General Yue Fei
1684 novel by Qian Cai

General Yue Fei (Chinese: 說岳全傳) is a Chinese historical novel written by Qian Cai in the Qing dynasty. Consisting of 80 chapters, the first 61 chapters detail the life and adventures of Yue Fei, while the last 19 concern the exploits of Yue Fei's son Yue Lei after Yue Fei's unjust death.
Description
The author Qian Cai (錢彩) lived sometime during the reigns of the Kangxi and Yongzheng (1661–1735) emperors of the Qing dynasty. A dating symbol in its preface points either to the year 1684 or to 1744. It was banned during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor. There are two main versions of this novel. The original one had 80 chapters. There was an illustrated edition of this version published in 1912. The other version also had 80 chapters and was published during the reign of the Tongzhi Emperor (1861–1875).
Some people mistakenly take this novel to be historical fact when it is purely fiction.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “General Yue Fei” is 1684 novel by Qian Cai. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through General, novel and Qian, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “1684 novel by Qian Cai” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q15925801. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1661, 1735, 1684 and 1744.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “General Yue Fei” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.