should hold the cities if possible; if not, he was to protect commoners on the sand shoals and await opportunities to launch surprise assaults. Seeing Taizhou lacked natural defensive barriers, Yue Fei retreated to Chaxu and fought a great battle at Nanbaqiao, routing the Jin army completely. He ferried refugees across to the sand shoals, and covered the evacuation with two hundred elite cavalry, such that the Jin troops dared not draw near.” Tongzhou refers to present-day Nantong; Taizhou is modern Taizhou. The sand shoals and sand land mentioned denote Matuosha (Jingjiang’s ancient name). The refugees described are the ancestors of many Jingjiang residents today.

Local folk legends are even more touching. It is said that Emperor Gaozong Zhao Gou of the Southern Song colluded with Prime Minister Qin Hui to sue for peace with the Jin invaders, regarding the loyal, patriotic Yue Fei as a thorn in their side. In one single day, twelve gold-lettered emergency imperial dispatches were sent, summoning Yue Fei back to the capital Hangzhou. Commoners of the Central Plains clung to him reluctantly, fearing that without his protection, the Jin would invade again and plunge them into suffering. They begged to follow him south. Yue Fei loved his people as his own children and could not bear to turn them away, so he led the refugees southward together.

When they traveled thousands of li to Matuosha by the Yangtze River, Yue Fei tossed and turned all night. Stepping out of his tent, he surveyed the land under a thin crescent moon. He saw this territory bounded by the river to the north and the sea to the east, linking the Wu and Yue regions—a truly strategic stronghold. Though covered in withered weeds at that time, it possessed hills and water, suitable for grain farming and mulberry cultivation, a bright pearl cradled in the great river. Overwhelmed with joy, he did not notice the dawn dew had soaked his beard and eyebrows.

The next morning, Yue Fei gathered the refugees and said: “You need not cross the river south with me. Settle down and make your living right here! Though it looks desolate now, it will surely become a land of fish and rice in the future. I pray this place suffers no floods, droughts or wars for eight hundred years each.” How could the villagers disregard Marshal Yue’s wish? From then on, they built homes here, multiplied and thrived.

After Yue Fei departed, the people cherished his boundless kindness and prayed for his longevity, thus building a shrine to honor him. The settlement that grew up around it later became a market town, named Shengci Town (Town of the Living Shrine), after the shrine erected for Yue Fei during his lifetime.

Though the folk tale does not fully align with historical records, it vividly captures the emotional essence of real events. Both history and legend prove that Jingjiang shares an inseparable bond with Yue Fei. For hundreds of years, repeated reconstructions of the temple bear witness to how deeply our ancestors cherished Yue Fei’s benevolence, their gratitude flowing endlessly like the waters of the Yangtze.

The present Yue Fei Temple is its third reconstruction, all three funded by Liu Guojun. The first reconstruction took place in 1932, yet the temple was sadly destroyed by Japanese artillery fire in 1938. In 1962, Liu Guojun returned to his hometown to pay homage to the temple’s ruins. He proposed rebuilding it and resolved to relocate the shrine from beside Siyue Bridge in the eastern town to its current site. Sadly, the newly reconstructed temple bore the brunt of destruction during the Great Cultural Revolution.

As spring returned to the land in 1978, the elderly Liu Guojun, well into his eighties, told his children on his deathbed: “You must restore the Yue Fei Temple in our hometown!” His children Liu Handong and Liu Biru honored his last wish and donated funds to rebuild the temple for the third time in 1985