author
jin shi 756 Yan Feng
A little-known Tang dynasty official and writer, remembered today for a lively collection of notes on customs, politics, and everyday life. His surviving work offers a rare window into how people thought and lived in eighth-century China.
1 Audiobook
封氏聞見記
by jin shi 756 Yan Feng
About the author
Born in Bohai (in what is now Hebei), he studied at the imperial academy and earned the prestigious jinshi degree in 756, during the Tang dynasty. After the An Lushan rebellion, he served under several regional military leaders and later held posts including prefect of Xingzhou and, eventually, censor-in-chief-level office.
He is best known for Fengshi Wenjian Ji (Master Feng's Record of What Was Seen and Heard), a miscellany valued for its concrete, wide-ranging observations. Rather than focusing on legend or fantasy, the book gathers notes on institutions, customs, scholarship, and the habits of officials and educated society.
Very little about his personal life is firmly known, and even his birth and death dates are unclear. Other works are attributed to him, but they appear to be lost, which makes Fengshi Wenjian Ji especially important as the book that preserved his voice.