Feng Dao | |||||||||||||||
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Born | 882 Jingcheng, Ying Prefecture, Tang dynasty | ||||||||||||||
Died | 21 May 954 (aged 71–72) | ||||||||||||||
Nationality | Chinese | ||||||||||||||
Occupation | Chancellor | ||||||||||||||
Known for | Improvements to the printing process | ||||||||||||||
Chinese name | |||||||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 馮道 | ||||||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 冯道 | ||||||||||||||
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Alternative Chinese name | |||||||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 可道 | ||||||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 可道 | ||||||||||||||
Literal meaning | Suits the Way | ||||||||||||||
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Second alternative Chinese name | |||||||||||||||
Chinese | 瀛文懿王 | ||||||||||||||
Literal meaning | Prince Wenyi of Ying | ||||||||||||||
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Feng Dao (Chinese: 馮道; 882[1] – 21 May 954[1][2]), courtesy name Kedao (可道), also known by his Later Zhou-bestowed posthumous name Prince Wenyi of Ying (瀛文懿王), was a Chinese inventor, printer, and politician. He was a government official during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, who served, in chronological order, the Jie Yan, Later Tang, Later Jin, Liao, Later Han, and Later Zhou dynasties. He was chancellor of the Later Tang, Later Jin, and Later Zhou dynasties.
For his contribution to improving block-printing process for printing Chinese written works, scholars have compared him to the German inventor and blacksmith Johannes Gutenberg. Traditional histories 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 (see Ouyang Xiu and Sima Guang below). Feng Dao is depicted in the Wu Shuang Pu by Jin Guliang.