Feng Yansi

Feng Yansi

Feng Yansi (903-960) was the eldest son of Feng Lingkai, the Minister of the Southern Tang Dynasty. His grandfather moved to Feng Village, Xiuning County, Shezhou (Xin'an) (now Feng Village, Xiuning County, Anhui Province). His father ordered him to follow Li Min, the liezu of the Southern Tang Dynasty. After the founding of the people's Republic of China in the Southern Tang Dynasty, he became the Minister of the Ministry of officials and settled down in Guangling (now Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province), so he was called Guangling people in historical books.

Feng Yansi was a famous poet and prime minister in the period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. He served in the two dynasties of liezu and Zhongzhu in the Southern Tang Dynasty. He paid homage to the Prime Minister for three times, and finally became crown prince Taifu. His posthumous title was Zhongsu. Most of his ci poems are composed of leisure and leisure, with a strong flavor of literati, which has a great influence on the CI poets in the early Northern Song Dynasty. In the early Song Dynasty, diaoji Litan commented on its "profound knowledge, brilliant articles, and argumentation", and a collection of Ci Poetry Yangchun was handed down.

Life of the characters

When Feng Yansi founded the country in the Southern Tang Dynasty, because of his brilliant talent, he was favored by Li Min, the liezu of the Southern Tang Dynasty. He was appointed secretary Lang and asked him to make friends with Li Jing, the crown prince. Later, Li Jing was appointed marshal and Feng Yansi was the Secretary of Marshal's office. In the second year of Baoda (944), the second year after Li Jing ascended the throne, he appointed Feng Yansi as the imperial master.

In the third year of Baoda (945), Feng Yansi became the Minister of Zhongshu. Li Jing adopted the policy of Yansi and conquered Jianzhou, Tingzhou, Quanzhou and Zhangzhou in Fujian. Wang Yanzheng surrendered and Fujian was destroyed. Baoda four years (946), plus Jixian hall bachelor, Tongping Zhangshi (that is prime minister).

In the fifth year of Baoda (947), Chen Jue Jiaozhao was good at sending State soldiers such as Ting, Jian, Fu and Xin to attack Fuzhou. Li Jing had no choice but to order Wang Chongwen, Wei Cen and Feng Yanlu to attack Fuzhou, and they were defeated because of their fighting for merits. In order to save his second younger brother Yanlu, Feng Yansi resigned and became Prince Taifu. In the sixth year of Baoda (948), he was appointed as the Jiedu envoy of Zhaowu Army (now Fuzhou, Jiangxi Province). He soon resigned because of his stepmother's death.

In the ninth year of Baoda (951), Feng Yansi came back after three years of filial piety for his mother and was awarded the champion general Jun and Taidi Taibao. In October of the same year, the Southern Tang Dynasty sent troops to destroy Chu. Except for several southern states which were occupied by the Southern Han Dynasty, Chu was owned by the Southern Tang Dynasty. At this time, the territory of the Southern Tang Dynasty reached its peak, and now Jiangxi Province, Anhui, Jiangsu, Fujian, Hubei and most or part of Hunan were occupied.

In March of the 10th year of Baoda (952), Feng Yansi took Pingchu Gongjin as his left servant, and Sun Sheng (also known as Sun Ji) as his right servant, and he was the same as Zhangshi (the prime minister). In November of the same year, General Liu Yan of Chu rebelled against Tang Dynasty and sent Wang Kui, he Jingzhen and others to attack bianhao. The army of Southern Tang Dynasty was defeated and withdrew from Hunan Province. Feng Yansi and Sun Sheng invited themselves to resign.

In March of the 11th year of Baoda (953), Feng Yansi became Prime Minister for the third time.

