The fate of the Feng Dao Biography and the old and new Five Dynasties History

Feng Dao in the Five Dynasties period was a famous political tumbler in history, and in the middle of the last century, Feng Dao was a typical example of a shameless literati. At the end of the last century, some historians, based on Feng Dao's handling of people when he was an official, and put themselves in his shoes in his political and social situation at that time, wrote articles to overturn the case for Feng Dao, and pointed the spearhead of criticism at Ouyang Xiu, and denounced his feudal defenders' behavior. In fact, there are many people in history who overturned the case for Feng Dao, such as Li Zhen of the Ming Dynasty. If we go back to the Song Dynasty, which directly inherited the five generations, the evaluation of Feng Dao is basically positive. Feng Dao, written in the early Song Dynasty and compiled by Xue Juzheng, then chancellor, is almost a moral perfection and a model for ministers. The evaluation of Feng Dao's "shamelessness" comes from the "History of the Five Dynasties" (later known as the "New History of the Five Dynasties") written by Ouyang Xiu. However, Ou Shi was a private work, written privately at home while he was ordered to revise the New Book of Tang, which was incomparable with the orthodox status of Xue Juzheng's "History of the Five Dynasties" written by Xue Juzheng, who was an official book at that time.

Ou Shi not only criticized Feng Dao, but also his standards of argument and the style of writing history seriously hurt the standing and behavior of the emperor's ministers in the early Song Dynasty, which was completely contrary to the official position. The seriousness of the above situation should be very clear to Ouyang Xiu himself, so before his death, Ou did not dare to show this book to people; After his death, the official family collected it in the Inner Province to prevent its spread, but it was only referenced by Sima Guang when he wrote the Zizhi Tongjian. In the Zizhi Tongjian, Sima Guang took a passage from oushi's Feng Daochuan about "courtesy, righteousness, and shame", but did not mention the title of the "History of the Five Dynasties". Subsequently, Sima Guang refuted Fan Qian's praise for Feng Dao's "Hou De Ji Gu, Hongcai Wei Quan", denouncing him as "the great festival has been lost" and "the especially of the traitorous courtiers". However, the Zizhi Tongjian was also a book of imperial records, and its influence was limited at that time. Therefore, in the final Song Dynasty, Ouyang Xiuzhi's "Records of the Five Dynasties" could not see the light of day. It was not until after the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty that Ou Shi was able to meet with the world, and soon became popular, and because Cheng Zhu Lixue, who was designated as a pseudoscience by the Song Dynasty, was also popular after the fall of the Song Dynasty, the rise of Science science played a role in fueling the popularity of Ou Shi, so that later, Ouyang Xiu's "History of the Five Dynasties" completely replaced Xue Shi's orthodox status, which was called "New Five Dynasties History", and Xue Shi was rarely mentioned from then on, and even fell into the situation of "if it survives". Therefore, today, people overturn the case for Feng Dao, but in fact, they overturn Ouyang Xiu's case. For Feng Dao, it was already a twist and turn. Of course, Feng Dao, written by today's overturners, did not return to the height of Xue Shi's praise that year. Standing in the position of today's people, exploring the reasons why Xue and Ou have different evaluations of the same historical facts and the same characters, and unveiling some of the obscurations and misunderstandings of today's people, it should be a meaningful event.

The characteristics of the "five generations" and the five generations of regime transformation

The peasant revolt launched by Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao completely destroyed the Tang Dynasty, and subsequently formed a period of "Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms" characterized by division and chaos, which lasted for more than half a century (907-960), extreme social turmoil, and extreme suffering of the people. In the meantime, five military regimes were established in succession along the Yellow River Valley, ruling the people with their extreme barbarism and violence. Beginning with Zhu Wen, who had been a general of the Huangchao Clan, who had established the Later Liang regime by force and conspiracy, the five dynasties and eight surnames and thirteen people who successively ascended to the emperor's throne were mostly extremely low-educated warriors, more than half of whom were descendants of the nomadic people in the northwest, who knew very little about Han culture and even held a hostile attitude. This is in sharp contrast to the situation during the Southern and Northern Dynasties when Liu Yuan and Shi Qin, who were also from Hu people, were able to read Mao's poems, Zuo Zhuan, and Book of Han. Therefore, the degree of destruction and darkness of China's socio-economic culture in the five generations far exceeded that of the "Five Hu Chaohua" in history.

