Qin Hui or Qin Kuai (January 17, 1091 – November 18, 1155) was a Chinese politician. He was a

Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

of the

Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...

in Chinese history. He was a contemporary of

Yue Fei Yue Fei (; March 24, 1103 – January 28, 1142), courtesy name Pengju (), was a Chinese military general of the Song dynasty and is remembered as a patriotic folk hero, national hero, known for leading its forces in Jin–Song Wars, the wars ...

during the reign of

Emperor Gaozong of Song } Emperor Gaozong of Song (12 June 11079 November 1187), personal name Zhao Gou, courtesy name Deji, was the tenth emperor of the Chinese Song dynasty and the first of the Southern Song dynasty, ruling between 1127 and 1162 and retaining power a ...

. Modern historians have blamed Qin Hui for being a

traitor Treason is the crime of attacking a state (polity), state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to Coup d'état, overthrow its government, spy ...

for his part in the persecution and execution of his political enemy,

, a general who fought for the Song against the

Jin dynasty Jin may refer to: States Jìn 晉 * Jin (Chinese state) (晉國), major state of the Zhou dynasty, existing from the 11th century BC to 376 BC * Jin dynasty (266–420) (晉朝), also known as Liang Jin and Sima Jin * Jin (Later Tang precursor) ...

during the Jin–Song Wars. He was also nicknamed "Long-legged Qin" ( zh, 秦長腿).

Life

Born in Jiangning (present days

Nanjing Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu is a coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province in East China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the List of Chinese administra ...

), Qin won

Jinshi ''Jinshi'' () was the highest and final degree in the imperial examination in Imperial China. The examination was usually taken in the imperial capital in the palace, and was also called the Metropolitan Exam. Recipients are sometimes referre ...

in the

Imperial examination The imperial examination was a civil service examination system in History of China#Imperial China, Imperial China administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the Civil service#China, state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureau ...

of 1115. During the Northern Song dynasty, Qin was an activist against the invasion by the Jin dynasty in the Jin–Song Wars. He was captured along with

Emperor Qinzong Emperor Qinzong of Song (23 May 1100 – 14 June 1161), personal name Zhao Huan, was the ninth emperor of the Song dynasty of China and the last emperor of the Northern Song dynasty. Emperor Qinzong was the eldest son and heir apparent of Empe ...

and Emperor Huizong in the

Jingkang Incident The Jingkang Incident (), also known as the Humiliation of Jingkang () and the Disorders of the Jingkang Period (), was an episode of invasions and atrocities that took place in 1127 during the Jin–Song Wars when the troops of the Jurchen-l ...

. Some years later, he suddenly returned from captivity in the Jin empire to the capital of Emperor Gaozong. He claimed some sort of miraculous escape but quite a number of people expressed doubt regarding his story. However, he quickly won the emperor's favor and became the Chancellor of the Southern Song empire in 1131. In the next year, he was removed from the position after impeachment. After some Song victories in 1137, the Jin empire was forced to reopen peace talks, and Qin gained power as a

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ''a ...

. With Qin's help, the emperor suppressed the war hawks and signed the

Treaty of Shaoxing The Treaty of Shaoxing () was the agreement and truce that ended the protracted military conflicts between the Jin dynasty and the Southern Song dynasty. It also legally drew up the boundaries of the two countries and forced the Song dynasty t ...

with the Jin empire. The emperor basically accepted the status of being a vassal of the Jin empire publicly. To open the peace talks, the national hero general

, who was famous for his military successes against the

Jurchen people Jurchen (, ; , ) is a term used to collectively describe a number of East Asian people, East Asian Tungusic languages, Tungusic-speaking people. They lived in northeastern China, also known as Manchuria, before the 18th century. The Jurchens wer ...

, was framed by Qin and his accomplices for disobedience and treason. Yue was soon removed from his position, arrested and executed in prison. Murdering Yue Fei is one of the most infamous acts by a government minister in the whole history of the Song dynasty. Qin became notorious, and (after he lost power and died) some people suspected that he was a traitor. Qin removed all his political opponents from the government by use of his control over the Imperial Censorate. Most of his enemies were exiled far to the south, and in fact several died on

Hainan Island Hainan is an island province and the southernmost province of China. It consists of the eponymous Hainan Island and various smaller islands in the South China Sea under the province's administration. The name literally means "South of the Sea ...

