Qin Hui Statue at Yue Fei Temple

While most statues exist to honor an individual, these statues of Qin Hui and his wife, Lady Wang, along with two subordinates, were made for the purpose of humiliation. Presented kneeling on the ground with heads bowed in shame, these statues have been spit on, cursed, beat, and struck by shoes of visitors to this temple for centuries. But what did Qin Hui do to earn this legacy?

To answer that question, we must first meet Yue Fei. A general under the Southern Song Dynasty, he was tasked with repelling an invasion by the newly-formed Jin Dynasty. In what is called the Jin-Song Wars, Yue Fei's armies stopped the Jin from advancing south of the Yangtze River in 1129, and they defeated the Qi, a Jin puppet state, in 1135. In 1137, Yue Fei and his armies were preparing to retake the Southern Song capital of Kaifeng. What stopped him was not the enemy, but Emperor Gaozong himself.

Or rather, it was the advisers who were influencing him, chief among them Qin Hui. When the Jin captured Kaifeng in 1126, they took the previous emperor, Qinzong, and his advisers as prisoners, Qin Hui among them. However, Qin Hui reappeared in the Song capital only a few years later claiming a miraculous escape. Despite suspicion around his story, he quickly gained the trust of Emperor Gaozong. Qin's agenda was peace with the Jin, and he was willing to secure it at all costs.

In 1137, Yue Fei was recalled home. Emperor Gaozhong feared that if Yue recaptured Kaifeng, then the Jin would release Qinzong, threatening his own claim to the throne. But when Yue Fei returned, Qin Hui framed him on false charges of treason, and Yue was scheduled for execution. While accounts differ on exactly how Yue Fei died, what is known is that he was innocent, and that without him in the way, Qin Hui convinced Gaozong to sign the Treaty of Shaoxing, which made the Southern Song a mere tributary of the Jin.

Qin Hui only faced justice after his death. In 1163, Yue Fei's grandson published a biography of him, exonerating the general for his alleged crimes of treason, and idolizing him as a hero of China. Emperor Xiaozong posthumously pardoned Yue Fei, restoring his honors, and ordered statues of Qin Hui, Lady Wang, and Qin's two subordinates to be placed kneeling before Yue Fei's tomb. While the original statues are preserved as relics, replicas of the statues are still present outside Yue Fei's tomb, taking abuse from tourists to this day.