Feng Dao

Feng Dao (882 – 21 May 954),¹² courtesy name Kedao, posthumous title the Wenyi Prince of Ying, was a Chinese inventor, printer, and official. He was a government official during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, who served (in chronological order) Jie Yan and the Later Tang, the Later Jin, the Liao, the Later Han, and the Later Zhou dynasties. He was chancellor of the Later Tang, Later Jin, and Later Zhou dynasties.

For his contribution to improving the block-printing process for Chinese works, scholars have compared him to the German inventor and blacksmith Johannes Gutenberg. Traditional historians such as Ouyang Xiu and Sima Guang praised him for his various virtues but also vilified him for not being faithful to a single dynasty but being willing to serve a number of successive dynasties.

Life

Early years

Feng Dao was born in 882, during the reign of Emperor Xizong of the late Tang. His family was from Jingcheng (景城) in modern Cangzhou, Hebei. His ancestors had been farmers and scholars. Feng Dao himself was said to be virtuous and tolerant in his youth, studious and capable in writing. He did not look down on poor clothes or food and was willing to endure hard labor and poverty to support his parents.

Yan

At some point, he was invited by Liu Shouguang, one of the major late-Tang warlords, to serve as a secretary at the prefectural government of Liu's capital in modern . By 911, the Tang had fallen to the , Liu had first submitted to the Later Liang and then declared his own state of , and Feng had become a military advisor to Liu. In that year, Liu gathered his troops and prepared to attack in modern , , ruled at the time by a independent military governor () named . Wang was allied with the larger state and supported its opposition to the Later Liang. Feng tried to urge Liu not to attack Yiwu, arguing that the time was inopportune. This angered Liu, who imprisoned him but spared him from execution after others interceded on his behalf.