. He believed that schools should only teach "acceptable ideas" and practiced a strong form of censorship and thought control over the Imperial University. After Emperor Gaozong's resignation, the new

Emperor Xiaozong of Song Emperor Xiaozong of Song (27 November 1127 – 28 June 1194), personal name Zhao Shen, courtesy name Yuanyong, was the 11th Emperor of China, emperor of the Song dynasty of China and the second emperor of the Song dynasty#Southern Song, 112 ...

pardoned most of Qin's political enemies, including a posthumous pardon for Yue Fei. From that point on, Qin was constantly vilified by Chinese historians. He became one of the most important examples in Chinese history of a corrupt minister.

Story of Qin Hui and Yue Fei

'' The Story of Yue Fei'' states that after having Yue Fei,

Yue Yun Yue or Yueh ( ) may refer to: Places * Guangdong, abbreviated (), a province of China * Yue Nan (), the Chinese name for Vietnam * Zhejiang, commonly abbreviated (), a province of China Languages * Yue Chinese, a branch of Chinese, spoken ...

, and Zhang Xian arrested on false charges, Qin and his wife, Lady Wang ( zh, 王氏), were sitting by the "eastern window", warming themselves by the fire, when he received a letter from the people calling for the release of the general. Qin was worried because, after nearly two months of torture, he could not get Yue Fei to admit the false charges of

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state (polity), state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to Coup d'état, overthrow its government, spy ...

and would eventually have to let him go. However, after a servant girl brought fresh oranges into the room, Lady Wang devised a plan to execute the general. She told Qin to slip an execution notice inside the skin of an orange and send it to the examining judge. This way, the general and his companions would be put to death before the Emperor or Qin himself would have to rescind an open order of execution.Qian, Cai. ''General Yue Fei''. Trans. Honorable Sir T.L. Yang. Joint Publishing (H.K.) Co., Ltd. (1995) This conspiracy became known as the “East-Window Plot”. An anonymous novel was written about this called the ''Dong Chuang Ji'' ("Tale of the Eastern Window") during the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

.Trapped behind Walls: Ming Writing on the Wall
/ref> When asked by General

Han Shizhong Han Shizhong () (1089 – 16 September 1151) was a Chinese military general, poet, and politician of the late Northern Song dynasty and the early Southern Song dynasty. He dedicated his whole life to serving the Song dynasty, and performed man ...

what crime Yue had committed, Qin Hui replied, "Though it isn't sure whether there is something that he did to betray the dynasty, maybe there is.” The phrase "unneeded" ( zh, t=莫須有, s=莫须有, p=mò xū yǒu) has entered the Chinese language as an expression to refer to fabricated charges. For their part in Yue Fei's death, iron statues of Qin Hui, Lady Wang, and two of Qin Hui's subordinates, and

Zhang Jun Zhang may refer to: Chinese culture, etc. * Zhang (surname) (張/张), common Chinese surname ** Zhang (surname 章), a rarer Chinese surname * Zhang County (漳县), of Dingxi, Gansu * Zhang River (漳河), a river flowing mainly in Henan * ''Zha ...

( zh, 張俊), were made to kneel before Yue Fei's tomb (located by

Hangzhou Hangzhou, , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ; formerly romanized as Hangchow is a sub-provincial city in East China and the capital of Zhejiang province. With a population of 13 million, the municipality comprises ten districts, two counti ...

West Lake The West Lake (; ) is a freshwater lake in Hangzhou, China. Situated to the west of Hangzhou's former Hangzhou City Walls, walled city, the lake has a surface area of , stretching from north to south and from east to west. In the lake are four ...

). For centuries, these statues have been cursed, spat and urinated upon by young and old. But now, in modern times, these statues are protected as historical relics. There is a poem hanging on the gate surrounding the statues, it reads:

"''The green hill is fortunate to be the burial ground of a loyal general, the white iron was innocent to be cast into the statues of traitors.''"