In addition, the repeated invasions of the Khitan in the north at that time and the political situation of these small imperial courts for a long time, as well as the existence of some "tyrants" like Liu Songguang who divided one side and claimed to be emperor for a period of time, made the burden on the people of northern China at that time more and more heavy. These military strongmen who have seized power are personally brave and good at war, easy to kill, and do not know anything about governing the country except to satisfy their own primitive desires; And the bureaucrats who are his pawns, in order to protect their own positions, also do what they like, "taking charge of themselves with fierceness, and the punishment is high." The above two kinds of combined forces have formed a situation of "destroying each other and destroying each other and connecting soldiers and chaotic knots" for half a century. This was what Ouyang Xiu called the scene of "the fate of the people in a hurry to hang upside down." At that time, the inherent social order and civilization were greatly destroyed, the traditional etiquette and morality were destroyed, and the society disintegrated, resulting in the general cultural desolation and the barbarization and hooliganization of social customs. At that time, the phenomenon that the emperor had "righteous children" as heirs and emperor Lao Tzu had formed a rogue gang of "tenth-order fathers" showed that the traditional patriarchal system based on a stable agricultural civilization had been seriously challenged.

In addition, the Five Dynasties is a special period in Chinese history, not only because its regime rotation and succession to the throne were completed through war and military coups, but also because of its short duration and frequent changes, it is more urgent and violent, and thus more cruel and bloody. However, in this frequent power change, as the emperor's assistant, especially those who are prime ministers, can not be damaged by the change of the throne, with the establishment of the new dynasty, they will naturally become the new upstarts of the new dynasty, generally plus officials and knights, and some even hold the political power. Therefore, changing a master's son to an official once became a special scenery in the fifth generation, which was in great contrast with the old practice of "one dynasty and one courtier" in Chinese history before and after that. The reason for this is that most of the rulers at that time were warriors, who seized the throne by force, but they had to rely on civilian officials to govern the country. Because they know that a political regime must have a set of mechanisms on which to operate, must have someone to help draft proclamations and rules, and can ensure a relatively stable source of finance, as for the compilation of household registrations, the collection of taxes and other matters, must rely on civilian officials to do. Due to the long-term wars at the end of the Tang Dynasty and the five dynasties, the death and escape of the literati, the cultural people became scarce, and there were even fewer people who knew the law enforcement administration and the story of the imperial court, so retaining the former dynasty personnel became an appropriate and simple way at that time.

On the other hand, since the Tang Dynasty feudal towns and subordinates supported a certain general to seize the command of the formation of the custom, resulting in some civilian officials and military generals always pay attention to the new masters that may appear at any time, and communicate with them early, thinking that they will find a way out in the future, so once the seizure of power is successful, a group of people will also ascend to high positions. This overlap of the needs of both sides has accumulated over time to form the practice of preferentially meeting former imperial ministers for five generations. The stereotypes of the five generations directly affected the later Song Dynasty, so the Song Taizu yellow robe was added, and his treatment of his colleagues in the Later Zhou was still in accordance with the rules. At that time, it was the era when Confucianism was extremely weak and the theory of loyalty to the king had lost its premise and conditions, and although a scholar such as Feng Dao also read the Confucian classics, due to the long period of abnormal power change, the object of his loyalty became blurred, so he could only agree with or had to obey the new political order and rules of the game, so that "it is not a trivial idea to see the loss of the king and the fall of the country" (Ou Shi", Feng Daochuan) became a common social phenomenon. After the Song Dynasty, Confucianism was revived, and historians like Ouyang Xiu, who took the promotion of Confucianism as their mission and took Confucius's Spring and Autumn righteousness as the criterion, were bound to be deeply resentful of the social and political pattern of the Five Dynasties, and even less could they tolerate this situation repeating itself in the future. Therefore, he wanted to denounce the actions of the five generations of monarchs. However, song was born out of the five generations, the historical matrix, and there is an indissoluble connection between the two, which not only criticizes the five generations but also must maintain the dilemma of the current dynasty, so that Ouyang Xiu can only use the "Spring and Autumn Brushwork" to express his historical love and hatred with small words. It is precisely the above historical background that determines the different historical destinies of the two five-generation histories.

