History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 797: The Death of Changle Lao 5
3. Betray Liu Yun

Guo Wei entered Bianzhou, and then, under the pretext of the Empress Dowager, announced that Xuzhou Liu Yun (son of Hedong Liu Chong) was the heir to the throne, and summoned him to Bianzhou to ascend the throne. The person sent to Xuzhou to welcome him was the highly respected Feng Dao.

At that time, everyone understood Guo Wei's real idea, which was to lure Liu Yun out of Xuzhou and kill him on the way.

For Feng Dao, this trip to Xuzhou was comparable to the trip to the Khitan, and both would leave him with a bad name for the rest of his life. Feng Dao certainly knew what Guo Wei was thinking, but he couldn't help but ask before he left: "Is this really what you meant?"

Guo Wei pointed to the sky and the earth and swore an oath.

After Feng Dao set off, he sighed and said, "I have never done anything wrong in my life, but this time, I will make an exception."

The Liu Yun Group in Xuzhou also guessed Guo Wei's conspiracy and were reluctant to leave Xuzhou. But when they saw that it was the pure man, the man who was free from vulgarity, the man who was against vulgarity, the man who had never done anything wrong in his life, the highly respected old man Feng Dao who came to pick them up, Liu Yun chose to believe it.

Before leaving Xuzhou, Liu Yun said to Feng Dao in a heartfelt voice: "Mr. Feng, I agreed to go to Bianzhou entirely because I trust you. Otherwise, I would never trust anyone else."

Feng Dao felt as if his heart was being cut by a knife. "Thank you... Let's... get on the road."

Sure enough, after arriving in Songzhou, Guo Wei sent troops to kill Liu Yun.

Liu Yun knew that he was in great trouble, and said to Feng Dao in disappointment, "I agreed to come to Bianzhou because of your thirty years as prime minister, but now... Mr. Feng, don't you feel guilty?"

Feng Dao lowered his head deeply and said nothing.

Liu Yun's cronies drew their swords and said, "Let's take someone with us before we die. Let's kill this old liar first!"

Liu Yun waved his hand and said, "Forget it, he has no choice."

Feng Dao tricked Liu Yun into killing him, but after Liu Yun knew the truth, he showed mercy and spared his life. I wonder how much Feng Dao struggled in his heart after returning from Songzhou.

Does his conscience really not hurt?

"To welcome Liu Yun", forget it, let's not say anything nice about it, it was actually tricking and killing Liu Yun, betraying Liu Yun, this is one of the stains in Feng Dao's life that will never be erased.

4. Liang in the morning and Jin in the evening

This is another indelible stain on Feng Dao.

In that era when dynasties rose and fell and new and old monarchs came and went like a revolving lantern, Feng Dao had served four dynasties and ten emperors and was already accustomed to it. In his later years, he wrote the autobiographical "Changle Lao Zishu".

The whole article is full of a sense of superiority, and it makes no secret of its intention to show off and flaunt, which is very disgusting.

In the article, in order to "glorify his ancestors and bring honor to his relatives", Feng Dao spared no effort to list in detail his official titles, positions, honors, ranks, and titles of meritorious officials, as well as posthumous honors from his ancestors and the official positions of his son and grandson. His unique sense of superiority is evident on the paper.

Compared with Ma Huiyun, who never loved money, Ma Huiteng, who came from an ordinary family, and Wang Huilin, who had nothing, Feng Dao's show-off seemed so monotonous, boring and unpretentious.

Although Feng Dao sourly whitewashed the fact that he served Liao at the beginning of the article, "Khitan occupied Bianjing and was controlled by the Northern Lord, and returned to the Han Dynasty from Zhenzhou with civil and military officials, cavalry and infantry soldiers", in the following text he proudly showed off the honor of being rewarded by the "Grand Lord", "and was also awarded the title of Rong Taifu". This became another solid evidence for the haters to accuse him of being a "traitor".

Nearly half of this article, about a thousand words, is devoted to listing a long list of official titles and honorary titles that are beyond comparison. In the other half, Feng Dao describes his family rules and mottos in detail. However, it all seems like he is participating in the recording of a program called "A Date with Someone". For example, the well-known couple Li Moujiang talked about how to raise a qualified child, and the loving husband Wen Shihuizhang who got into trouble just after showing off his love. Let's take a look at the five generations of the "A Date with Someone" program starring Feng Dao:
"…From the grace of the country, all is in accordance with the family rules…Be filial to your family, be loyal to your country, say nothing unjust, and don't buy anything unjust. What you wish for is not to deceive the earth, not to deceive people, and not to deceive the heaven…"

Favor to the country, which country? Loyal to the country, which dynasty are you loyal to?