The story of Qin and his wife are also said to be the origin of

Youtiao ''Youtiao'' (), known in Southern China as yu char kway, is a long golden-brown deep-fried strip of wheat flour dough of Chinese cuisine, Chinese origin and (by a variety of other names) also popular in other East Asia, East and Southeast Asia ...

Folktales

Xiyoubu

''Xiyoubu'' (西遊補 - "Supplement to the Journey to the West", 1640) - A

addendum to the famous Chinese novel ''

Journey to the West ''Journey to the West'' () is a Chinese novel published in the 16th century during the Ming dynasty and attributed to Wu Cheng'en. It is regarded as one of the Classic Chinese Novels, great Chinese novels, and has been described as arguably the ...

'', which takes place between the end of chapter 61 and the beginning of 62. In the novel, The

Monkey King Sun Wukong (, Mandarin pronunciation: ), also known as the Monkey King, is a literary and religious figure best known as one of the main characters in the 16th-century Chinese novel ''Journey to the West''. In the novel, Sun Wukong is a monk ...

faces a representation of his own carnal desires and is trapped inside of a tower full of mirrors, each with its own powers. One mirror causes him to travel forward in time, from the Tang to the

. There, some junior devils appear and tell him that the ruler of the underworld

King Yama Yama (), also known as Kāla and Dharmarāja, is the Hindu god of death and justice, responsible for the dispensation of law and punishment of sinners in his abode, Naraka. He is often identified with Dharmadeva, the personification of ''Dharm ...

has recently died of an illness, and so Monkey must take his place until a suitable replacement can be found. Monkey ends up judging the fate of the recently deceased Prime Minister Qin Hui. He tortures Qin into confessing his sins. These tortures include having millions of embroidery needles shoved into his flesh, being ground into paste, thrown onto a mountain of swords and spears, hacked into bits, forced to drink human pus, and his rib cage ripped apart to give him the appearance of a dragon fly. A demon is charged with using his magic breath to "blow" Qin back into his proper form. Monkey finally sends a demon to heaven to retrieve a powerful magic gourd that sucks anyone, who speaks before it, inside, and melts them down into a bloody stew. He uses this gourd for Qin's final punishment. Meanwhile, Monkey invites the ghost of

to the underworld and takes him as his third master. (He claims this completes his lessons on the three religions since: 1) the immortal Subhodi taught him

Taoist Taoism or Daoism (, ) is a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao ( zh, p=dào, w=tao4). With a range of meaning in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', ...

magic 2) the monk

Tang Sanzang Tang Sanzang is a Buddhist monk and pilgrim who is a central character in the 16th century novel ''Journey to the West'' by Wu Cheng'en. His birth surname name was Chen (), but having been found in a river as a baby--he was abandoned after bir ...

taught him

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

restraint and 3) Yue Fei taught him

Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, religion, theory of government, or way of life. Founded by Confucius ...

ideals.) He entertains Yue Fei until Qin has been reduced to liquid and offers the general a cup of Qin's "blood wine." Yue, however, refuses on the grounds that drinking it would sully his soul. Monkey then does an experiment where he makes a junior devil drink the wine. Sometime later, the devil, apparently under the evil influence of the blood wine, murders his personal religious teacher and escapes into the "gate of ghosts," presumably being reborn into another existence. Yue Fei then takes his leave to return to his heavenly abode. Monkey sends him off with a huge display of respect by making all of the millions of denizens of the underworld

kowtow A kowtow () is the act of deep respect shown by prostration, that is, kneeling and bowing so low as to have one's head touching the ground. In East Asian cultural sphere, Sinospheric culture, the kowtow is the highest sign of reverence. It w ...

before him.

Qin Hui the Stinker

The following is a folktale about one of Qin's descendants: During the

, the new Provincial Governor-General of

, who was a direct descendant of Qin and Madam Wang, had both iron statues thrown into the

under cover of night. The next day, the lake turned pitch-black and smelt of vomit. The townsfolk realized that the lake’s condition coincided with the statues' disappearance. When Official Qin arrived on the scene, the people questioned him about his relationship with Qin. Because he knew the statues had sunk to the bottom of the lake, he boasted, "If anyone can really scoop the statues out of the lake, this official is waiting to resign and ask for punishment." At that exact moment, the murky water became clear, and the statues drifted ashore as if propelled by an invisible force. The cowardly official bolted for his sedan when he saw this miraculous sight. The townsfolk pelted his sedan with rocks as he fled, many of them ripping through the curtain, giving him huge lumps on his head. That night, Official Qin escaped Hangzhou, never to be heard from again.