In the second year of Xiande (the fourteenth year of Baoda in the Southern Tang Dynasty (956)), the Later Zhou Dynasty attacked the Southern Tang Dynasty on a large scale. After the Southern Tang Dynasty lost several states in Huainan, Li Jing sent Sun Sheng, Li Deming and others to seek peace. Zhou Shizong refused and took Sun Sheng back to Bianjing. Sun Sheng was executed by Zhou Shizong in November of the same year for refusing to reveal the truth of the Southern Tang Dynasty. Li Deming took the initiative to request to return to Jinling and persuade Li Jing to cede Jiangbei land and go to the imperial title to become a minister to Zhou. After returning to Jinling, Li Deming was beheaded by Li Jing for treason. After that, the Later Zhou army continued to attack Huainan, and the Southern Tang army was defeated one after another. In April of the fifth year of Xiande (958), only xialuzhou, Shuzhou, Qizhou and Huangzhou were left in Jiangbei area of the Southern Tang Dynasty, which was not captured by the Later Zhou Dynasty. Li Jing sent Liu Chengyu to yingluan town to present a table to Zhou Shizong. In the table, he called himself the leader of the Southern Tang Dynasty and asked to cede the remaining four states north of the Yangtze River, contributing hundreds of thousands of properties every year. At this point, the strike in the Later Zhou Dynasty. In May of the same year, Feng Yansi was dismissed for the third time, but he was still granted the title of Prince Taifu by Li Jing.

In May of the first year of Jianlong's reign (960), two years after his prime minister's death, Feng Yansi died of depression at the age of 58, with the posthumous title of "Zhongsu".

Feng Yansi's official career was bumpy, with three ups and downs. However, because of his erudition, broad mind and benevolence, he took a tolerant attitude towards his political opponents during his reign. Li Jing, the leader of the Southern Tang Dynasty, always trusted him.

Main works

Some of Feng Yansi's anthologies, yangchunlu, have been handed down in the Northern Song Dynasty, but those in the Song Dynasty have long been lost. The earliest extant edition is the copy of the famous and virtuous hundred Ci of Tang and Song dynasties by Wu Na of Ming Dynasty, and there are many copies in Qing Dynasty. However, the words in each book are not the same, and some of them are fake. In 1999, Zhonghua Book Company published a collection of 112 poems by Feng Yansi. (selected from selected poems by Feng Yansi, the second leader of the Southern Tang Dynasty)

External evaluation

Wang Guowei commented in his human Cihua: "although Feng Zhengzhong's Ci did not lose the style of the Five Dynasties, it had a huge hall, which opened the atmosphere of the Northern Song Dynasty. Both the middle and the latter masters failed to grasp their skills. Although Zhang Mi's works were recorded in Huajian in the Ci of the Southern Tang Dynasty, it did not appear in the middle of the poem. How could it be that the literary talent at that time was covered by the official fame? " Liu Rongzhai said in the general introduction of Art: "in Feng Yansi's Ci, Yan Tongshu gets his beauty, and Ouyang Yongshu gets his depth.". It also shows the charm of Zhengzhong CI. Chen tingzhuo said in the first volume of Yunshao collection: "Zhengzhong CI is the crown of the Five Dynasties, but it doesn't follow each other or pass it.

Chen Shixiu and Feng Xu once wrote a preface to the collection of Yangchun. In their preface, they both praised Feng Yansi as a human being, saying that he cherished the world, worried about the country and the people, and put his own thoughts in his little words.

Political talent and character

Feng Yansi's political talent and character are often criticized by political opponents as "flattering and treacherous" (Lu You's biography of Feng Yansi in the Southern Tang Dynasty). At that time, there was a fierce party struggle in the Southern Tang Dynasty. The Prime Minister Song Qiqiu was one party with Feng Yanji, Wei Cen, Chen Jue, Feng Yanlu, Li Zhenggu and cha Wenhui, while Sun Sheng was one party with Han Xizai, Chang Mengxi, Xiao Yan, Jiang Wenwei and Li Deming. The evaluation of Feng Yansi in the book of the Southern Tang Dynasty is mostly based on the description of diaoji Litan. Shi Wen, the author of diaoji Litan, is the second son of Shi Xubai, and Shi Xubai is a good friend of Han Xizai. Shi Xubai and Han Xizai once went to the south of the late Tang Dynasty together, and both of them were pushed down by song Qiqiu. It is for this reason that when writing diaoji Litan, Shi Wen criticized Feng Yansi, song Qiqiu and others, and praised Sun Sheng, Han Xizai and others too much. Therefore, the evaluation of Feng Yansi in diaoji Litan is mostly criticized by political opponents, which is unfair. In diaoji Litan, Shi Wen even slandered Feng Yansi for "being hostile to his younger brother Yanlu and estranged from his stepmother". In fact, Feng Yansi and Yanlu are deeply affectionate brothers and are filial to their stepmother. Two small things recorded in the book of the Southern Tang Dynasty are enough to prove this: first, in the fifth year of Baoda, his younger brother Yanlu died because of the defeat in Fuzhou, and Feng Yansi resigned his position to save him, which shows his deep brotherhood; second, in the sixth year of Baoda, his stepmother died, and his mother worried for three years, saying that Yansi was a traditional filial son.