About Feng Dao and Xue Xiu's History of the Five Dynasties

Xue Juzheng was instructed to revise the history of the Five Dynasties, with the aim of summarizing history and providing a basis for legitimacy for the establishment of a new dynasty. The founding of the Song Dynasty was carried out in accordance with the model of the Five Dynasties, so the change of power in the Five Dynasties, that is, the destruction of the country, can only be written directly, and there must be no value judgment of right and wrong. For the five generations of figures, their deeds are also remembered, regardless of their loyalty. In Xue Shi's writings, the rotation of the five generations is a normal change of dynasties, and the retention of courtiers is more of a normal promotion. Of course, such a method of governing history could not be approved by Ouyang Xiu. He hoped that through his whispers and curved pens, he would endow the morality and right and wrong of Confucianism to history, so that future generations could avoid and imitate them.

Ouyang Xiu's attack on Xue Juzheng's "History of the Old Five Dynasties" was based on Feng Dao, and if he understood Feng Dao, he could make the two old "Five Dynasties History" different value orientations.

Feng Dao, a native of Jingcheng, Yingzhou (present-day Jiaohe, Hebei), was born during the reign of Emperor Wuzong of Tang (c. 882). He was born in a troubled world, his family was poor, but he studied hard, personally farmed, and his character and learning were highly praised at that time. The "Old Five Dynasties History Feng Dao Biography" says: "The Tao is pure and thick, the beginning of learning good and belonging to the text, not ashamed of evil clothes and bad food, negative rice and relatives, only to wear chanting and satire." Although the snow is full of households, the dust is full of dust, and Zhan Ruye!" Ou Shi also wrote the following about him: "The Tao is able to work hard for oneself and be frugal. When Jin and Liang were in the middle of the river, Daoju was in the army, for a grass temple, lying on a bunch of . The income is the same as the food and drink with the servants, and it is as good as it is. "The history of Europe also records such a thing, the generals plundered beautiful women and gave them to Feng Dao, Feng Dao did not dare to refuse, but could only pretend to accept, but at the same time placed these women in another place, and after the war subsided, they visited their relatives and sent them back. When Feng Daoju's father was bereaved, he lived in his hometown of Jingcheng, and when there was a famine, he "knew all about the countryside" and himself "returned to the wilderness". He found that because the townspeople "have barren fields and do not cultivate" and "those who cannot cultivate by force", they "go to the night to cultivate for it". However, when the owner of the field knew the truth and thanked him, he did not think that he was virtuous in doing so, so he did not accept the gratitude of the other party.

Feng Dao was made a Youzhou Commandery by Liu Songguang in The Heavenly Emperor (c. 907–917), and later became a Hanlin scholar of Emperor Zhuangzong of Later Tang, who served as a scholar of Duanmingdian At the time, Zhongshu Shilang, Shangshu of the Punishment Department, and Pingzhangshi (Zai Chancellor), and later promoted to Shangshu Zuo Shu and the Duke of Shiping County. After The establishment of Shi Jingyao, Feng Dao became the prime minister. Liu Zhiyuan established Han and served as a Taishi .D. By the time of the Later Zhou Dynasty, Feng Dao was Shang Shu Ling. He also served as chancellor of the Khitan Emperor Yelü Deguang. Feng Dao occupies the position of four of the five generations, which is rare in Chinese history. However, Feng Dao is by no means the kind of mediocre person who is just dependent on power and has a vegetarian diet, and in his more than thirty years of political career, he has tried his best to do some good things for the people. His reputation and ability to do things were valued at that time, and also decorated the façade for those emperors who were born in warriors, which saved them a lot of worries.

