History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 794: The Death of Changle Lao 2
6. The joke teller who was delayed by the prime minister

6.1 Unreliable for a lifetime

When Feng Dao was in the Secretariat, a scholar came to pay him a visit. To use the words of the scholars, he came to pay a visit. Generally speaking, he came to pay a visit to the emperor with his carefully crafted articles and poems, seeking appreciation and support.

Feng Dao carefully read the young scholar's writing style and found it to be remarkable. He then looked at his name, Li Dao. So Feng Dao deliberately put on a stern face and threatened him, saying, "My name is Dao, don't you know how to avoid taboos?"

Maybe it was because Feng Dao pretended too well, or maybe it was because Li Dao was young and full of vigor, he got anxious and argued: "My Dao is Dao with the character 'cun' as the root, and you, sir, don't have Dao with the character 'cun' as the root. It's the same pronunciation but different characters, so what's wrong with that?"

Feng Dao laughed and said, "I'm just teasing you. Not only does my name not have Fang Cun, I have never had Fang Cun in my life. (Not only is my name without Fang Cun, but everything I do is also without Fang Cun)."

6.2 I dare not say, but I dare not say
Once, Feng Dao made a fool of himself when listening to his disciples reading Tao Te Ching, because the word "Tao" should be avoided, and the first sentence of Tao Te Ching is "Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao."

The retainer was holding a book in his hand and was about to give a lecture when he looked up and saw Feng Dao, who was listening. He was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat and hurriedly changed his words, saying, "I dare not say, I really dare not say, I absolutely dare not say."

Ciao: Then what else is there to say?

6.3 Two feet
In the early years of the Later Jin Dynasty, Feng Dao and He Ning were both prime ministers. Feng Dao was mature and steady, while He Ning was impatient. The two of them, one slow and the other impatient, became a common sight in the court, and also caused many jokes.

One day, the two were chatting. He Ning bought a new pair of shoes, and Feng Dao also wore a new pair of shoes. The fabric and style were almost exactly the same, and they were the same style. So He Ning asked Feng Dao, "How much did you spend on these shoes?"

Feng Dao knew that he was impatient, so he teased him on purpose.

Feng Dao raised his left foot and said slowly, "Nine hundred coins."

"Ah?!" He Ning jumped up on the spot, turned around and scolded his servants, "Why did you spend 1,800? It doesn't matter if you spend money and take kickbacks, but you are too bold, aren't you? Your appetite is even bigger, you dare to double my money..."

According to historical records, "the criticism lasted for a long time."

After cursing for a long time, the servants lowered their heads and dared not speak. At this time, Feng Dao slowly put down his left foot, then slowly raised his right foot and said, "This one is also nine hundred coins."

The senior officials present burst into laughter.

Request: The psychological shadow area of ​​the servants.

7. Advise Emperor Han

At the beginning of Liu Zhiyuan's reign, there was a "big bullhide case" that shocked the whole country and involved more than 20 people.

It turned out that when Liu Zhiyuan was gathering grass and storing grain in Hedong, he issued a wartime decree prohibiting private transactions and the use of cowhide by the people. If a cow died, it had to be reported to the government and the cowhide had to be handed over. Violators would be sentenced to death. This was because cowhide was an important strategic material in the cold weapon era and could be used to make armor and war drums.

Iron, copper, and leather are the yardsticks for measuring the stability of a regime. Generally speaking, loose control means that the government is in good order and the people are harmonious, while loose control means that there is war and chaos.

Liu Zhiyuan became the emperor from the governor of Hedong, and the law banning cowhide was promoted from local law to national law. Soon, more than 20 people in Luzhou violated the law. After the first trial, the local court sentenced them to death in accordance with the law and reported it to the central government for approval.

At that time, Zhang Can, the magistrate of Luzhou (under the Jiedushi, next to the judge, in charge of prison litigation, roughly equivalent to today's vice president of the procuratorate), attached a letter of his own, saying that the decree was a wartime decree that Your Majesty had to adopt when he was planning his great cause in Hedong (making the rebellion sound so fresh and unconventional), but now that Your Majesty is the Son of Heaven and the world is united, there is no need to use such strict decrees anymore, because it has brought great inconvenience to the people's production, and the disadvantages outweigh the advantages.

When I talked about the Later Han Dynasty, I had already described in detail the "harshness of Han law" and the struggle for power between the civil officials and the military officials. Zhang Can's memorial angered the authorities, who believed that it was a disapproval and contempt for the emerging Later Han court, so they exaggerated the matter and explained it to Liu Zhiyuan.

Liu Zhiyuan was really furious. How dare a small official like him make irresponsible comments on the central government? He immediately issued an order: The decree shall be executed as usual, more than 20 people shall be executed as usual, and Zhang Can shall also be sentenced to death!

Feng Dao was shocked when he received the imperial edict. He hurried to meet Liu Zhiyuan and said that the current ban on cowhide was indeed inappropriate. In addition, a small official in Luzhou, although his official position was humble and his salary was meager, was concerned about the country and risked his life to advise the emperor. He should be rewarded. How could he not be rewarded but killed? This imperial edict was too confusing. I had to risk my life to advise the emperor. If Your Majesty thinks that the adviser is guilty, then please kill me too!

