Feng Yan was a Han Dynasty native and talented since childhood, so he was recommended by many people to become an official in the imperial court. However, at that time, it was Wang Mang who usurped Han, and Feng Yan was very disgusted by Wang Mang's behavior, so he was always reluctant to join the army. Later, when the world was in chaos, Wang Mang sent the general Lian Dan to attack the Chimei thieves in Shandong, and Feng Yan was summoned by Lian Dan to serve as a military official.
On the way to the Eastern Expedition, Feng Yan began to persuade Lian Dan not to obey Wang Mang's orders to eliminate the Thieves in Shandong, but to find a suitable county town in the east to defend and wait for the revival of the Han Dynasty. To put it bluntly, the reason why Feng Yan came to become an official at the invitation of Lian Dan this time was to persuade Lian Dan to rebel against the new dynasty.
But Feng Yan was following the wrong person after all, and Lian Dan could be said to be loyal to Wang Mang and did not follow Feng Yan's advice at all. As a result of this, Lian Dan was defeated and killed in the course of the battle with the Red Brow Army, becoming a ghost. Feng Yan fled eastward after the defeat and came to Hedong County to live in seclusion.
Soon after, Emperor Gengshi ascended the throne and Wang Mang's regime was overthrown. In the first two years, Emperor Gengshi sent Shangshu servant Bao Yong to act as a general and gather in the north. At this time, Feng Yan saw the opportunity and thought of re-entering the career, so he came over to lobby Bao Yong. Bao Yong had always attached great importance to Feng Yan, so he made him a general of Lihan and the governor of Wolf Meng County. After that, Bao Yong followed Feng Yan's advice and cooperated with Shangdang Taishou Tianyi to jointly divide and annex the prefecture.
Unfortunately, the first emperor had a short life and was destroyed by Chimei. When Shangdang Taishou Tian Yi heard that he had failed, he sent emissaries to Luoyang to present jewels and horses to surrender, and Emperor Guangwu worshipped Tian Yi as Shangdang Taishou. However, Bao Yong and Feng Yan never believed that they had failed and refused to surrender.
Bao Yong and Feng Yan were furious about Tian Yi's return to Emperor Guangwu, and Feng Yan wrote a letter accusing Tian Yi of treachery. After being accused by Feng Yan, Tian Yi also sincerely explained that Emperor Gengshi had indeed died at the hands of Chimei, and in turn pointed out that Feng Yan and Bao Yong had ambitions to divide the prefecture and county. In this way, Bao Yong and Feng Yan have been fighting with each other with Tian Yi, and the two sides are constantly deadlocked.
Later, Bao Yong and Feng Yan were finally convinced that Emperor Gengshi was really dead, so they surrendered to Emperor Guangwu. Because of Feng Yan's reluctance to surrender, he has not been appointed. Later, Emperor Guangwu was relieved, so he activated Feng Yan. However, Feng Yan's career was still not smooth.
Initially, Feng Yan was appointed as Quyang Ling. During his term of office, Feng Yan killed the great thief Guo Sheng and others, and reduced his number to more than 5,000 people. For this reason, the imperial court almost gave him the title of official and knight. However, because of the slander, Feng Yan's reward could not be implemented. Later, Feng Yan was paid attention to by the Guangwu Emperor because he wrote to expound eight measures to govern the country, and he was almost summoned to the palace. However, because the people who had offended before secretly made the trip bad, they could not make the trip. Later, Feng Yan was finally appreciated by his cousin Yin Xing and Yin and was hired as a guest. But Feng Yan just in time for emperor Guangwu to punish foreign relatives on a large scale, and Feng Yan failed again.
After the defeat, Feng Yan returned to his hometown. In order to protect himself, Feng Yan even broke off his old contacts with his relatives. At the same time, in order to return to his career, Feng Yan also wrote to the imperial court to explain why he had become a guest of Yin Xing and Yin, and asked the imperial court to appoint him again. However, because of previous mistakes, the imperial court never appointed Feng Yan.
At home, Feng Yan was not idle and began his writing career. A few years later, Emperor Ming of Han took the throne, saw Feng Yan's article, felt that he was very angry, and wanted to use him. But at this time, a bunch of people jumped out and said that Feng Yanwen was exaggerated, causing Feng Yan to lose the opportunity to join the army again.
From then on, Feng Yan completely cut off the idea of entering the shi and devoted his energy to writing. Before his death, Feng Yan left behind fifty works, including: "Fu", "Qi", "Ming", "Saying", "Asking For Friendship", "Virtue", "Prudent Feelings", "Secretary's Saying", "Self-Introduction", "Official Record Saying", "Ce", etc., all of which were collected by Emperor Zhangdi of Han.