Feng Dao (882-954), a native of Jingcheng, Yingzhou (now northeast of Jiaohe, Hebei Province), joined the army in Liu Shouguang at the end of the Tang Dynasty. After Liu's defeat, he joined Zhang, a military supervisor in Hedong. Zhang attached great importance to his "literary performance" and recommended it to Li Keyong, king of Jin, as our time in Hedong. After the Tang Dynasty, Zhuang Zong was then Minister of Finance and a bachelor of Hanlin, while Mingzong was then Prime Minister. After the Jin Dynasty, both Gao Zu and the emperor became prime ministers. After the Khitan destroyed the gold, he became a teacher. After the Han Dynasty, he was appointed as a teacher. After the Zhou Dynasty, he still served as a teacher. Before Zhou Shizong's expedition to the Northern Han Dynasty, Feng Dao tried to dissuade and angered Zhou Shizong, so he was not allowed to join the army and instructed him to inspect Zhou Taizu's mausoleum. At that time, Feng Dao fell ill and died after the funeral, and was posthumously named Ying King by Zhou Shizong. It is this Feng Dao who has caused eternal infamy.
Although Feng Dao's biographies in Xue's History of the Old Five Dynasties and Ouyang Xiu's History of the New Five Dynasties have different comments on him, they are quite the same. Ouyang Xiu did not deny many good things that Feng directed, and even called him a "shameless person". For example, when he was a secretary in the army, he lived in a hut and slept on the grass without beds and bedding. The wages paid are spent with the servants, and they don't care if they eat the same food as them; The soldiers snatched the beauty away and gave it to him, but they couldn't transfer it away, so they found another room to raise it and sent it back after finding her parents. He resigned as a bachelor of Hanlin after his father died, and when he returned to his hometown in Beijing, it coincided with the great famine. He gave all he had to help the villagers, but he lived in a hut, plowing the fields and carrying firewood by himself. Some people have given up their land and can't farm it. He goes to the farm quietly at night. When the host knew it, he came to thank them, but he felt that there was nothing worth thanking. Do not accept gifts from local officials at all.
In the late Tang Dynasty, during Tiancheng and Changxing years, there were bumper harvests year after year, and the Central Plains was relatively stable. However, Feng Dao warned Mingzong: "I used to go to Zhongshan and cross the Jingxing natural disaster. I was afraid that something would happen to my horse and held the reins carefully. But when I reached the flat ground, I thought there was nothing to worry about, and suddenly I was injured on the vault. It is human nature to be safe in a dangerous place because of consideration, and in a peaceful environment because of relaxation of vigilance. I hope you don't indulge in pleasure because there is a bumper harvest and there is no war. " Mingzong asked him: "Is the people's life guaranteed after the harvest?" Feng Dao said: "It has always been that food is expensive and hungry, and food is cheap and hurts farmers. I remember Nie recently wrote a poem "A poem that hurts the family":' Sell new silk in February, cut autumn grain in May, cure a temporary sore, but gouge it out. I hope the king's heart will turn into a bright candle, not according to the banquet of resuming the front edge, but according to the escape room. ""Ming zong asked people around him to copy this poem and often read it by himself.
On another occasion, He Lin County presented a jade cup engraved with "Long live the National Treasure Cup". Mingzong liked it very much. Show it to Feng Dao. Feng Dao said: "This is just a tangible treasure left over from previous lives, and the emperor should have an intangible treasure." Ming zong asked what it was, and Feng Dao said that benevolence and righteousness were the treasure of emperors, so he gave a lecture on benevolence and righteousness. Zoroastrianism is a warrior without culture. If he didn't understand what he said, he asked the civil servant to explain it and said it would be adopted.
After Feng Dao became prime minister, "those who are lonely, those who cherish talents, and those who are knowledgeable", that is, those who are poor and have no background, those who are truly talented and enterprising, have been promoted and reused, while those who are noble in family, dishonest in conduct and impetuous in doing things at the end of the Tang Dynasty are bound to be suppressed or ignored. In any case, this is a commendable measure.
In the Ming Dynasty, Feng Dao and Li Yu appointed officials to print Confucian classics originally carved on stones by block printing. This is the first time that the Nine Classics was printed by block printing, which is an important event in the history of printing culture in China. It happened in the Five Dynasties and was inseparable from Feng Dao's personal role.
