Feng Dao was able to serve as prime minister so many times, definitely because of his ability to assist the emperor. If such a good person leaves the court just because of a change of dynasty and in order to follow the emperor who has stepped down, this is a loss for the people! He doesn't care about the eyes of the world, how can a person who thinks about the people so much not be good?

"Zhong" is not such a simple word, not just a single word that occupies two characters, but has a multi-layered and multi-directional meaning.

Therefore, due to the factors mentioned above, the accusation that [Feng Dao is unfaithful] is not established to a certain extent.

Objectively, Feng Dao is a person who thinks about the people very much, and the author admires him a lot! can be the prime minister for decades, but he is definitely not an idle person. But as the history books say, many of the remarks praising Feng Dao in the Song Dynasty were ignored, so the author checked Ouyang Xiu's comments on Feng Dao before making such a conclusion.

Of course, in addition to the negative criticism of Feng Dao by many celebrities or writings in the past dynasties, there are also many famous works that have made positive comments on Feng Dao. For example, Xue Juzheng's "History of the Old Five Dynasties" in the Northern Song Dynasty, Wu Chuhou's "Miscellaneous Records of the Green Box", Wu Zeng's "Manlu of Neng Gaizhai", Li Zhen's "Collection of Books" in the Ming Dynasty, Zhao Yi's "Twenty-two Historical Notes" in the Qing Dynasty, and Wang Mingsheng's "Seventeen Historical Discussions". The six writings all believe that although Feng Dao is disloyal, he must not forget his noble private virtues.

Feng Dao's environment of the times made him have to be flexible

However, Ouyang Xiu didn't say a word about Feng Dao's private morality. He only said that Feng Dao "rarely can be pretentious in order to be famous in the world", and believed that Feng Dao's words and deeds were just pretentious. However, he didn't seem to know that the environment of the five generations in which Feng Dao lived had an impact on his way of being an official.

As we said earlier, environmental factors have a big impact. Feng Dao's era, the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, was a dark and turbulent era. There is a poem that says: "The dragon and tiger fought for several springs and autumns, and the five dynasties of Liang, Tang, Jin, Han and Zhou; In the light of the wind and the light of the waste, Yi Jun will change the country and pass the mail." It can be seen that there were frequent changes of dynasties and political turmoil at that time. However, Feng Dao was able to deal with himself calmly in troubled times. For example, "The Later Jin Dynasty" contains: "(Feng Dao) does not go to the face of difficulties, and when encountering problems, he violates both sides, and has nothing to do, but he can only deal with it smoothly", which means that when he encounters something that is not easy to do, he will not come out; If you can't dodge, you should ask for more instructions and don't take a stand, so that you can deal with it. If he didn't know how to be an official in troubled times, he wouldn't have been able to live a long life. Therefore, being tactful is a workaround for being an official in troubled times, and it can even be said to be a necessary condition, so when evaluating Feng Dao's conduct in the world, it should be considered from another angle.

In addition to the environment, personal factors should not be ignored. According to Lin Yongqin's "Confucius-Feng Dao on the Wall" and "Feng Dao, Prime Minister of the Four Dynasties", personal factors affect the commentary of historical books, especially Chinese history books. Because most of China's history books use traditional ethical and moral standards to classify and evaluate characters. As a result, people in the world, such as Ouyang Xiu, thought that Feng Dao was a rebellious minister.

Feng Dao is simple, honest, pragmatic, knowledgeable, and courageous

In fact, Feng Dao was indeed a man of selfish morality, knowledge, courage and foresight, and he did not completely "regard morality as a mustard". Even if he is admittedly unfaithful, he does not have a chance to turn around in history.

First of all, Xue Juzheng's "History of the Old Five Dynasties" lists Feng Dao's virtues a lot. For example, Volume 126 "The Biography of Feng Dao in the Book of Zhou" says: "Ding's father was worried and obeyed Jingcheng,...... Whoever shepherds give relics, and fights for corn and silk, they have nothing to suffer." Reflects Feng Dao's integrity.

and "Mingzong enters Luo,...... Moved to the middle of the book waiter, the criminal department of the book Ping Zhangshi. All lonely scholars, those who report their talents and knowledge, and those who are knowledgeable will quote them, and those who are not well-dressed and perform impetuousness will be put on their back." From the above, it can be seen that Feng Dao's style is pragmatic.

The above-mentioned noble private virtues such as Feng Dao's kindness, frugality, honesty, pragmatism, and gentlemanliness made him famous. Even the incident of welcoming Liu Yun in the late Han Dynasty was led by him.

As far as Feng Dao's knowledge is concerned, it can be seen from Ren Zan and Li Qi that he is very knowledgeable. One day, someone in the court told Feng Dao that Ren Zan (a university scholar) ridiculed his knowledge, and Feng Dao summoned Ren Zan to clarify, and said that he (Ren Zan) only knew how to show the right words (flowery words), but did not know the test questions (actual knowledge), which made Ren Zan ashamed. In addition, Li Qi, who had been the prime minister of Later Liang, was also accused by Feng Dao of not knowing geography, which convinced Li Qi.

Not only that, Feng Dao is very bold. I remember that Feng Dao recommended himself to envoy to the Khitan when he was promoted to the prime minister, and in the process of the Khitan returning to Beijing, he stayed for a while everywhere he went, and later returned safely. In fact, most people don't have the courage to recommend themselves as envoys, or they will rush back south because they are afraid. However, Feng Dao knew that even if he wanted to return south in a hurry, the Khitan soldiers and horses could quickly catch up with him, and only by moving slowly and calmly could he save his life.

Epilogue:

All in all, even though Feng Dao was disloyal, his personal virtues, wisdom and courage were indeed worthy of praise from the world. Although the positive and negative evaluations have their own merits. However, we should not ignore the historical facts of the other side because we agree with one side. At the very least, Feng Dao is definitely a legendary figure in China's troubled times!

Although history is cruel, if we don't give a fair evaluation to those who have contributed to the people, surely they under the Nine Springs will also be chilled by this, right?