Yue Fei was a famed general of the Southern Song Dynasty who fought against the Jin invaders, and his troops were known as the Yue Family Army.
In 1130, the legendary general Yue Fei led his army to crush the Jin forces and recapture the city of Jiankang. But a decade later, the Jin commander Wuzhu launched another invasion, catching the Southern Song dynasty off guard and handing them a string of crushing defeats.
Emperor Gaozong of Song ordered Yue Fei to lead his army north to repel the Jin invaders. After several decisive battles, Yue Fei swiftly crushed the main Jin forces and recaptured Zhengzhou and Luoyang. Seeing the tide turning in his favor, he resolved to reclaim all lost territory and rallied his troops, declaring, "Let us storm the Jin capital at Huanglong Prefecture and drink a triumphant toast to our victory!"
However, the treacherous prime minister Qin Hui, who held real power in the imperial court, was secretly colluding with the Jin Kingdom. He forged an imperial decree, issuing twelve golden plaques in rapid succession to order Yue Fei to withdraw his troops. Then, falsely accusing Yue Fei, his son Yue Yun, and his general Zhang Xian of plotting rebellion, Qin Hui lured them to the capital and threw them into prison.
But having no evidence at all, they deceived themselves by claiming that Yue Fei and his son must have sent a treasonous letter to Zhang Xian, only to have Zhang Xian burn it.
At the time, another famed anti-Jin general, Han Shizhong, was deeply outraged by this injustice. He confronted Qin Hui directly, demanding, "You claim Yue Fei plotted rebellion—what evidence do you actually have?" Qin Hui evasively replied, "Though the letter they allegedly sent to Zhang Xian cannot be found, the matter may still have occurred." Fuming, Han Shizhong retorted, "To condemn Yue Fei and his men to death on such a baseless charge—how can the people of the realm ever accept this?"
But Qin Hui, stubbornly pursuing his own agenda, still had Yue Fei executed, ultimately earning himself eternal infamy throughout history.
Later, the idiom "Moyouyou" came to be used to describe fabricating charges to frame someone.
Source: *History of Song*, "Biography of Yue Fei"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "莫须有" came to describe fabricating charges to frame someone.