Feng Dao is most criticized for his political ethics. Needless to say, Ouyang Xiu called him "especially a traitor", which is a history of the Old Five Dynasties with a positive attitude towards him, praising "following the Tao and having the wind of the ancients; Tao's magnanimity won him behind the minister, and he had to question his "loyalty": "But how can you be loyal to the four dynasties and six emperors? "One husband, one woman and two husbands, people's misfortune is worse than repeated transgressions!" Before Fan Wenlan wrote A General History of China, he also spent a lot of time criticizing Feng Dao, mainly for his political ethics. These criticisms seem reasonable, but the conclusion is not so simple when analyzed in connection with the reality of Feng Dao's society and environment.
People like Ouyang Xiu, who were born in a peaceful world, were lucky enough to meet a scholar-bureaucrat in the Song Dynasty. Therefore, although he was attacked by slanderers from time to time and experienced ups and downs in the official sea, he was able to serve Zaifu after his death and gain the reputation of "Wenzhong". He doesn't have to make an alternative choice between more than one monarch or dynasty like a scholar who was born in troubled times or changed dynasties. You can also use the Spring and Autumn Legacy (see History of Song Dynasty, Volume 319, Biography of Ouyang Xiu) to judge Feng Dao and other disloyal ministers.
In contrast, Feng Dao is extremely unfortunate. He lived in the most frequent period of regime change in China's history. He lived in four dynasties (Tang, Jin, Han and Zhou) plus the Qidan, and the 11th emperor (Tang, Ming Taizu, Min, the last emperor, Jin Gaozu, Chu Gaozu, Han Gaozu, Zhou Taizu, Sejong and Liao Taizong). If Feng Daosheng was in the Qianlong period of Kangxi, his career had just exceeded half of the time when the emperor enjoyed the country. Needless to say, he couldn't wait for the Iraqi army, and these four dynasties were all conspiring to seize power by force, and the Khitan invaded indiscriminately; In addition to a few emperors, there are all kinds of misdeeds and tyranny. Shi Jingtang, the emperor of Jin Gaozu, sold land to lure the wolf into the room and became a traitor to his son. Even by Confucian standards, most of these emperors were "traitors" or despots with bad emperors. But in fact, they were all monarchs who ruled the Central Plains. Even Ouyang Xiu acknowledged their orthodox status and made records one by one. Therefore, unless Feng Dao lives in the Peach Blossom Garden or swims under the forest and "lives in troubled times", he has to serve these emperors and be loyal to them or one of them. It would be much easier to escape from reality, but if all the literati at that time were like this, would it really be up to those "thieves" and warlord executioners who took pleasure in killing people to rule the world?
When Ouyang Xiu severely criticized Feng Dao's "shamelessness", he provided a positive example to understand "shamelessness":
During the Five Dynasties, Wang Ning, a native of Shandong, was in charge of Zhou State (now Lingbao County, Henan Province) and died in office. Wang Ning has never had any savings. A son was still young, and his wife Li took his son to send his body back to his hometown. When she crossed Kaifeng eastward, she went to a hotel to stay. When the shopkeeper saw that she was single with children, she was suspicious and wouldn't let her stay. When Li saw that it was getting late and refused to leave the shop, the shopkeeper took her by the hand and dragged her out. Li cried and said to the sky, "as a woman, I can't keep this festival." Can I let people pull this hand casually? " I can't let this hand stain my whole body! "Pick up the axe and cut off his arm. Passers-by watched and sighed, some flicked their fingers to warn, and some shed tears. When Yin Kaifeng learned about it, he reported it to the court. The government gave Li medicine to cure the injury, gave him a generous pension, and beat the shopkeeper.
