Some Thoughts After Watching "The Loyalty of Yue Fei" by Divine Performing Arts

Loyalty and dedication to one's country is the majestic belief that every patriot has. The solemn and moving story of Yue Fei's loyalty to his country has been inspiring the Chinese nation's sentiment of patriotism for hundreds of years.

Yue Fei, a famous patriotic general in the South Song Dynasty, lived in a poor family when he was young. He was very diligent in his studies and learned excellent martial arts skills. So he was a talented person who was both intellectual and acrobatic, a person with courage and wisdom. In the 12th century, China was invaded by a tribe from the North. Yue Fei faced a dilemma. On the one hand, he wanted to be loyal and to protect his country. On the other hand, he wanted to follow filial piety and take care of his elderly mother. Yue Fei's mother had a deep understanding of righteousness. To encourage her son, she told him, "Since ancient times, it has always been difficult to be both loyal to country and filial to parents." She persuaded him that as a man he should give higher priority to protecting his homeland and not worry too much about his mother. She took a needle from her hair and shared in bearing the pain as she tattooed four Chinese characters meaning "Loyalty to the country" on her son's back.

After that, those four characters became the mission and strategy that Yue Fei followed to serve his country. Yue Fei lived up to "Loyalty," "Filial piety," "Moral integrity," and "Righteousness" with his life. He paved the foundation of traditional culture in Chinese history and set a good example for teaching the later generations. His heart of absolute sincerity in serving his country has passed through many generations. His loyal and righteous behaviour won people's praise forever. The story the "Biography of Yue Fei" is deeply and widely loved by Chinese people. It was reported that when the "Biography of Yue Fei" story telling program was broadcast at a radio station, the crime rate was reduced to almost zero during that time. General Yue's loyal spirit and his high moral principles can even penetrate the barrier of time. His spirit moves and encourages the later generations to hold a patriotic sentiment all the time.

In 1949, a blast of evil wind brought a Western phantom to the Chinese homeland. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) became an official government in China. It forcefully brainwashed Chinese people one generation after another until they turned numb and indifferent. It destroyed Chinese traditional culture without any constraints. Comparing with any traditional culture, it is not difficult to see the nature of the Chinese Communist Party. General Yue's troops had very strict rules of conduct and were highly disciplined. Soldiers would rather endure hunger then disturb people. They borrowed the stores on the street to sleep in at night and in the early morning, they would clean the rooms and wash the dishes before they left. Thus they had a good reputation of "Not destroying any house even if it meant freezing to death, and not robbing food even if it meant dying of hunger."

However, in today's society controlled by the CCP, the city managers rob poor people's food supplies and vegetables in the light of day. They use the profits forcefully obtained from everyday citizens to satisfy their own desires like eating, drinking, visiting prostitutes, gambling and using drugs. As a result, everyday people's lives have suffered terribly

Yue Fei and other ancient people taught us that to be a man, one has to be "loyal, filial and righteous." The evil Party advocated the "Cultural Revolution," "Against the Right," and the "Against Three Movement, Against Five Movement." These movements turned Chinese children into enemies of their parents and painted a clear separation between parents and children. In today's society, people are considered as close enemies. The following phrases have become popular slogans among people: "Do not care about anything that has nothing to do with me," "If one is not for self, then the heaven and earth will kill that person." Today, the values of community slide down everyday and everyone pursues self-interest and profit. Besides these, the CCP crack's down on anyone who is perceived as being against it

On June 4th, 1989 in Tiananmen Square, it massacred college students. The army used tanks and guns and killed so many innocent students that the blood ran like a stream in Tiananmen Square. On July 20, 1999, it started to persecute Falun Gong only because they believe "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance." The CCP harvested organs from living Falun Gong practitioners to make huge profits in the organ transplant business. It tore down people's homes without their consent and shot Tibetans because of their peaceful protests. All these evil deeds are shocking and scary. The evil party also spread lies all over the place. The fear it created spread quickly through the people's hearts like a contagion until they became numb and indifferent to the value human life. Gradually, the wonderful national cultural spirit has faded and been forgotten in people's hearts.

In today's world, as the moral standard has gone down rapidly, the global 2008 Chinese New Year Spectacular from New Tang Dynasty Television and the Divine Performing Arts group awakened the deep memory that people have of those good virtues like truthfulness, kindness, forbearance and simplemindedness. Among those programmes in the performance, "The Loyalty of Yue Fei" presented the historic story of Yue Fei's mother tattooing the four characters on his back. When the curtain opens, Yue Fei and his family soldiers are practising martial arts to the melody of "Man Jiang Hong," portraying the magnificent co-ordination and energy of Yue's family troops.

All the performers playing Yue's family soldiers displayed powerful martial art skills by being smooth, quick, and capable. The grand and heroic manner of the performance validated the saying "shaking the mountain is easier than beating Yue's family army." In the show, the dancer expressed the heart-burning pain of Yue Fei's mother so vividly when she tattooed the characters on her son's back. Her expression was so touching when she felt it very hard to let her son go. The audience was moved by the sadness of the farewell. The strong heart of Yue Fei's mother passed to everyone's heart like a wave of electricity and people were touched, with tears pouring down like rain.

Yue Fei bit down on a white handkerchief and knelt down on one knee. His devotion to serve the country and not be afraid of hardship exerted profound effect. All the soldiers saw this and vowed to fight hard to protect their country. When I again heard the same piece of music that played during the tattoo scene, I couldn't control my emotion and tears rolled down my face. It truly called back lofty aspirations from the bottom of my heart. I can recall vividly how Yue Fei wore the Jin Jia (golden armour) and held the long-staffed spear and fought with the invaders. Under his command, the Yue family troops eliminated enemies completely wherever they went. I still remember the words that General Yue composed in his famous poem "Man Jiang Hong:" "Wait to start from the beginning, reconstruct the old land and build the emperor's palace."

People who saw the performance had lots of thoughts and laments, such as:
"Yue Fei's loyalty to his country represents God's will."
"It recaptured General Yue's figure in my mind vividly."

The Divine Performing Arts' "The Loyalty of Yue Fei" truly displays the hero's spirit once again. Yue Fei, you truly came back! You will again lead thousands of soldiers riding horses marching into a bright future!