[9] The Chronicle of Yue, Prince of E of Song (宋岳鄂王年譜; 宋岳鄂王年谱; Sòng Yuè È Wáng Niánpǔ) was written by Qian Ruwen (錢汝雯) in 1924.

[15] When his mother died in 1136, he retired from a decisive battle against the Jin dynasty for the mourning period, but he was forced to cut the bereavement short because his generals begged him to come back.

The young Yue Fei later becomes the adopted son and student of the Wang family's teacher, Zhou Tong, a famous master of military skills.

[citation needed] After years of practice, Zhou Tong enters his students into the Tangyin County military examination, in which Yue Fei wins first place by shooting a succession of nine arrows through the bullseye of a target 240 paces away.

After this display of archery, Yue is asked to marry the daughter of Li Chun (李春), an old friend of Zhou and the county magistrate who presided over the military examination.

However, Zhou soon dies of an illness and Yue lives by his grave through the winter until the second month of the new year when his sworn brothers come and tear it down, forcing him to return home and take care of his mother.

There, he defeats all competitors and even turns down an offer from Cai Gui (蔡桂), the Prince of Liang, to be richly rewarded if he forfeits his chance for the military degree.

Despite his family's poverty, [Yue Fei] was studious, and particularly favored the Zuo Zhuan edition of the Spring and Autumn Annals and the strategies of Sun Tzu and Wu Qi.

However non-historical or scholarly sources state, in addition to those already mentioned, Zhou Tong taught Yue other skills such as hand-to-hand combat and horseback riding.

One legend says Zhou took young Yue to an unspecified place to meet a Buddhist hermit who taught him the Emei Dapeng qigong (峨嵋大鵬氣功) style.

[30] According to history professor He Zongli of Zhejiang University, the painting shows Yue was more of a scholarly-looking general with a shorter stature and chubbier build than the statue of him currently displayed in his tomb in Hangzhou, which portrays him as being tall and skinny.

Although his literacy afforded him the chance to become a scholar, which was a position held in much higher regard than the common soldiery during the Song dynasty, Yue chose the military path because there had never been any tradition of civil service in his family.

His fourth generation ancestor, Yue Huan (岳渙), had served as a lingshi (令使) (essentially a low-level functionary),[33] but he was never a full-fledged member of the civil service rank.

Just as he was threatening to attack and retake Kaifeng, officials advised Emperor Gaozong to recall Yue to the capital and sue for peace with the Jurchen.

Knowing that a success at Kaifeng could lead to internal strife, Yue submitted to the emperor's orders and returned to the capital, where he was imprisoned and where Qin Hui would eventually arrange for him to be executed on false charges.

"[11] The Secrets of Eagle Claw Kung Fu: Ying Jow Pai comments, "Finally, [Yue Fei] received the 'Twelfth Golden Edict' [from the emperor calling him back to the capital], which if ignored meant banishment.

[51] A novel about this incident, titled Dong Chuang Ji (東窗記; "Tale of the Eastern Window"), was written during the Ming dynasty by an anonymous writer.

[57] Legend has it that Yue studied in the Shaolin Monastery with a monk named Zhou Tong and learned the "elephant" style of boxing, a set of hand techniques with great emphasis on qinna (joint-locking).

[12] Following his wrongful execution and the disbandment of his armies, Yue's men supposedly traveled all over China spreading the style, which eventually ended right back in Shaolin where it began.

[44][60] According to legend, Yue combined his knowledge of internal martial arts and spearplay learned from Zhou Tong (in Shaolin) to create the linear fist attacks of xingyiquan.

[61] As the story goes, he later traveled to Xongju Cave on Mount Zhongnan to receive a boxing manual written by Yue Fei, from which he learned xingyiquan.

He understood the essence of Hua Tuo's Wu Qin Xi (五禽戲; "Five Animal Frolics") and created his own form of "medical qigong" known as the Ba Duan Jin (八段錦; "Eight Pieces of Brocade").

[77] One legend states Zhou learned Chuōjiǎo boxing from its originator Deng Liang (鄧良) and then passed it onto Yue Fei, who is sometimes considered the progenitor of the style.

[81] At the age of 30, Yue supposedly wrote his most celebrated poem, "Man Jiang Hong" ("Entirely Red River") with a subtitle of "Xie Huai" ("Writing about What I Thought").

However, several modern historians, including the late Princeton University Prof. James T. C. Liu, believe certain phrasing in the poem dates its creation to the early 16th century, meaning Yue did not write it.

[82] Yue Fei is also the author of at least two other poems, "Xiao Chong Shan" ("Small Hills") and another "Man Jiang Hong" with a subtitle of "Deng Huang He Lou You Gan" ("My Feelings When I Was Climbing the Yellow Crane Pavilion").

It has been reported that male members of the Yue family were not allowed to marry anyone whose surname was Qin until 1949, and genealogical records attest that this rule was rarely broken prior to its nullification.

[90] Qin Hui, and in some cases Emperor Gaozong, were blamed by later historians for their supposed role in Yue Fei's execution and conciliatory stance with the Jin dynasty.

[citation needed] At certain points in time, Yue Fei ceased to be a national hero, such as in 2002, when the official guidelines for history teachers said that he could no longer carry the title.

The author Guy Gavriel Kay cites Yue Fei as having inspired the character Ren Daiyan in his novel River of Stars (ISBN 978-0-670-06840-1), which is set in a fantasy world based on Song Dynasty China.