Ouyang Xiu knew that this was just a "novel", but he thought that "if a woman can still do this, she will know that there is a real person but she can't see it", so he taught Feng Dao: "Alas! Those who don't love themselves and are ashamed to drag out an ignoble existence know less about Li's style! " The implication is that even in the troubled times like the Five Dynasties, even women still have a sense of shame. Not only Li, but also the onlookers, Kaifeng government and court also distinguish right from wrong; There are just too few examples handed down from generation to generation. Li can break his arm, so why can't Feng Dao commit suicide to avoid "drag out an ignoble existence"? After reading this gruesome "virtuous woman" case, I was not moved by Ouyang Xiu's good intentions, but worried by the ancients. From Zhu Wen's succession to the Tang Dynasty in 907, to Zhao Kuangyin's accession to the throne in 960, there were six dynasties in more than 50 years, and the emperor had ten surnames. If the officials are loyal to the festival, there will be six collective suicides; If you want to be loyal to a surname, you have to commit suicide ten times; The Song Dynasty, to which Ouyang Xiu was loyal, would face a situation when the People's Republic of China was founded, and perhaps it would never have the titles of "Song Taizu" and "Ouyang Wenzhong".
On the contrary, Feng's contemporaries praised him. Feng Dao died at the age of seventy-three, which coincided with Confucius' life. "Everyone sighs". Fan Ju, a famous minister in the early Song Dynasty, commented on Feng Dao as follows: "He is generous in virtue, and looking back on the past, he has great talent. Although the dynasties have moved to business, people are silent. If it is a giant mountain, it cannot be moved. " ("Zi Jian" Volume 291 cited) Obviously, this is because Fan Ju and others have experienced at least two dynasties and two masters, and understand Feng's difficulties, which is not as convenient as Ouyang Xiu's just saying ready-made words. In fact, Ouyang Xiu may not follow Li's example when he meets some things. In the second year of Zhiping, Yingzong wanted to establish his biological father Wang Pu as emperor. Ouyang Xiu, who was involved in politics at that time, and Prime Minister Han Qi agreed that Tianzhangge served Sima Guang, Shi Yu Lv Hui, Fan Chunren and Lu Dafang opposed it. As a result, Lu Hui, Fan Chunren and Lu Dafang all lost face, while Jiang, who agreed with Ouyang Xiu's opinion, was recommended by him as an empire and regarded as a traitor by all. Ouyang Xiu's brother-in-law Xue Zongru bears a grudge against him and fabricates his life style. In order to get rid of the predicament, Jiang asked Ouyang Xiu to investigate. Ouyang Xiu was censored behind closed doors. Because of Sun Sigong's explanation, others were exiled by Jiang. Ouyang Xiu also tried to resign and was banished to Bozhou. This incident shows that Ouyang Xiu is not so aboveboard and does not necessarily have Li's sense of shame. Quoting classics to cater to the emperor's wishes and denouncing opponents has long gone beyond the scope of academic debate. Jiang's behavior shows that this person is a shameless villain, but it is obviously not an ordinary improper employment to recommend and promote him because he agrees with his own opinions. After being slandered, he didn't want to die as others asked, but accepted the examination honestly, taking demotion as the step. It seems that at the last minute, it is not as easy as talking about others. The Biography of Ouyang Xiu in the History of Song Dynasty said that he was "repeatedly annoyed by sweat", but his reaction was only to resign at most, indicating that he never had the courage to break Li's arm. Some people drink ginseng chicken soup as a report to carry forward the glorious tradition of hard work, simplicity and simplicity, and take a vast luxury motorcade to visit the poor and ask questions. After getting the green card, my son proposed to restrict going abroad, but after misappropriating public funds, he wanted public officials to understand the difficulties of the country. Or go overseas and accuse domestic intellectuals of having no independent personality, and then teach us how to be patriotic abroad; Probably all got the true biography of Ouyang Wenzhong and inherited the hypocritical tradition.
Another stain of Feng Dao is his attitude towards the Khitan. Fan Wenlan wrote: "He (Jin Gaozu Shi Jingtang) asked Feng Dao to salute Liao to show his respect for his father and the emperor. Feng Dao said without hesitation,' Your Majesty owes it to the Northern Dynasties, and I owe it to your Majesty. "Why not?" What a slave! "(A Brief History of China, Volume III, reprinted by Shanghai People's Publishing House 1965, p. 400) This matter is obvious in historical records, and naturally it cannot be taboo for the Feng Dao family. However, it is not difficult to see from a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between Feng Dao and the Khitan that he adopted a pragmatic attitude, which is essentially different from that of the traitor Shi Jingtang.