In volume 5 of Huizhou Fu Zhi compiled by Zhao Jishi and Ding Tinghe in the Qing Dynasty, the biography of famous officials recorded a good story of Feng lingshe, the father of Feng Yansi: "Feng lingshe was the judge of Shezhou salt and iron Academy. He helped general fan Siyun to make trouble, burned the camp and made it fire. All the rebels released their soldiers to put out the fire. This is the popular feeling." Feng Linghe is a well-known benevolent elder in Shezhou. There is no doubt about the character of his sons Yansi and Yanlu.

In the biography of Feng Yansi in the book of the Southern Tang Dynasty, an incident about his treatment of political opponents is recorded, which is enough to prove Feng Yansi's noble character of being lenient to others. Xiao Yan, the then doctor of the Ministry of punishment, once denounced Feng Yansi's crime face to face in the court. Later, when Xiao Yan became the Minister of Dali, he mistakenly sentenced the suspect to death in the case of severing Li Jia's wife Only Feng Yansi defended his death: "Xiao Yan is the chief minister of Dali temple. If he wrongly sentenced a woman to death for her mistake, he will be punished by death. Now you are talking about killing the chief minister. Who will bear the responsibility of killing him in the future? "Then he suggested:" Xiao Yanlai has a reputation of integrity. Now the misjudged case has been corrected and pardoned, so he should be forgiven. "As a result, Xiao Yan was exonerated, which was greatly praised by the officials and the people at that time.

Huang Jinde thinks that the reason why Shi Lun attacked Feng Yansi in his textual research on Feng Yansi and his Ci is mainly focused on two times of military expansion: one is to invade Fujian, the other is to invade Chu. Through the analysis of historical facts, Huang Jinde believes that the main fault of the two failures is not Feng Yansi, but Li Jing's military strategy and his generals' failure to obey the unified command.

To sum up, Feng Yansi is a broad-minded, ambitious, persistent and self-confident, concerned about the country and the people, but not at the right time. If Feng Yansi had been born in the era of song Taizu, he would have become a virtuous prime minister with his mind and talent. The posthumous title given to Feng Yansi after his death is "Zhongsu", which is also a true portrayal of his life of loyalty, respect and benevolence.

Artistic attainments

Like Li Jing and Li Yu, Feng Yansi is also versatile, which is an important reason for Li Jing to trust him. Even his political opponents admire his talent and articles. According to diaoji Litan, Sun Sheng once accused Feng Yansi face to face: "you always despise me. I know that. Article is not as good as you, skill is not as good as you, humor is not as good as you. " Lu You's biography of Feng Yansi in the book of the Southern Tang Dynasty records Sun Sheng's words as follows: "Hongbi zaoli, ten students are inferior to you; humorous song wine, one hundred students are inferior to you." Although the two records have different characters, they have the same meaning. It seems that Feng Yansi is really versatile, good at writing and humorous. According to diaoji Litan, Feng Yansi was very eloquent. He "argued that the vertical and horizontal, such as the torrential rain, listen to the knee seat and repeatedly before, make people forget sleep and food.". He also works calligraphy. Peiwenzhai calligraphy and painting manual lists the names of 19 calligraphers in the Southern Tang Dynasty, including Feng Yansi. His

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