Ge Yunfei (, 1789–1841) was a Chinese general of the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

. He served in the

First Opium War The First Opium War (), also known as the Opium War or the Anglo-Sino War was a series of military engagements fought between Britain and the Qing dynasty of China between 1839 and 1842. The immediate issue was the Chinese enforcement of the ...

and died during the British capture of Chusan. Born in a military family in the

Shanyin county Shanyin County () is a county in the northwest of Shanxi province, China. It is under the administration of Shuozhou City. The Guangwu section of the Great Wall runs along the county. Near the section of the Great Wall are the historic villages ...

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , Chinese postal romanization, also romanized as Chekiang) is an East China, eastern, coastal Provinces of China, province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable citie ...

, Ge Yunfei learned

kung fu Chinese martial arts, often called by the umbrella terms kung fu (; ), kuoshu () or wushu (), are multiple fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in Greater China. These fighting styles are often classified according to commo ...

from his father. In 1819, Ge passed the local

imperial examination The imperial examination (; lit. "subject recommendation") refers to a civil-service examination system in Imperial China, administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureaucrats by ...

and acquired Military

Juren ''Juren'' (; 'recommended man') was a rank achieved by people who passed the ''xiangshi'' () exam in the imperial examination system of imperial China. The ''xiangshi'' is also known, in English, as the provincial examination. It was a rank high ...

title. In 1823, he passed the highest level of imperial examination and became military

Jinshi ''Jinshi'' () was the highest and final degree in the imperial examination in Imperial China. The examination was usually taken in the imperial capital in the palace, and was also called the Metropolitan Exam. Recipients are sometimes referr ...

He served for several years as assistant brigade commander in the navy based in

Huangyan ( Tai-chow dialect: Wông-ngæn K'ü; ) is a district of Taizhou, a city in Zhejiang Province, China. Huangyan has an area of and a population of approximately 570,000. It has an average annual precipitation of and an annual average temperatur ...

. In 1839, he was appointed as garrison commander of

Zhenhai Zhenhai is a district and former county of the sub-provincial city of Ningbo in Zhejiang Province in eastern China. It has a population of 200,000. History The town of Zhenhai grew up at the foot of Zhaobao Hill on a tongue of land at the m ...

of Zhejiang. In September 1841, the British army attacked Zhenhai. Ge participated in the defense of Xiaofeng Mountain (晓峰) and Zhushan Gate (竹山门). He led the troop to fight in the rain for several days but the British army eventually seized the Zhushan Gate. Ge and over 200 soldiers continued fighting with swords. After being wounded over 40 times, he died of a major wound through the chest. His corpse was carried to Zhenhai by a villager named Xu Bao in the night. The

Daoguang Emperor The Daoguang Emperor (; 16 September 1782 – 26 February 1850), also known by his temple name Emperor Xuanxong of Qing, born Mianning, was the seventh Emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the sixth Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning ...

wept after he learned Ge's death and gave him the pension as the level for a provincial commander-in-chief. Ge was buried north to Huangwan Temple, in the Sanquanwang Village of

Xiaoshan County Xiaoshan is one of ten urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province, East China. Xiaoshan was formerly a city in its own right, separated by the Qiantang River from Hangzhou proper, but the municip ...

References

Draft History of Qing The ''Draft History of Qing'' () is a draft of the official history of the Qing dynasty compiled and written by a team of over 100 historians led by Zhao Erxun who were hired by the Beiyang government of the Republic of China. The draft was publ ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ge, Yunfei 1789 births 1841 deaths Writers from Hangzhou People of the First Opium War Qing military personnel killed in action Qing dynasty generals Chinese military writers Qing dynasty science writers Qing dynasty poets Generals from Zhejiang Poets from Zhejiang