Ding Feng (Chengyuan)

For Ding Feng's younger brother of the same name, see Ding Feng (younger).

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Ding.

Ding Feng
General of Eastern Wu
Born	(Unknown) Anfeng, Lujiang (present-day Lujiang County, Anhui)
Died	271
Names
Simplified Chinese	丁奉
Traditional Chinese	丁奉
Pinyin	Dīng Fèng
Wade-Giles	Ting Feng
Style name	Chengyuan (承淵)

Ding Feng

Ding Feng (died 271)^[1] was a military general of Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms era of Chinese history. He was known as brave and resourceful, and moved up the rank from a captain (or soldier) to the high rank of "Right Minister of War". His younger brother, Ding Feng (丁封) also served Eastern Wu.

Biography

Early life and career

Ding Feng was born in Anfeng County of Lujiang (present-day Hequi, Anhui), he started his career by serving the Wu general, Gan Ning, as a captain, and was transferred to different Wu generals from time to time. He followed his generals to fight the enemies several times, and during which he always stayed in the front, thus earned a reputation for himself in the army.

Service under Sun Liang

When Sun Liang succeeded Sun Quan as the new ruler of Wu, Ding Feng was appointed as "General Who Crowns the Army" and was made a marquis. Taking the opportunity the young Sun Liang just ascended the throne, the de facto leader of Wei, Sima Shi sent Zhuge Dan and the likes to invade Wu. In response, the Wu regent, Zhuge Ke personally led Wu forces to reinforce Liu Lue, who was under attack by the Wei troops at Yu castle in Dongxing, and Ding Feng acted as the vanguard as he led 3,000 troops to occupy the strategic Xutang (徐塘) before the main army arrived. After Liu Zan (留贊) arrived to support Ding Feng, they ordered the divestiture of heavy equipment to increase flexibility. It was snowing at the time, the Wei generals were holding a party and laughed at the Wu soldiers when Liu Zan ordered them to discard their armour.^[2] Not anticipating a direct attack, the Wei camp in the front was routed by Wu's sudden charge; incidentally, the main Wu forces arrived the scene at this critical moment, so the Wei forces were destroyed. Ding Feng was thus promoted to "General Who Eliminates Bandits."

When the Wei general, Wen Qin, failed to put Sima Shi out of power, Ding Feng was sent to receive the former into Wu's domain. At Gaoting, Wen Qin's pursuers caught up with Ding Feng, and Ding personally led a raid into the enemy formation and dealt his foe a loss of several hundreds. Ding Feng was made the Marquis of Anfeng for accomplishing his task. Later, Zhuge Dan also raised an army to oppose the dictatorship of Sima Zhao (Sima Shi's brother and successor), but was surrounded inside Shouchun. Along Zhu Yi, Ding Feng was ordered to rescue Zhuge Dan. Despite the mission failed, Ding Feng was promoted to the rank of General on the Left because of his valiant performance in battle.

Removing the regent

Later, Zhuge Ke lost his popularity resulting from his refusal to admit fault following his disastrous siege on a Wei fortress and was assassinated by Sun Jun, who took over the regency. After Sun Lin, cousin of Sun Jun, succeeded regency from his kinsman, he replaced Sun Liang with Sun Xiu as the new emperor when he knew Sun Liang was planning to take the power back. But the new emperor and the regent soon plotted against each other, because Sun Lin's arrogance was unbearable for Sun Xiu, and Sun Lin knew the emperor had been cautious towards him. Sun Xiu asked his advisor, Zhang Bu to kill Sun Lin, and Zhang suggested Ding Feng be summoned to discuss the issue. Ding Feng then told the emperor that Sun Lin had so much influence and connections that they had a slim chance to fight Sun Lin's power directly, so an assassination should be carried out during the Laba (臘八, eighth day of the 12th lunar month of the year) festival when imperial bodyguards would be present. Ding Feng's plan worked, and for that, he was given the seal of authority, and was promoted to General-in-Chief, acting Left and Right Commandant. When Wei launched its final campaign against Shu, Ding Feng led an army to Shouchun, but retreated after Shu was annihilated.

Later life and demise

In summer 264, Sun Xiu fell ill and was unable to speak but still could write, so he wrote an edict summoning the chancellor Puyang Xing (濮陽興) to the palace, where he pointed and entrusted his son, Sun Wan the crown prince, to him. Sun Xiu died soon thereafter. However, Puyang Xing did not follow his wishes. Rather, after consulting with the powerful generals Zhang Bu and Ding Feng, they believed that the people were, in light of key ally Shu Han's recent fall in 263, yearning for an older emperor. Thus, along Puyang Xing and Zhang Bu, Ding Feng welcomed Sun Hao as the new emperor. Sun Hao promoted Ding Feng to Right Grand Marshal and Left Military Advisor. In Ding Feng's later years, he had already become a rich and powerful man, and he started to become arrogant. After some military failures which Ding Feng was held responsible, his family was exiled by Sun Hao to Linchuan (臨川). Ding Feng died in 271, and his titles were not succeeded. Originally a foot-soldier, Ding Feng served the Sun clan for many years, and became the most influential senior general just before his death.

Appointments and titles held

• Lieutenant General (偏將軍)
• General Who Crowns the Army (冠軍將軍)
• Marquis of Du (都亭侯)
• General Who Eliminates Bandits (滅寇將軍)
• General of Tiger's Might (虎威將軍)
• Marquis of Anfeng (安豐侯)
• General on the Left (左將軍)
• General-in-Chief (大將軍)
• Left and Right Commandant (左右都護)
• Governor of Xu Province (徐州牧)
• Right Grand Marshal (右大司馬)
• Left Military Advisor (左軍師)

Modern references

Ding Feng is first introduced as a playable character in the seventh installment of Koei's Dynasty Warriors video game series.

See also

• List of people of the Three Kingdoms
• List of Dynasty Warriors characters

References

1. ^ de Crespigny, Rafe (2007). A biographical dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23–220 AD). Brill. p. 141. ISBN 978-90-04-15605-0. 
2. ^ (時天寒雪，魏諸將會飲，見贊等兵少，而解置鎧甲，不持矛戟。但兜鍪刀楯，夥身緣遏，大笑之。) Chen Shou. Records of Three Kingdoms, Volume 64, Biographies of Zhuge, Teng, the two Suns, and Puyang.

• Chen Shou. Records of Three Kingdoms.

Persondata
Name	Ding Feng
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	190
Place of birth	Anfeng, Lujiang (present-day Lujiang County, Anhui)
Date of death	271
Place of death