Feng Dao is well aware of the people's feelings, diligent in doing things, and "longer than the chant, made of pen, in addition to the beauty, righteousness contains the ancient way". He is insightful in everything and has his own unique views on many things. Once he told Tang Mingzong that he "had served as an envoy to Zhongshan, through the path of Jingxing, and his horse had been lost, and he did not dare to neglect the title; And when the earth is flat, there is no re-control, and it is turned upside down by the horse, and it is almost damaged." This passage is the source of the idiom "not to fall on the mountain but to fall in the valley". He used his personal experience to warn Emperor Mingzong to think of danger in times of peace. Once Emperor Mingzong asked him, "Although the world is ripe (agricultural harvest), will the people be able to help (tide over the difficulties)?" Feng Dao replied, "Gu Gui is hungry for farmers, and Gu Gui is hurting farmers, this common sense is also!" This "Feng's Law", which has plagued China for thousands of years, is often ignored by the sages and sages of the past. He once quoted Nie Yizhong's poem to Emperor Mingzong: "Selling new silk in February, autumn valley in May, healing the sores in front of your eyes, but cutting off the flesh of your heart..." This poem describing the plight of peasants was thus passed down. Tang Mingzong was a rare sage in the five generations, and if Feng Dao had been under such a wise lord, he might have become a famous and virtuous figure in history. However, Feng Dao was in a chaotic world, and he had to rotate around one fierce and brutal emperor after another as the regime took over. The first thing he had to think about was how to save his life. To the emperors of the time, Feng Dao and his colleagues were just literate clerks. As far as Feng Dao himself was concerned, the only thing he could do was to strive to become a shock absorber of that kind of barbaric tyranny, and let the small people live within their capabilities. He deeply understood the supremacy of imperial power and the lawlessness of emperors. In response to the Khitan Emperor's question, "How can the people of the world be saved?", Feng Dao replied: "At this time, the people, the Buddha cannot be rescued again, but the emperor can save them." It is said that this answer caused Yelü Deguang to abandon his plan to turn the Yellow River into pastures.

In China, the real power of the dynasty was military power, so although Feng Dao was in a position of power, he never touched on military affairs. Once, Shi Jingyao, the grandfather of the Jin Dynasty, asked about military affairs and replied, "The crusade is not to be decided by the court." The subject is a scholar who has kept the rules of the past for His Majesty and does not dare to make a single mistake. In the Ming Dynasty, he also asked Yi Rong about things, and it was also Yi Si who answered. "This is a clear statement to the emperor that the military power is in your sole hands, and I am just following the old rules and doing my duty as a clerk." Moreover, Feng Dao could also be self-effacing and degrade himself as much as possible in front of the emperor. Once, Yerushalayim asked him sarcastically, "What kind of old man is Er?" Feng Dao replied, "Talentless, unscrupulous old man." Because he understood his identity and status, in order to avoid disasters and for the throne of Paul, he never slandered the emperor's improper behavior (the history said that he was "the ninth prince of the past, and did not try to slander"). These are the reasons why he has been able to go through the ages without falling.

