author
1183–1234
A Southern Song writer and official, he is best remembered for preserving family history and defending the reputation of his grandfather, the famed general Yue Fei. His books also left behind valuable glimpses of politics, culture, and literary life in his time.
Born in 1183, Yue Ke was a Southern Song author, scholar, and government official. Sources identify him as a grandson of Yue Fei, and describe him as an active literary figure who also served in a number of official posts.
He is especially known for compiling works about Yue Fei, including Eguo Jintuo Zuibian, which later became an important source for the historical record of Yue Fei. He also wrote Tingshi and other books, and later readers valued these works not only for family remembrance but also for the way they preserve anecdotes, documents, and observations from the Southern Song period.
The dates in available sources are not entirely consistent: some catalog records list 1183–1234, while other reference pages give a later death date. Because of that, it is safest to say he lived in the late 12th and early 13th centuries and made his reputation as both a man of letters and a careful keeper of the past.