Liu Zhiyuan remained silent. Feng Dao knelt down, bowed his head and kowtowed again, "Your Majesty, Zhang Can is innocent, please pardon him!"

Liu Zhiyuan was silent for a long time, and then said: "I can only express my regret, because the order has been issued."

Feng Dao said hurriedly: "The imperial decree has not yet been officially issued!"

"Okay, then take it back and pardon Zhang Can."

Feng Dao continued to pursue, "What about the law banning cowhide? That should be abolished too!"

"Okay, okay, that's it."

As a result, Zhang Can and the more than 20 prisoners were pardoned, and the law strictly prohibiting bragging was also abolished.

8. Anding Zhenzhou

When the Khitans conquered Jin and returned to the north, they took important officials such as Feng Dao and He Ning as trophies and forced them to go north. When Feng Dao and his men arrived in Zhenzhou, something went wrong. Yelu Deguang died suddenly while killing Hu Lin, and the officials supported Yelu Ruan, and then there was a "grandfather-grandson struggle for power" and a "crossing agreement".

Yelu Ruan was eager to lead his army back to Beijing to compete with his grandmother, Empress Dowager Shulü, for the throne, so he temporarily left Feng Dao and others in Zhenzhou. Later, the army and people of Zhenzhou took advantage of the opportunity to launch a mutiny and expel the Khitan garrison.

After the Khitan garrison fled, Zhenzhou fell into serious chaos. Feng Dao came forward to maintain order and commanded and dispatched troops in a proper manner. Zhenzhou soon regained stability. As a result, the military and civilians recommended Feng Dao, who was highly respected, to preside over Zhenzhou.

Feng Dao declined, saying that this was not something a Confucian scholar could do, so he nominated the cavalry general Bai Zairong to temporarily manage Zhenzhou. Although Bai Zairong soon became corrupt and was nicknamed "Bai Ma Yao", Feng Dao made the first contribution in maintaining order in Zhenzhou.

"The army and the people were thus at peace, and the chieftain of the Dao became more powerful." - "Old History of the Five Dynasties"

Not only that, Feng Dao also paid out of his own pocket to redeem the Central Plains women who were abducted by the Khitan, sent them to temples for temporary storage, and then found their families and returned them to their families. This is exactly the same as what he did during the "Liang-Jin hegemony".

9. Engraving the Nine Classics

At that time, woodblock printing had already been invented, but in the process, human errors such as omissions of words, phrases, and sentences were still inevitable. This led to the uneven quality of many books, seriously affecting the dissemination and inheritance of culture.

In the third year of Changxing (932) of the Later Tang Dynasty, Feng Dao petitioned Li Siyuan that because "the classics are inaccurate", the state should promptly publish a set of official books as the only correct version for circulation. So, under the leadership of Prime Minister Feng Dao and Li Yu, Comrade Tian Min of the Imperial Academy used the Kaicheng Stone Classics as the base to carve and print the Confucian classic "Nine Classics".

The "Kaicheng Stone Classics" are composed of 114 large bluestones, each of which is more than two meters high. The content is the 12 most important Confucian classics, including "The Book of Songs" and "The Book of History". It was led by Zheng Tan of the Imperial College during the reign of Emperor Wenzong of the Tang Dynasty and took seven years to complete. Because it was completed in the second year of Kaicheng (837), it is also called the "Kaicheng Stone Classics".

At that time, books were mainly spread through handwritten copies, which caused a lot of confusion and errors, seriously affecting the quality of the imperial examinations. The "Kaicheng Stone Classics" was the only official correct version designated by the court. It became a must-read for intellectuals and a reference for the calibration of various scriptures.

By the Five Dynasties period, woodblock printing technology had become very mature, so Feng Dao suggested using the "Kaicheng Stone Sutra" as the base plate and printing it in large quantities.

This massive project lasted 22 years, from the third year of Changxing in the Later Tang Dynasty (932) to the third year of Guangshun in the Later Zhou Dynasty (953), when all the Nine Classics were completed.

By the time the work was completed, all the main participants were no longer alive, except Feng Dao, who died the following year (954). Fortunately, Feng Dao had the pleasure of seeing its completion.

This work has only a few sentences in history books, but it has a pivotal position in cultural history. We can say without hesitation that it is because of it that Chinese civilization has been able to continue, and that we have what we call national identity and belonging today, and that the Chinese nation has no longer been divided into chaos after the "Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms".

Disclaimer: What I mean by fragmentation is the seemingly "cyclical" and top-down national tearing of the Spring and Autumn Period, the Warring States Period, the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, which is a collection of political thoughts and culture. Individual separatist regimes (such as the Three Feudatories in the early Qing Dynasty) or local uprisings (such as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom) are not included in the above argument. In other words, since the Song Dynasty, the fragmentation of the territory has not changed our consensus as "Chinese". "Reunification" is the common will and general trend of our entire nation.

All of this, apart from the great achievements of certain wise rulers, civil officials and military generals that we talk about with relish, should also not forget the hero on the front line where swords cannot be seen - the ideological and cultural front - Feng Dao.

(End of this chapter)