玄奇世界＞小玄思見＞佛法思見＞A Cross-Cultural Dialogue Between Yue Fei and Joan of Arc

A Cross-Cultural Dialogue Between Yue Fei and Joan of Arc

Chinese / English

小玄

The Loyal Soul and the Holy Maid: A Cross-Cultural Dialogue Between Yue Fei and Joan of Arc

In the vast river of human history, certain names resonate across time and space, creating echoes in vastly different civilizations. Twelfth-century China and fifteenth-century France, worlds apart in every sense, each gave birth to a tragic hero who would later be sanctified: China's Yue Fei and France's Joan of Arc. Their stories act like a prism, refracting the parallels and subtle differences in how Eastern and Western cultures shape national memory and create sacred symbols.

I. The Calling: An Answer in Times of National Crisis

Times of crisis are the common prologue to heroes' tales.

With the Northern Song Dynasty fallen and the Southern Song clinging to survival under the threat of the Jin invasion, Yue Fei emerged. "Serve the country with ultimate loyalty" (four characters legend says his mother tattooed on his back) became his lifelong oath. He formed the invincible "Yue Army," driven by the ambition to "March straight to Huanglong Fortress and welcome back the two captured emperors." He became the hope for the Southern Song's northern expedition and national restoration. His drive stemmed from the core Confucian values of "zhōng" (loyalty to the sovereign) and "yì" (righteousness, duty to the nation and its people).

Over a century later, a similar drama unfolded in France. The Hundred Years' War brought the Kingdom of France to the brink of collapse, nearly absorbed by England. Then, a peasant girl from Domrémy, Joan, claimed to have heard divine voices calling her to save France. Disguising herself as a man, she overcame immense obstacles to reach the beleaguered Dauphin, the future Charles VII, and convinced him with her incredible conviction. She led French troops to break the Siege of Orléans, earning the title "Maid of Orléans," and escorted the Dauphin to his coronation at Reims, revitalizing French national spirit. Her strength came from absolute piety in God and her defense of the "legitimate monarchy."

II. Tragedy: The Collision of Politics and Idealism

Yet, pure idealism often shatters against complex political realities. These two military geniuses did not fall in battle but were felled by conspiracies within the very camps they swore to protect.

Yue Fei's tragedy lay in the irreconcilable conflict between his ambition to "March straight to Huanglong" and Emperor Gaozong's desire to maintain a tenuous peace. "Welcoming back the two emperors" posed a potential threat to Gaozong's legitimacy. Thus, under the machinations of the treacherous chancellor Qin Hui, the infamous "Mòxūyǒu" charge (literally "perhaps there is," meaning a baseless accusation) became a historical wrong. Yue Fei was eventually poisoned at the Fengbo Ting pavilion. His death was the cruel opposition of "loyalty" and "the ruler" in an extreme situation, the sacrifice of idealism to realpolitik.

Joan's fate was strikingly similar. Captured by the Burgundians (allied with the English) at Compiègne, she was sold to the English. A politically motivated church trial was staged in Rouen. Her greatest protector, King Charles VII, did little to save her, calculating the political costs. The court charged her with "heresy" and "witchcraft," denying the divine nature of her visions, and ultimately burned her at the stake. Her death was the result of a dirty deal between sacred faith and secular politics, a martyrdom of pure belief in the face of cold international power struggles.

III. Sanctification: From Wronged Spirits to National Symbols

The paradox of history is that the losers of their time often become the most powerful spiritual symbols for posterity. Both Yue Fei and Joan were transformed from wronged souls to worshipped "saints."

About two decades after Yue Fei's death, Emperor Xiaozong rehabilitated him to boost morale, posthumously granting him the title "Wumu" and later "Prince of E." Thus began Yue Fei's long process of deification. His story was immortalized in operas and novels (like The Story of Yue Fei), passed down through generations. Across China, people built Yue Wang Temples. The plaque "Return My Rivers and Mountains" inside and the iron statues of Qin Hui and his wife kneeling eternally before the tomb constitute a moral court judging loyalty and treachery. Yue Fei was no longer a complex historical figure but the ultimate paradigm of "zhōngyì" (loyalty and righteousness), integrated into Chinese folk religion and collective memory.

Joan's posthumous journey followed a similar path. Twenty-five years after her death, a nullification trial ordered by Pope Callixtus III rehabilitated her name. Centuries later, a rising nationalist France needed a unifying symbol. Romantics rediscovered Joan's story. She was beatified in 1909 and finally canonized as a saint in 1920, becoming Saint Joan of Arc. Her image was carved in stone, painted on canvases, and written into textbooks, claimed by different factions (from monarchists to republicans, even Vichy France and the Free French) as the dual protector of French patriotism and Catholic faith.

IV. Dialogue: Temple Worship vs. Canonization - An Eastern Flavour in a Paradox

Through this comparison, we see a fascinating dialogue between Eastern and Western paths to sanctification.

· Yue Fei's sanctification was historical and folkloric. Through official rehabilitation and folk temple worship, he embarked on the path of "miàosì" (temple sacrifice). This is a Chinese form of sanctification, deeply integrated with traditions of ancestral worship and hero veneration, emphasizing moral perfection ("loyalty") and a pedagogical function.
· Joan of Arc's sanctification was religious and political. Through the Church's investigation, beatification, and canonization, she embarked on the path of sainthood. This is a Western form of sanctification, where the Church grants sacred legitimacy, making her a powerful symbol fusing religious faith, nationalism, and political appeals.

However, a fascinating cultural paradox emerges: Joan's story, framed within the Christian context of an unbridgeable gap between God and humanity, narrates a tale of "a mortal attaining sanctity" that carries a distinct Eastern flavour.

In orthodox Christian theology, God is the sole, eternal uncreated creator, while humans are created beings—a chasm exists between them. Canonization is not "becoming a god" but the Church's recognition that one's soul is certainly in heaven and their virtuous life is a model for believers. Yet, on the level of popular imagination and national memory, the logic of Joan's legend aligns more closely with the Chinese model: an ordinary peasant girl receives a mandate from "heaven" (via angels and saints, akin to "天命" or the "Mandate of Heaven"), performs great deeds to save her nation, and demonstrates unwavering virtue. Ultimately, after death, she is "rehabilitated" and "ennobled" (canonized) by the highest authority (the Church) to become the nation's eternal guardian. This path of "achieving sainthood through virtue and merit" is functionally identical to the process that created Chinese "human gods" like Guan Yu, Yue Fei, or Mazu.

Thus, while her canonization is formalized by a Church ceremony, its cultural function remarkably resembles a Chinese-style "imperial deification," fulfilling a universal human desire: the hope that heroes never truly die, and that mortal efforts can touch and merge with the divine.

Conclusion

Yue Fei, China's "Prince of E," and Joan of Arc, France's "Maid." Their life trajectories form a remarkable trans-temporal echo: both answered their nation's call, were defeated by political conspiracy, and were ultimately needed by posterity, sublimated into transcendent national icons.

Their stories tell us that the birth of a hero stems not only from their achievements but also from a nation's understanding and shaping of its own history, values, and identity. Yue Fei was incorporated into and strengthened the existing Confucian moral system of "loyalty and righteousness," while Joan nearly created a new, fusion core of national myth for France, blending history and the supernatural. Through this cross-cultural dialogue, we gain a deeper understanding of why humanity always needs to cast tragic heroes into immortal symbols—because in them, we condense our shared imagination of loyalty, courage, sacrifice, and redemption, and that eternal yearning for light to ultimately triumph over darkness.