Feng Dao did not participate in the traitorous activities of Shi Jingtang ceding sixteen states. He said such things, but this is just his consistent nature. He is "funny and intelligent, floating and sinking" (Zi Tong Zhi Jian, volume 29 1). Because in order to please the Khitans, Shi Jingtang thought that only Feng Dao could act as an emissary, and he had already said that "this trip must be called Qing", and that "Qing officials should respect virtue and should not go deep into the desert", just pretending to care. Experienced Feng Dao naturally understood his situation and simply expressed his willingness. According to Yuan Tan's quotation in the History of the Old Five Dynasties, Lord Qidan sent someone to persuade Feng Dao to stay. He replied: "The Southern Dynasties were sons, the Northern Dynasties were fathers, and both dynasties were ministers. What's the difference! " Beautiful words, but actually I still don't want to stay in Qidan. He sold all the rewards of the Khitan, and all the money he got was used to buy firewood. He said to people: "The cold old people in the north are unbearable and can only be prepared." It seems that I have made plans to live in the north for a long time. When the Khitan Lord allowed him to go back, he asked to stay on the table three times. After being rejected, he delayed going on the road for more than a month. He rested on the road and left the territory of Qidan for two months. Puzzled, I asked him, "Others can go back alive and want to grow wings. Why go slowly? " Feng Dao said, "No matter how fast you walk, the other team's fast horses will catch up overnight. Can you escape? " Walking slowly will make them not understand what I really mean. "It can be seen that his apparent obedience is just a hidden means.
When Qidan destroyed the gold, Yelvdeguang, Emperor Taizong of Liao Dynasty, entered Kaifeng, and Feng Dao was called. When Liao asked him why he entered the DPRK, he got a straightforward answer: "Without the city and soldiers, how dare you not come?" Master Liao asked him again, "What are you, old man?" Feng Dao replied: "No talent and no virtue, foolish old man." Master Liao was very happy and accepted him as a teacher. Once I asked him again, "How can people in the world be saved?" Feng Dao said, "Even if the Buddha is born now, it can't be saved. Only your emperor can save it. " This alleviated the cruel measures of Qidan to some extent, and enabled him to secretly protect the Han scholars. When Khitan withdrew from the north, he and the minister of Jinshi moved to Changshan. When they saw the plundered women in the Central Plains, they paid to redeem them and lived with nuns. Later, they found their families to get them back. After Ye Ludeguang's death, the Han soldiers set out to crusade against the Khitan and expel the Liao Jia, and Feng Dao waited until the battlefield to comfort the soldiers, which greatly boosted morale. After recovering the lost territory, Feng elected a general to stabilize the morale of the army and the people.
Feng's purpose in making Khitan an envoy may be presumed to be his greed for the post-Jin title, so he should be called by the Liao Lord, and what he did afterwards cannot be said to be only for his own benefit. At that time, the Qidan army only occupied Kaifeng area, and Nanyang, where he was located, was not in danger. It is not difficult to defect to other separatist regimes. With his popularity and political skills, it is easy to win wealth and prosperity. However, he was willing to venture to Kaifeng, which reduced the losses caused by the invasion of Qidan in a complicated situation. Among the ministers of civil and military affairs at that time, they were bent on betraying their country for glory and striving to be emperors for their children and grandchildren; Take the opportunity to burn and plunder and make a fortune in the war; Do as master Liao says and dare not do anything; It's everywhere. Feng Dao's behavior is not wise, but it seems that he should not be demanding.
A few years ago, someone tried to defend Shi Jingtang's treason, saying that the Khitan was also a nation in the history of China, so Shi Jingtang's cession of sixteen states to the Khitan was not treason, but promoted national unity. This fallacy is not worth refuting, because at that time, Qidan was not a country as famous as the later Tang Dynasty and the latter Jin Dynasty, and Shi Jingtang's subjective desire and objective effect had no positive significance. However, it is unfair to think that selling to Qidan is guilty and selling to other Han regimes does not matter. Especially today, we must not take "the distinction between Chinese and foreigners" as the standard to judge the right and wrong of history, and so is the communication between Feng Dao and Qidan.