The Old History of the Five Dynasties made a sharp criticism, "However, having served four dynasties and serving six emperors, can he be considered loyal?" The "serving six emperors" here is not contradictory to "serving ten emperors", because Feng Dao had ups and downs in the political arena and assisted ten emperors, including serving six emperors as prime minister, so he was called "serving six emperors."

Therefore, "Old History of the Five Dynasties" points out that no matter how Feng Dao whitewashed himself, his posthumous title could not be Wenzhen or Wenzhong because of this.

However, the Old History of the Five Dynasties gave Feng Dao a positive evaluation objectively and fairly: "The way he carried out his duties had the style of the ancients; his generosity won him the respect of the ministers."

In his New History of the Five Dynasties, Ouyang Xiu directly denounced Feng Dao as a shameless person. "I read Feng Dao's "Changle Lao Xu" and saw that he was proud of his self-narration. He can be said to be shameless!"

So what does it mean to be shameless? Master Xiu explained that "If you are not honest, you will take everything; if you are shameless, you will do anything."

Ouyang Xiu also objectively recorded Feng Dao's positive image, "However, scholars of the time, whether wise or foolish, all admired Dao as a great elder and were happy to praise him."

Sima Guang also criticized Feng Dao in his "Zizhi Tongjian", saying that a woman should not marry two husbands, and a loyal minister should not serve two masters. However, Feng Dao served four dynasties and ten emperors... "In the morning he was an enemy, and in the evening he was a minister. He changed his face and words, and he never felt ashamed. With such great integrity, even if he had some small good deeds, how could he be praised?"

Similarly, although Sima Guang denied Feng Dao's actions in the face of major issues, he did not become a keyboard warrior, but raised a bigger question, "At that time, it was not just Dao who lost his loyalty, so how could he be the only one to be blamed?"

In a word, it was not Feng Dao who was wrong, but the whole world.

The Yuan Dynasty poet Liu Yin wrote a poem called "Feng Dao":
"It is difficult for a surrendered minister of a fallen country to retain his position, and a foolish old man has served in office for several dynasties.

It's just a waste of time to fight Liang and Jin, and I'll just leave the remains to Khitan."

From then on, "Morning Liang and Evening Jin" became a striking label for Feng Dao, and also a derogatory idiom to describe someone who has no moral integrity and is fickle.

Among all the evaluations of Feng Dao, they can be summed up in two points: the positive ones say that he has noble character and is highly respected; the negative ones blame him for the righteousness between the monarch and his subjects.

After the Five Dynasties, history entered a period of great unification - the Song Dynasty. Although the Song Dynasty basically completed the unification, the Western Xia regime (Xiazhou Li family) in the northwest and the Khitan regime (Liao) in the north existed almost throughout the entire period. In the Southern Song Dynasty, another powerful nomadic regime rose in the north - Jin. Against this historical background, the word "loyalty to the emperor" became particularly important, and Feng Dao was used as a negative example.

In the Song Dynasty, people needed heroes like the Yang Family Generals and Yue Fei, not heroes like Feng Dao. The compilation of the History of the Five Dynasties took place in the Song Dynasty, so Feng Dao's "shamelessness" was criticized and criticized to the point of being completely utterly humiliated, knocked to the ground, and then stepped on by thousands of feet, so that he would never be able to stand up again. This laid the tone of public opinion for the evaluation of Feng Dao in later generations.

There are a thousand Feng Daos in the hearts of a thousand readers. The merits and demerits of his works will be judged by future generations.

Feng Dao was born during the reign of Emperor Xizong of the Tang Dynasty. He experienced the reigns of Emperor Xizong, Emperor Zhaozong, and Emperor Ai in the late Tang Dynasty. He officially entered the political arena during the Later Liang Dynasty and quickly became part of the core power circle. He was active from then on until the reign of Emperor Shizong of the Later Zhou Dynasty. There are many people who lived to be over 70 or 80, but Feng Dao was the only one who could be active in the core power circle of the central government for four consecutive dynasties and ten emperors. Therefore, people say that Feng Dao is a living fossil of the "Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms". His life condensed the history of the entire Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.

Since we are talking about "The History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms", we have to spend more time on this living fossil. It can also be regarded as a short break from the intense military operations.

Next, we will return to Chai Rong’s perspective and appreciate the unification process initiated by this great emperor after the "Battle of Gaoping".

(End of this chapter)