Several kneeling statues in front of Yuefei Temple

Now when we go to Hangzhou to see the cemetery of Yue Fei, the famous anti-gold general of the Southern Song Dynasty, we will find four cast iron figures under the door of the father-in-law's tomb. They tie their hands back and kneel on the grave. On the back of the kneeling figure, there is a couplet written on the door of the tomb, "Castle Peak is lucky to bury the loyal bone, and white iron is innocent to cast a sycophant". These four sycophants were Qin Hui, Wang Shi, Zhang Jun and Wan Gaogao who framed Yue Fei and killed him.

First of all, there was no more than one person in front of Yue Fei's tomb from the beginning to the end. As for the answer to the question, the name of the more than one person was Luo Ruji. I was so ignorant that I didn't find any information about this person who had been kneeling in front of Yue Fei's tomb. Since the founding of the Chenghua reign of Emperor Xianzong in the Ming Dynasty, there were only four kneeling figures in Yue Fei's tomb.

In the 11th year of Chenghua (1475) of the Emperor Xianzong of the Ming Dynasty, Zhou Mu, then the political envoy of Zhejiang Province, in order to cater to the admiration of the people of Hangzhou for the national hero Yue Fei and the hatred of Qin Hui, he rebuilt the tomb of Yue Fei. At the same time, when he rebuilt the tomb of Yue Fei, he first cast the kneeling figure of Qin Hui and his wife with iron, which is the original prototype of the kneeling figure of Yue Fei's tomb.

In the eighth year of Zhengde of Wuzong in the Ming Dynasty (1513), 38 years ago, the original Zhejiang cloth

The kneeling figure of Qin Hui and his wife cast by Zhou Mu, the political envoy, has become a pile of rotten iron due to the wind and rain. At this time, Li Long, the commander of the capital of Zhejiang Province, worshipped Yue Fei very much, and was full of admiration and admiration for Yue Fei. So he recast the kneeling figure of Qin Hui and his wife in copper, and added the kneeling figure of Wan Yi. And unlike in the years of Chenghua, the two hands of the three newly built kneeling figures were cut back.

In the 22nd year of the reign of Emperor Shenzong of the Ming Dynasty (1594), three bronze statues cast during the reign of Zhengde were damaged due to being beaten by tourists, so Fan Lai, the then deputy envoy of Zhejiang Province, recast the kneeling statues of Qin Hui, Wang Shi, and Wan Yi with iron, and added the kneeling statue of Zhang Jun. However, the following year, Wang Ruxun, the right deputy governor of Zhejiang Province, felt that it would be disrespectful for the Wang family to kneel in front of the tomb of Yue Fei because he was of the same family as Qin Hui's wife Wang, so he secretly sent people to sink the kneeling images of Qin Hui's wife Wang and his accomplice Zhang Jun into the West Lake. At this time, it finally aroused strong indignation among the people of Hangzhou. Thousands of people asked the government to find out the real culprit behind the scenes. Wang Ruxun was scared to flee Hangzhou City overnight. Then, in order to appease the people's anger, Ma Wei, a salt merchant, spent money to recast the kneeling figures of Wang and Zhang Jun with iron and put them in place.

In the thirtieth year of the reign of Emperor Shenzong of the Ming Dynasty (1602), Fan Lai returned to Hangzhou. This time he served as the political envoy of Zhejiang Province. When he returned to Hangzhou, he saw that the four iron statues were blurred, so he took out his salary to recast them. In the 34th year of the Wanli reign (1606) of the Emperor Shenzong of the Ming Dynasty, Sun Long, a weaver in Suzhou and Hangzhou, recast the four kneeling figures of Qin Hui, Wang Shi, Wan Yi, and Zhang Jun in copper, and engraved their names on the chest, while enclosing them with wooden fences.

In the Qing Dynasty, until the early years of Yongzheng, the four kneeling statues kneeling in front of Yue Fei's tomb were destroyed by the angry people. So in the ninth year of Yongzheng (1731), with the approval of Emperor Yongzheng, Li Wei, the governor of Zhejiang Province, wrote to recast the iron statue. With the weapons collected, Li Wei recast the four kneeling statues of Qin Hui, Wang Shi, Wan Yi, and Zhang Jun. During the reign of Qianlong, four of them were damaged again because of the wind and rain. After obtaining the consent of Xiong Xuepeng, the governor of Qiantang County, he recast the kneeling figures of Qin Hui and others.

In the 12th year of Qianlong's reign (1747), the political envoy Tang Mo of Zhejiang Province saw that the four kneeling figures in front of Yue Fei's tomb became blurred again. In addition to the beatings of the people, they were seriously damaged. So he recast the four kneeling figures of Qin Hui, Wang Shi, Wan Yi, and Zhang Jun, and surrounded them with wooden fences. In the third year of Jiaqing (1798), Ruan Yuan, the then governor of Zhejiang Province, ordered the four kneeling figures of Qin Hui and others to be recast with old weapons.

In the fourth year of Tongzhi (1865), Jiang Yili, the political envoy of Zhejiang Province, found that four kneeling statues were seriously damaged, so he recast four kneeling statues such as Qin Hui. In the 23rd year of Guangxu's reign (1897), Zhang Zuyi, the political envoy of Zhejiang Province, recast four kneeling figures such as Qin Hui. This was the last time that the Qing Dynasty recast four kneeling figures such as Qin Hui.

In 1979, four kneeling portraits of Qin Hui and others were stolen, so the government specially allocated 400000 yuan to rebuild the tomb of Yue Fei, and four kneeling portraits of Qin Hui, Wang Shi, Wan Gonggao and Zhang Jun were recast in front of the tomb. Since then until today, the four kneeling statues we saw in front of Yuefei's tomb in Hangzhou were cast in 1979.

To sum up, there has never been a fifth statue in front of Yue Fei's tomb. Of course, in fact, there are five kneeling statues in front of Yuefei Temple in Zhuxian Town, and one more kneeling statue is named Luo Ruji. Luo Ruji then served as the court minister before Yue Fei was killed. He attached himself to Yue Fei, and together with He Zhu, the prime minister, gave false testimony, falsely accused Yue Fei of treason, and falsely accused Yue Fei of the old scenes and the Dali Temple of trying to lightly sentence Yue Fei. Finally, Yue Fei was wrongly killed.

However, Yuefei Tomb and Yuefei Temple are two concepts. The only tomb that can be called Yuefei Tomb is Yuefei Cemetery located at the south foot of Qixia Ling in Hangzhou, while others can only be called temples. In history, there have never been more than four kneeling statues of Yue Fei's tomb.