When it comes to Yue Fei, a famous general in the Southern Song Dynasty, we will immediately think of his article "Man Jianghong: Angry Hair Rushing to the Crown": "Angry hair rushes to the crown, leaning on the railing, Xiaoxiao rain rests." Raise your eyes, look up to the sky and roar, and be fierce. Thirty fame, dust and earth, eight thousand miles of clouds and moons. Don't wait, the young man's head is white, empty and sad. Yue Fei learned martial arts as a teenager, and at the age of 20, he threw himself into the battlefield four times and participated in commanding hundreds of battles. At the moment when the Jin army moved south, the Southern Song Dynasty court was full of surrender factions, and only Yue Fei insisted on resisting the Jin. He successfully recovered the six counties of Health and Xiangyang, led the rebel army to the north, regained important places again, and defeated the Jin army in Yingchang. However, Qin Hui's framing led Song Gaozong to order the class teacher, which became Yue Fei's amulet.
Some people are dead but they are still alive, and some people are alive but they are dead. If you talk about stealing life and flattering the master, Qin Hui is the latter, and Yue Fei is the former. The words "loyal to the country" were engraved on Yue Fei's back, and after he died unjustly, they were also deeply engraved in everyone's hearts. Yue Fei's deeds have been widely circulated and become a legendary story, enshrined in the temple, not only recorded in the history books, but also put on the screen.
However, the image of Yue Fei in our hearts is often tall and mighty, with a jade tree in the wind, eyebrows and eyes like a torch, and movement like the wind, in short, handsome and perfect. However, what is the real Yue Fei like?The famous painting "Four Generals of Zhongxing" in the collection of the National Museum may give us some inspiration. Created by the famous painter Liu Songnian of the Southern Song Dynasty, the painting not only has the portrait of Yue Fei, but also the images of Liu Guangshi, Han Shizhong and Zhang Jun. Yue Fei is known as the head of the four generals of Zhongxing, and Han Shizhong is also outstanding in battle. However, Liu Guangshi was a famous "runaway general" during the Southern Song Dynasty, and Zhang Jun was Qin Hui's comrade, which was related to his murder of Yue Fei. Therefore, most people are reluctant to admit the title of the four generals of Zhongxing, which is almost an insult to Yue Fei's reputation.
However, the image of Yue Fei in "The Four Generals of Zhongxing" is a little difficult to accept. It turns out that we have been misled by legends and TV series for many years, Yue Fei's real appearance is not as handsome as we imagined, on the contrary, his original appearance is a national character face, high nose bridge, pointed nose, round eyes, wide forehead and sparse eyebrows, plump cheeks, and even some "general belly". Overall, he wasn't the handsome boy we thought he was.
It may be understandable that in the historical records, Yue Fei's arm strength is outstanding, and he must be a person with an amazing amount of food. Therefore, it is not surprising that he is strong, even somewhat plump. Such a physique, on the contrary, has a greater deterrent power on the battlefield. Therefore, the good or bad appearance is not a sign of authenticity.
Based on the analysis of all aspects, the image of Yue Fei in "The Four Generals of ZTE" has a high degree of restoration. The author Liu Songnian was a contemporary of Yue Fei, Yue Fei fought abroad all the year round, and Liu Songnian may have seen Yue Fei himself. This painting may be a more realistic restoration of Yue Fei's real appearance. It is only necessary to wait for the archaeological community to provide more evidence.