Feng Dao died in the first year of the Later Zhou Dynasty (954), only six years after the Song Taizu Chen Qiao mutiny, at the age of seventy-three, when it was said that he lived with Confucius and posthumously crowned the King of Ying, which can be described as a great honor. Xue Shi commented that he "has the style of the ancients, and his yu is deeply rooted in the body of the minister". For example, as far as Feng Dao's private morality is concerned, Xue Shi's evaluation should be basically appropriate. However, if we consider the special historical environment of the "Five Dynasties" in which Feng Dao is located, and consider his attitude and role in the historical coup, the above evaluation will inevitably leave people with too many doubts. Therefore, Xue Shi's evaluation only represents a certain political purpose of the Song Dynasty. Feng Dao, Zhao Kuangyin, and the founding ministers of the Song Dynasty were all colleagues of the Later Zhou Dynasty, and their standing and behavior were exactly the same about the way of regime change that was accustomed to at that time. Zhao Kuangyin did not have to talk about it. For example, Fan Qian, who was listed as the first person of Wen Chen in the History of Song, had a similar experience with Feng Dao. Fan Zhen was a four-year scholar of Later Tang Changxing and later a Hanlin scholar. In the Later Tang Dynasty, zhongshu sheren. Entering the Zhou Dynasty, he served as a Zhongshu Waiter, a Pingzhangshi, a scholar of Jixiandian University, and also a member of the Privy Council. All of the above positions are different titles or titles of prime minister. According to his official rank, he was Zhao Kuangyin's superior. When Zhou Shizong Chai Rong was dying, Fan was a minister of honor. According to the convention, his duty was to support the young lord like Zhuge Liang. However, when Zhao Kuangyin's yellow robe was added, he immediately led Wang Pu and other ministers to meet him. At first, he was slightly hesitant about Zhao Kuangyin's mutiny and seizure of power, but when the other side was slightly threatened (the military academy raised his blade to demonstrate), he was immediately demoted and ordered. It was this paradigm that changed the position of the prime minister in the power structure of the dynasty. According to the "History of song", in the past, "when the prime minister saw the Son of Heaven discussing major political affairs, he would sit down and discuss them, calmly give tea and retreat, while the Tang and the five generations still followed this system." and Emperor Zhao Kuangyin (赵匡胤) Yingrui, in every matter, he made a statement: "So do your best to inherit the way, so as to avoid the loss of mediocrity'". Since then, the ceremony of the prime minister to sit down and discuss has been abolished. Other founding heroes of the Song Dynasty, such as Wang Pu and Wei Wenfu, and Xue Juzheng, who wrote the History of the Old Five Dynasties, were all five generations of old ministers, and belonged to the same category as Feng Dao. Even Lü Duan, who claimed to be "not confused about big things", was also the four dynasties of the Jin Dynasty, Han, Zhou, and Song. Another example is Wen Yanbo, because the wen family's original surname was Jing, because of the avoidance of the Jin Emperor Shi Jingyao's secret, his father and ancestor were determined to be Jin Chen. At the beginning of the Song Dynasty, the prominent positions in the dprk were completely controlled by five generations of widows and their descendants who had the same experience as Feng Dao, and it was only later that some people from humble origins rose to high positions by virtue of the imperial examination. This large number of powerful people left over from five generations has influenced the public opinion orientation of society, and determines the merits and moral evaluations of different figures. At the same time, the Zhao and Song dynasties began by mutinies, and in order to preserve the country, Zhao Kuangyin had to seek the support of various political forces without making people doubt the legitimacy of his regime. Therefore, on the one hand, he stripped the military generals of their military power, adopted a policy of redemption, and gave them wealth, so as to prevent possible mutinies. At the same time, an alliance was formed with the civilian clique to gain their political support. The evaluation of the five generations of figures, especially the evaluation of the Later Zhou ministers, is closely related to the high-level of the early Song Dynasty. More importantly, in order to avoid doubts about the legitimacy of the Song regime, it is not allowed to exaggerate the regime change of the five generations. In short, the Song regime did not allow future generations to write the history of the five dynasties in a dark mess, and must downplay the conspiracies, violence, and bloodshed that had existed, and still less allow anyone to make trouble with the Chen Qiao mutiny, in order to influence Zhao Kuangyin himself and his subordinates. Therefore, seizing the commanding heights of public opinion, preemptively attacking people, and forging a conclusion is the political mission of Xue Juzheng's revision of the "History of the Five Dynasties." In the seventh year of Kaibao (973), that is, only thirteen years after the founding of the Song Dynasty, a "History of the Five Dynasties" presided over by Sikong and Tongzhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi (Zai Chancellor) Xue Juzheng was completed. The history of the previous generation came out so quickly, which is the only one in history, and it fully shows the inexhaustible heart of the Song rulers. Since the purpose of his revision of history was to confuse and obscure the past history, Ouyang Xiu's accusation that Xue Shi was "obscene and untrue" had its basis.

Ouyang Xiu's reappraisal

The history books supervised by Xue Juzheng are the Old Book of Tang and the History of the Old Five Dynasties. Regarding Xue Shi's indecency and untruth, many people in the government and the public later complained and demanded that it be rebuilt very loudly. The "History of the Five Dynasties" is even related to the current dynasty, and the rulers do not want to cause controversy from it. The history of Tang is old and has nothing to do with this dynasty, so it was decided to rebuild it to correct the audio-visual. In the first year of Hehe (1054), eighty years after Xue Xiu's Book of Tang and the History of the Five Dynasties were written, the imperial court ordered Ouyang Xiu to revise the New Book of Tang. In the fifth year of Jiayou (1060), Ouyang Xiu wrote the New Book of Tang in two hundred and fifty volumes. As a result of the revision of the New Book of Tang, he was able to see a large number of historical materials and prepared conditions for his revision of the New History of the Five Dynasties.

