Song China killed its leading general on a charge its chancellor admitted might not exist, held his family 20 years, then restored his name and reburied him

Yue Fei, born in 1103, was the leading Southern Song general against the Jurchen Jin. The chancellor, Qin Hui, wanted a peace treaty. Two other generals accepted bribes to support it, and Yue Fei refused. He was recalled in 1141 and jailed on a treason charge with his son Yue Yun and his officer Zhang Xian. When the general Han Shizhong asked what crime Yue had committed, Qin Hui answered that there "maybe" was one; the phrase mo xu you became a Chinese byword for a fabricated charge. Yue Fei died in prison on 27 January 1142, aged 38; accounts differ on how. Yue Yun and Zhang Xian were also put to death. Qin Hui ordered his house searched, and letters from the emperor were seized and stored in a state treasury. The family was held under guard. A 1178 citation said he "did not accumulate wealth." A prison officer, Wei Shun, is said to have taken the body and buried it secretly outside the city^†. In October 1161 an edict released the detained descendants of Yue Fei and Zhang Xian. In 1162 the new emperor, Xiaozong, cleared him, restored his titles, returned the seized letters and ordered a proper reburial by West Lake in Hangzhou. A temple was built there in 1221. Iron statues of Qin Hui, his wife and two others kneel before the tomb.