West Lake, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
岳王庙 · Yuè Wáng Miào
The grave of the Song general who became China's byword for loyalty, killed on false charges in 1142 and reburied here by the lake twenty years later. In front of his tomb four iron figures of the people blamed for his death kneel with their hands tied behind them, and have done so for five hundred years.
Photo: Liuxingy, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
You are on a busy lakeside road. Across it rises a tall gateway of dark wood and white walls, and through it a courtyard of old camphor trees leads to a big double-roofed hall. Inside, under a gilded board, a giant painted figure in armour sits with one hand on his sword. To the left, behind another wall, are two grassy mounds and rows of stone men and animals.
Yue Fei was the most successful general of the Southern Song (1127–1279) against the Jin, who had taken northern China. In 1142, while peace was being made, he was arrested and killed on charges no one could state. At that time in Europe the Second Crusade was five years away.
Part of West Lake, Hangzhou. Also there: Bai Causeway, Solitary Hill, Su Causeway, Three Pools Mirroring the Moon, Leifeng Pagoda, Lingyin Temple.
One ticket covers the hall and the tomb garden.
| Part | Ticket |
|---|---|
| The hall of Yue Fei | Included |
| The tomb garden | Included |
The emperor who ordered his death, Gaozong, never cleared his name. His successor did, in 1162, and had him reburied here at the foot of Qixia Ridge with full honours. The temple beside the grave was founded in 1221. Its buildings have been rebuilt many times on the same spot; most of what you see is Qing (1644–1912) or later.
The temple has two parts: the hall in front, and the tomb garden to its left. The tomb is what people come for.
"His mother tattooed 'Serve the country with utmost loyalty' on his back." The official history says that when he was tried, the words were seen on his back. That his mother put them there comes from a novel of the Qing.
"The kneeling figures are the originals." They have been recast many times, because visitors beat and spat on them. The present ones are iron.
"Yue Fei wrote the poem 'The River All Red'." It is printed under his name everywhere, but it first appears in the Ming (1368–1644), and scholars still argue about who wrote it.
Go into the hall first, then out through the side door to the tomb garden. An hour is enough.
The great figure of Yue Fei sits in armour under a board with four large characters: "Give me back my rivers and mountains". The board is said to copy his own hand. The ceiling above is painted with white cranes.
In the side halls are his son Yue Yun, killed with him, and some of his generals. On the walls of the corridors are panels telling his life, from his childhood to his death.
Leaving the hall for the tomb, you pass a long white wall with four huge characters: "Serve the country with utmost loyalty". These are the words the official history says were on his back. They were written for the wall by a Ming calligrapher.
Two grassy mounds stand side by side behind low stone fences: the larger is Yue Fei's, the smaller his son's. Stone officials, horses, tigers and sheep line the path in front, as they line the tombs of princes.
When the tomb garden was restored in 1979, two Southern Song stone figures were found buried beside the path. They show that this has been the place of burial since the Song.
Below the tomb, behind iron railings, four iron figures kneel with their hands tied behind them: the chief minister Qin Hui, his wife Lady Wang, and the officials Moqi Xie and Zhang Jun. The earliest that can be dated were cast in bronze in 1513.
Over the tomb gate is a couplet: "The green hill is fortunate to hold a loyal man's bones; the white iron is innocent, yet was cast into traitors."
A question to talk over: the order to kill Yue Fei came from the emperor. Why are only the ministers kneeling here?
| Year | Here | Elsewhere |
|---|---|---|
| 1142 | Yue Fei is put to death | At Saint-Denis near Paris the first Gothic choir is nearly finished |
| 1162 | His name is cleared and he is reburied here | Thomas Becket becomes Archbishop of Canterbury |
| 1221 | The temple is founded | Genghis Khan is campaigning in Central Asia |
| 1513 | The first datable kneeling figures are cast | Machiavelli writes The Prince |
| 1979 | The tomb garden is restored | The first year of China's reform and opening |
Films from official channels, played from YouTube. Nothing is loaded until you press play.
These are stories people tell about this place. They are legends, not history, and each one says where it comes from.
Before he went to war, his mother made him kneel and with a needle wrote four characters on his back, "Serve the country with utmost loyalty", and rubbed ink into them so that he would never forget.
Source: The Qing novel The Complete Story of Yue Fei (1684); the official history says only that the words were on his back
A cypress stood by the prison where Yue Fei was killed. On the day he died it withered, and its trunk later turned to stone. Pieces of it are kept in a pavilion in the temple.
Source: Temple tradition; the pieces are fossil wood of a much older age
Later, people who live here will be able to add the stories they grew up with, and say which of these they have heard.
Last checked 2026-11-12. Xinhua's 2023 report on the temple, Hangzhou news of 2026, and booking listings for the price; the temple's own website could not be opened from abroad.
Checked 2026-11-12
Opening hours are given in the local time of the place. Prices are in the local currency. The figure after ≈ is approximate, at exchange rates checked on 9 November 2026, in .
Stand at the site, sign in, press the button, and collect its stamp. Your browser will ask to use your location. It is sent to us once to confirm that you are at the site; we keep how far you were from it, not the spot where you stood.
Your stamps are saved to your account, so they follow you to any device. Checking from a browser cannot rule out every false location; stricter checks arrive with the app.
Photos here show the place, not people. Each one is credited to the visitor who took it and appears after our team has looked at it. A photo with you in it belongs under “I am here”.