The mad monk sweeps Qin out of the temple

During the

Southern Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Ten Kingdoms, endin ...

there were two famous Buddhists named the "Crazy monk"

Ji Gong Daoji (, 22 December 1130 – 16 May 1209, born Li Xiuyuan), popularly known as Ji Gong (), was a Chan Buddhist monk who lived in the Southern Song. He purportedly possessed supernatural powers through Buddhist practice, which he used to hel ...

and the "Mad Monk" Fengbo. Fengbo lived during the time of Yue Fei and became famous for "Sweeping Qin Hui’s face with a broom". The story is told after having Yue Fei imprisoned on false charges, Qin went to the

Lingyin Temple Lingyin Temple () is a prominent Chan Buddhist temple near Hangzhou that is renowned for its many pagodas and grottos. Its name is commonly and literally translated into English as Temple of the Soul's Retreat. The monastery is the largest ...

to have his fortune read. There he was confronted by a laughing Feng Bo who asked, "

Cao Cao Cao Cao (; ; ; 15 March 220), courtesy name Mengde, was a Chinese statesman, warlord, and poet who rose to power during the end of the Han dynasty (), ultimately taking effective control of the Han central government. He laid the foundation f ...

was once a big hero, but where is he today?" The Prime Minister asked him what he meant in confusion. Fengbo said, : "The principles of heaven are clear. Loyalty and treachery are self-evident. Goodness and evil will be met by reward or retribution. You, as the Prime Minister, hold a lot of power. Why do you want to murder a man who is as important to the country as a pillar of a house? Does the safety of the nation mean nothing to you?" Qin countered, "Who is that pillar of the country?" "General Yue Fei!" screamed Fengbo. When Qin seemed unaffected by his words, Fengbo laughed and said, "What a fool! Repent now before it is too late." He then grabbed a broom and raked it across the Prime Minister’s face and quickly ran off. Feeling embarrassed, Qin returned to the palace a defeated man. The boldness of the monk caught the attention of the common folk. It is said he would appear in crowded areas and begin to sweep the floor, even in the cleanest of places, and proclaim "sweeping Qin" as a reminder to the people that they should band together to eliminate the traitor Qin from office. The "Mad Monk" was later raised to the level of

Arahat In Buddhism, an ''Arhat'' () or ''Arahant'' (, 𑀅𑀭𑀳𑀦𑁆𑀢𑁆) is one who has gained insight into the true nature of existence and has achieved ''Nirvana (Buddhism), Nirvana'' and has been liberated from the Rebirth (Buddhism ...

. The statues of the "Mad and Crazy Monks" were often seen together in various temples throughout the Southern Song dynasty. There are two such statues of these arahats in the ''Da Xiong Temple Hall'' of Zhan Tan Forest on the Jiu Hua Mountain. One of them is the "Crazy Monk"

in the form of a deity and the other is the "Mad Monk" Fengbo holding a duster in one hand and a broom under his left armpit, standing ever ready to give the wicked Prime Minister another sweep.An Allusion from History: A Buddhist Monk Feng Bo Upholds Righteousness
This is a derivative of an episode from The Story of Yue Fei, which mentions no "sweeping" at all. The fortuneteller's name was "Xie Renfu of

Chengdu Chengdu; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ; Chinese postal romanization, previously Romanization of Chinese, romanized as Chengtu. is the capital city of the Chinese province of Sichuan. With a ...

" and he told the fortunes of both Emperor Gaozong and Qin Hui, who were in disguise, in the ''Dragon's Intonation Monastery''. When Qin returned to the palace, he sent men to arrest the fortuneteller, but he had already fled the city, out of fear once he discovered who they really were.

Footnotes and references

Footnotes

References

*'' History of Song'' Volume 473, Biography of Qin Hui. *'' History of Song'' Volume 365, Biography of Yue Fei. {{DEFAULTSORT:Qin, Hui 1091 births 1155 deaths Politicians from Nanjing Song dynasty chancellors