How should a person, especially an intellectual born in troubled times, realize his own value? At this point, Sima Guang and Ouyang Xiu are basically the same, that is, "if the monarch has had it, he will fight hard, and if the country breaks, he will die." Only a loyal minister can be considered ("Zi Tongzhi Jian" Volume 291 Minister Guang Yue, the same below). However, he also knows that "since the death of the Tang Dynasty, emperors have flourished and abolished, and those who are far away have lived for more than ten years, and those who are near have lived for four or three years", so he put forward a standard of "wise men": "If there is a state-owned road, you will see it, and if there is no road, you will hide, or hide in the mountains, or swim in the next generation"; Even if you can't be a loyal minister, you can always be a wise man, not an official or just a small official! This is actually a lie. Not to mention that in troubled times, a few people are free to "eliminate mountains", that is, they are running the world. If the emperor likes you, can you escape? Since Zhu Yuanzhang created a law that would be guilty of genocide if it was not used by the monarch, scholars had no freedom to disobey or cooperate. Although the world is big, where can there be mountains and forests to hide? Moreover, there is no strict difference between senior officials and subordinates, and there is no essential difference; Being a big official is a shame, and being a small official can keep the status of a "wise man". Isn't this a joke? If Sima Guang was born in modern times, he would know that it was foolish to be a "public servant" if he saw Zeng Guofan exterminating the "Guangdong bandits", Chiang Kai-shek killing them when he suppressed the Communist Party, or even trying to find out and overthrow ordinary citizens like party member and Bao Jiachang during the Cultural Revolution. On the other hand, Feng Dao is not absolutely free to choose to disappear in the mountains or travel to the next generation, but Feng Dao probably doesn't want to spend his life like this. He really did it. Ouyang Xiu, Sima Guang, we don't have Feng Dao's comments today. But there will be Zhang Dao and Li Dao, because intellectuals always have to play their own roles and realize their own values.
Now we can discuss the question at the beginning of the article. If Feng Daosheng is in the former Yugoslavia, what can he do if the country is divided, ethnic vendettas and religious conflicts occur? The simplest thing in nature is to "disappear the mountains". If you can't find it at home, you can look abroad. If you have money, you can live in a public house. You can be a refugee without money. You can be patriotic in a foreign country first, and then go back to patriotism when the world is peaceful. It is not so convenient to "destroy mountains and forests" in China, let alone stray bullets in the war. Intense national, racial and religious emotions probably won't keep you out of it, but they can prevent future generations from gossiping. The other way is to choose one side, be a loyal minister and do your best, so that you can win the praise of some people both before and after death. But onlookers can already see that no one in the conflict seems to have all the truth, and the price of loyalty to one side is bound to be mixed, or more loss of life and property. The more such loyal subjects, the longer the war lasts and the greater the losses suffered by the people. If there is a third way, it is to take the highest interests of mankind and the fundamental interests of the local people as the premise, regardless of personal reputation, break the narrow national, racial and religious concepts, use the wisdom and skills of politicians to reconcile contradictions, heal wounds, and seek ways to achieve peace and recovery. The person who does this may just be trying to realize his own value, but his contribution to mankind will undoubtedly be recognized by the whole civilized society.
Feng took the third way, although it was not very good, and it didn't succeed in the end. As he said in "Changle Old Confessions", "You can't unify the king, set the quartet, and be ashamed of the official. Why do you want to pick up Kun Gang? " However, compared with those people who are "lost mountains" or are blindly loyal to the country, he is undoubtedly more worthy of recognition.
This Feng Dao has a famous story. He used to make people read Laozi and lie down and listen. When he opened the book, he broke the taboo with the word "Tao" in the first sentence, but read: "Don't say, don't say, it's very unspeakable."
Judging from the traditional Confucian morality in China, Feng Dao should be despised. But in a specific historical environment, how can their personal fate transcend the shackles imposed by that environment, whether it is an emperor or a pawn? Admittedly, their personal character also played a decisive role in it, but the evaluation of them by later generations and history books put morality above historical reality. How to treat history and people who really live in it is really a problem. Ge Xiongjian also calculated a very interesting "number": from the back beam to the yellow robe, "there have been six dynasties in more than 50 years, and the emperor has ten surnames. If the officials are loyal to the festival, there will be six collective suicides; If you want to be loyal to a surname, you have to commit suicide ten times; This Song Dynasty, to which Ouyang Xiu was loyal, will face the situation that there are no literati to serve it when the People's Republic of China is founded. "