Ouyang Xiu wrote the "New History of the Five Dynasties" (formerly known as the "History of the Five Dynasties"), not only limited to clarifying the historical facts, but also re-establishing the style of revision of history, such as the characters of several dynasties like Feng Dao, from the biographies of the characters of various dynasties, and setting up a separate "miscellaneous biography" to indicate the identity of these people's surnames and miscellaneous subjects. At the same time, according to the positioning of people, there are "righteous children" and "Lingguan" legends. His evaluation of the characters is based on whether they conform to the way of Confucius and Mencius, and he directly publishes them in the text to show his praise and disparagement of the characters. Regarding the subtle righteousness expressed by Ou Shi, Ouyang Xiu's son Ouyang Fa once made the following statement:

Make this record, use the "Spring and Autumn" brushwork, although Sima Qian, Ban Gu is not as good as also ... In the history of the Five Dynasties, it is especially careful to praise and deprecate, for the law is precise, and the argument must be "whined". "This book of chaos also!" In the past, Confucius wrote "Spring and Autumn", which established chaotic laws because of the chaotic world, and described the present era as the rest of the time, and rectified the chaos of the king by governing the law. "This is also its ambition.

The chaotic monarch that Ouyang Xiu refers to is not a dimwitted monarch or tyrant in the general sense, but a five-generation emperor who has usurped and plundered. In this regard, Song Taizu and what he called "chaotic monarchs" acted exactly the same. For Ouyang Xiu's book, if anyone wants to say that he is an allusion to the Ben Dynasty, he will be indefensible. If this is the case, it will bring him unforeseen disasters. However, the Song Dynasty was the dynasty with the widest literary network in Chinese history, and Ou wrote in secret, never dared to show people, did not spread and caused adverse consequences, so it did not adversely affect him before and after his death. Even so, however, fear persists. The reason why we want to use the "Spring and Autumn" style and write latently is precisely this. However, his accusations against the chaotic monarch were as obscure as possible, but he was ruthless and merciless to those civilian officials who were tired of the dynasty, especially Feng Dao. It can be seen that the basic purpose of the author is to rebuild the moral system based on Confucian etiquette and righteousness, and to correct the decadent social atmosphere characterized by the advocating of snobbery that has been formed since the fifth generation. To this end, he must find an adult whose fame and title are influential, and Feng Dao is the right person. Feng Dao not only had a prominent official position, but was also regarded by the world as a humble gentleman, and he died before the Founding of the Song Dynasty, according to the ancient precept of "Rebuking the Sages in the Spring and Autumn Period", it is of course the most appropriate to use such a person as a target. Ouyang Xiu wrote Feng Dao, the purpose of which was to correct the name of the monarch and the subject, in order to encourage the loyalty of the DaoChen Festival, which was conducive to the foundation of the Song Dynasty in the long run, so the Zhao and Song officials could not openly rebuke him, but in view of the blatant conflict between his writings and the history of the country, they could only be banned by silence.

Ouyang Xiu commented on Feng Dao, highlighting that his four dynasties and nine kings "did not taste the loss of the king and the fall of the country", and concluded that there was "no shame". At the beginning of the article, I quote the "Pipe": "Etiquette, righteousness, and shame, the four dimensions of the country." If the four dimensions are not open, the kingdom is destroyed. Raising Feng Zhi's behavior to the height of national subjugation has raised Feng Dao's "shameless" scourge from the moral to the political level. For other contents, such as "Fang Gaozu (Shi Jingyao) was ill, holding his son in Feng Dao's arms and entrusting him", and the subsequent liu zhiyuan called him emperor and Dao was called a master, and the betrayal and political transactions in this were all taken for granted by ordinary people in the five generations. Because all of the above can be summarized in the three words "no shame". In order to prove Feng Zhi's shamelessness, Ouyang Xiu recounted in the "Biography of Feng Dao" that a woman surnamed Li was staying in a hotel in Luoyang when she carried her husband's body back to her hometown, and because she had no money to pay the rent, she was held by the owner of the inn, and in protest against the insult of the shopkeeper (men and women were not kissed), the woman cut off her arm with a knife. The story of Li's daughter is precisely to use the Women's Day to contradict Feng Dao's Festival of No Subjects, indicating that the shamelessness of the Tao has reached the extreme. In the Song Dynasty, people seemed to talk about "festivals" without being loyal, and especially liked to talk about women, such as Ercheng's so-called "starvation and death are extremely small, and the loss of discipline is extremely large", which is the same as Ouyang Xiu's expression. However, a careful examination of history found that the Song Dynasty was not an era of special emphasis on "women's morality", the Entertainment Industry of the Song Dynasty was developed, the hook fence tiles were everywhere, the whole society was permeated with a strong commercial atmosphere and obscene wind, and women's remarriage was also regarded as a common thing, including many women from famous backgrounds. Therefore, Song Ru repeatedly emphasized that the observant of the festival did not necessarily refer specifically to women, but to those who lost their way of reading.

