Feng Dao (882 – 21 May 954), 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.
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.
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 Youzhou in modern Beijing. By 911, the Tang had fallen to the Later Liang, Liu had first submitted to the Later Liang and then declared his own state of Yan, and Feng had become a military advisor to Liu. In that year, Liu gathered his troops and prepared to attack Yiwu in modern Baoding, Hebei, ruled at the time by a de facto independent military governor (jiedushi) named Wang Chuzhi. Wang was allied with the larger state Jin 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.
Feng thereafter fled to Jin, where Zhang Chengye, the chief eunuch and a military advisor to Jin's prince Li Cunxu, recommended him to be the secretary general of Jin's capital Taiyuan.
At that time, Li Cunxu was engaged in repeated campaigns to capture territories north of the Yellow River from the Later Liang, and the military matters required frequent drafting of orders, which Li entrusted to Feng Dao.
In or around 919, there was an incident where Li had a dispute with his chief military advisor Guo Chongtao, after Guo had opined that Li was inviting too many officers to his meals and that the number should be reduced. In anger, Li responded, "Is it that we do not get to even decide how many of the people who are willing to die for us would be at our meals? Maybe the army should choose a new commander, and we will return to Taiyuan." He asked Feng to draft a declaration to that effect. Feng took his pen but hesitated to write, and he responded to Li, Your Royal Highness is now planning to conquer the lands south of the Yellow River and then all the lands under Heaven. Guo Chongtao's request is not overly inappropriate. Even if Your Royal Highness disagreed with him, why make this dispute shock all those near and far, such that our enemies would learn this and believe that you and your subjects are discordant? This cannot be good for your reputation. Soon thereafter, Guo came to apologize, and the matter was put to rest. It was said that others became impressed with Feng's temerity in advising the prince. It was also said that Feng lived frugally during these campaigns, living in straw huts with no beds and sharing his salary with his staff members. Oftentimes, officers pillaged the region and took beautiful women. Sometimes they would give women to Feng as gifts. Feng would not take them, but would instead find their families and allow their return.
In 923, Li declared himself the emperor of a new Later Tang dynasty (posthumously remembered as its Emperor Zhuangzong). He made Feng an imperial scholar along with Lu Zhi (盧質). After Li conquered the Later Liang later in the year and took its territory under his control, he made Feng zhongshu sheren (中書舍人), a mid-level official at the Central Secretariat, and a deputy minister of the census (戶部侍郎, hubu shilang) at the Ministry of Revenue.
When Feng's father died shortly afterwards, he left governmental service to observe the traditional multiyear period of mourning at his family home in Jingcheng. At that time, Feng had already become well-known, and the Khitan Empire considered raiding Jingcheng to seize him but, with the Later Tang border forces well prepared, the Khitan raid was called off. While Feng was at Jingcheng, there was a famine in the region. He distributed his wealth to aid the people around him. He was also said to have assisted plowing the fields of those who were unable to farm them or neglectful in doing so.
After the end of Feng's mourning period for his father—probably in 926 given the usual three-year term and based on subsequent events—Emperor Zhuangzong summoned Feng back to the imperial government (then at Luoyang) to again serve as an imperial scholar. By the time Feng had reached Bianzhou (now Kaifeng in Henan), however, the Later Tang state was in great disorder because of the many mutinies that had risen against the emperor, including one led by the emperor's adopted brother Li Siyuan. Bian's prefect Kong Xun urged Feng to remain with him until the situation became clearer, but Feng noted that he was under order to report as soon as possible and continued on his way. Soon thereafter, Emperor Zhuangzong was killed in a mutiny within the capital itself, and Li Siyuan arrived at Luoyang to claim the throne (posthumously remembered as Emperor Mingzong).
Li Siyuan had long been respectful of Feng's capabilities and virtues. As he himself was illiterate and his chief advisor An Chonghui, though literate, was not well learned, An recommended setting up a system where chief scholars would advise the emperor on historical and literary matters. Li thereafter established two posts for imperial scholars at Duanming Hall (端明殿) and commissioned Feng Dao and Zhao Feng to those posts. In 927, the emperor further made both Feng and Cui Xie chancellors with the designation of tong zhongshu menxia pingzhangshi (同中書門下平章事) and title of deputy heads of the Central Secretariat (中書侍郎, Zhongshu shilang). Feng's commission was somewhat of a compromise choice, as the senior chancellor Ren Huan recommended Li Qi while Kong, then one of the emperor's chiefs of staff (shumishi) along with An, pushed for Cui. While serving as chancellor, Feng often pointed out to the emperor the difficulties that farmers faced, and Emperor Mingzong collected the poems that Feng wrote about such difficulties, often having attendants read the poems to him. The emperor created him Duke of Shiping.
An had long borne a grudge against Emperor Mingzong's adoptive son Li Congke, who was then the military governor (jiedushi) of Huguo (護國) around modern Yuncheng, Shanxi. In 930, An encouraged Li Congke's subordinate Yang Yanwen (楊彥溫) to mutiny and seize Huguo's capital Hezhong (河中), forcing Li Congke to return to Luoyang. An then had Feng and Zhao submit petitions asking for Li Congke to be punished, but Emperor Mingzong refused their request as well as An's subsequent request as well. Later in the year, Emperor Mingzong and An had more open disputes over the handling of the rebellions by Meng Zhixiang, the military governor of Xichuan (西川) around modern Chengdu, Sichuan, and Dong Zhang, the military governor of Dongchuan (東川) around modern Mianyang, Sichuan. An submitted a resignation, which many officials urged him to withdraw. Feng believed that An's best course of action at that time was to resign and so urged the other officials not to stop An from resigning, but Zhao disagreed and was able to persuade An to remain chief of staff. (Feng turned out to be correct as, after the rift between Emperor Mingzong and An became greater, the emperor had An demoted and then killed in 931.