In his later years, Feng Dao wrote a "Self-Narration of the Elder of Changle", which described the ranks, medals, and official titles he received in the Tang, Jin, Han, Thursday Dynasties, and Khitans. He called himself "filial piety to the family, loyalty to the country." There is no word in the mouth, and there is no unrighteous goods in the door." He assessed his conduct as "lowly as it is, expensive as it is, long as it is, old as it is." He also said that his purpose as a human being is to "not deceive the earth, not to deceive others, and not to deceive the heavens." The above three should not be deceived into the way of the relatives, the kings, the chiefs, and the people." The article ends with himself saying that he "opens a roll when he opens a cup, drinks a cup when he drinks, tastes differently and is colored, and is old and comfortable in the contemporary era." Old and self-happy, what a pleasure!" His self-satisfaction is overflowing with words. Feng Dao's self-boasting is a kind of self-congratulation that has achieved good results through great difficulties. Moreover, not only was his self-assessment excessive, but at the same time he forgot that the great chaos he had experienced was a human catastrophe that affected the fate of millions of people, and for Feng Dao, who had been in a high position for a long time, he had a major historical responsibility for it. Examining his life experience, his so-called "three noes" theory is even more deceptive.

Regarding Feng Dao's "Changle Old Self-Narration", Xue Shi is included in its entirety as a basic assessment of his life. Ouyang Xiu quoted the "Guan Zi" theory of "courtesy, righteousness, honesty, and shame" and denounced it as "a soldier who does not love himself and endures shame and steals life", and lists it as an important basis for his shamelessness. Ouyang Xiu's reappraisal completely negated Feng Dao from the perspective of moral personality. However, Ouyang Xiu's denial of Feng Dao was limited to the moral level, that is, the Confucian way of loyalty to the king. As for Feng Dao's actions of benefiting the people when he was an official, as well as his kind words and deeds in dealing with people and things, they are not denied. However, Confucianism is moral supremacy, and from the Confucian point of view, the denial of morality is the total negation. Therefore, when the later European history became popular, Feng Dao became a typical example of shameless villains in history.

The historical fate of two five-generation histories

Mr. Chen Yinke said in "Preface to Giving Jiang Bingnan": "Ouyang Yongshu learned from Han Changliwen, wrote the "History of the Five Dynasties" in the evening, and wrote the "History of the Five Dynasties" as a 'righteous child' and 'Feng Dao', denouncing snobbery, respecting integrity, and returning to the purity of the five generations of Kuang." Mr. Yin Ke's above statement can be regarded as a long-term conclusion about the "New Five Dynasties History" and Feng Dao. In the long run, the role of Ou Shi was indeed as Mr. Yin Ke said, but in the Song Dynasty, Ouyang Xiu's works did not achieve such an immediate effect. Because of the end of the Song Dynasty, the "History of the New Five Dynasties" was not published and met with the world. At that time, the history of the inheritance was still the "History of the Five Dynasties" supervised by Xue Juzheng.

Ouyang Xiu completed the revision of the New Book of Tang in the fifth year of Jiayou (1060), and it can be assumed that he began the writing of the Five Dynasties History at this time. In the fifth year of Xi Ning (1072), Ouyang Xiu fell ill and died, and during these twelve years, the manuscript was not revealed. Ouyang Xiu's son Ouyang Fa wrote his father's "Deeds": "In Jiayouzhong, Ling Zhizheng Shilang Fan Gong and others listed in the dynasty, please take it for the correct history, and the public resignation is not completed." Later, "There is a purpose in Xi Ning, and it is taken to enter the imperial court", and it is still rejected for the same reason. This shows that Ouyang Xiu was aware of the matter of his family's history revision, and the imperial court repeatedly asked for it to be used as a correct history, but all of them resigned on the grounds that it was not completed. It was not until after Ouyang Xiu's death, "Ding Hai in August of the fifth year of Xi Ning, Zhao Yingzhou ordered Ouyang to write a history of five dynasties" (Records of the Divine Sect), at which time the manuscript was able to be presented to the imperial review. When it was engraved, the history is not clear, at this time it is only more than half a century before the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty. Emperor Huizong, who moved and buried Ouyang Xiu's tomb, wrote the "Shinto Tablet" by Su Rui, which mentions the seventy-four volumes of the "History of the Five Dynasties", but does not say anything about the engraving. At this time, it was only more than twenty years before the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty. In the second year of the Southern Song Dynasty (1196), Hu Ke, a fellow luling man from Ouyang Xiu, wrote the "Annals of Ouyang Xiu", which contained the "New Book of Tang" in the year, month, and volume, while yu "History of the Five Dynasties" did not mention a word, and it seems that Ouyang Xiu did not know that Ouyang Xiu had this work. The above situation can only show that after Ou wrote the "History of the Five Dynasties" into the imperial court, it has been kept in the forbidden place, and it is impossible to see it from the outside world, and even scholars like Hu Ke who specialize in Ouyang Xiu do not know the truth. The aforementioned Su Rui made an inscription, because the two families of Europe and Suzhou are closely related, and the Su clan is an insider, so it is recorded in detail. Therefore, it can be concluded that the New History of the Five Dynasties was not published in the Song Dynasty. The scholar Sun Renlong said in the "Examination of the History of the New Five Dynasties" that "the repair of the funeral, the imperial court heard about it, and took the Fu Guoxue journal" is inaccurate.

Ouyang Xiu's "History of the New Five Dynasties" could not be published in the Song Dynasty, which was determined by the situation at that time. Regardless of its subjective intentions, Ou Shi violated the state secrets of the Song Dynasty after all. Xue Juzheng's "History of the Five Dynasties" was written in the highest interests of the Song Dynasty. The praise of Feng Dao in the old history can be regarded as a collective praise for all the five generations including Xue Juzheng and the founding heroes of the Song Dynasty. The Five Dynasties were an era that had lost the social foundation of Confucian loyalty to the monarchy, and if the behavior of the Five Dynasties was truthfully expressed, the history of the Five Dynasties was written as a history of chaotic courtiers and thieves, it was a blatant challenge to the legitimacy of the Song Dynasty. The Song Dynasty did not publish the history of Europe, in part to protect the Ou family. Ouyang Xiu was fortunate to be born in the Song Dynasty, otherwise he would have been a victim of a literal prison.

The popularity of the New Five Dynasties History was after the fall of the Song Dynasty. After the Yuan, the science of science was greatly enhanced, and the "History of the New Five Dynasties" was able to see the light of day. Later, the "History of the Old Five Dynasties" was abandoned and not used, and fell to the point of "if it dies" (there is also the Old Book of Tang). In the Ming Dynasty, the "Seventeen Histories" and "Twenty-One Histories" often referred to did not include the Old Book of Tang and the History of the Old Five Dynasties. Li Yan, a Ming Dynasty man, was dissatisfied with the evaluation of Feng Dao in Ou Shi's Biography of Feng Dao, but since he could not see Xue Shi, he could not understand the reason for Ouyang Xiu's evaluation. It was not until the Qing Dynasty, due to the special attention of the Manchu emperors to Chinese cultural classics, that Shao Jinhan, who was serving in the Sikuguan at the time, copied the contents of the "History of the Old Five Dynasties" scattered in the "Yongle Canon", re-compiled it into a book, and republished it in the forty-ninth year of Qianlong (1784), so that the "History of the Old Five Dynasties" could be seen with the world. Comparing the two "Histories of the Five Dynasties", the similarities and differences between the views of the two sides are also clearly revealed.

After the late Qing Dynasty, new trends of thought arose, and anti-Confucianism became fashionable. People were deeply dissatisfied with the stubborn Taoist atmosphere emanating from the story of Li Shi's daughter holding hands and breaking her arm in Ou Shi's "Biography of Feng Dao", so they blamed Ou Shiduo. Some people, on the other hand, have experienced the torment of the chaotic world themselves, so they put themselves in the shoes of Feng Dao to express sympathy for Feng Dao's situation, so there are more people who overturn the case for Feng Dao. However, the personality of the Confucian scholar is based on the principle of Lide liyan and Cheng Ren taking righteousness. When an intellectual (scholar) is in a time of great chaos (or foreign invasion, or frequent civil unrest), how to realize his personality and ethics of taking the country under the heavens as his own responsibility, and how to choose between a person's meritorious position, his life and his family's suffering, and social justice are still serious topics worth thinking about.