Li Feng

Li Feng is a minor court figure whose two brief appearances connect separate crises in the later Three Kingdoms narrative. He enters the Shu administration after his father, Li Yan, is exposed for concealing his failure to provide military supplies; later, in Wei, Li Feng joins Emperor Cao Fang’s unsuccessful plot against Sima Shi and is executed with his clan when the conspiracy is discovered.

Appointment in Shu

During Kong Ming’s northern campaign, Li Yan fails to send the promised supplies. To obscure his own responsibility, he fabricates a message about a possible Wu invasion and spreads rumors that Kong Ming is hoarding provisions for a rebellion. Kong Ming investigates and identifies the deception. The ruler orders Li Yan’s execution, but instead strips him of his offices and reduces him to a commoner, recalling that Li Yan had been chosen by his father as one of the council of advisers.

After resolving the affair, Kong Ming takes Li Feng on as an adviser. The appointment marks a limited continuation of the family’s place in government despite Li Yan’s disgrace. Kong Ming then rests the army for three years to rebuild its supplies and military strength; the account does not describe Li Feng’s specific duties during this interval.

Conspiracy against Sima Shi

Li Feng next appears among the few officials still near Cao Fang after Sima Shi has marginalized the emperor. Alongside Zhang Qi and Xiahou Xuan, he participates in a plan to rally loyal supporters and overthrow Sima Shi and his brother, Sima Zhao. Cao Fang seals the plan by removing his dragon-phoenix shirt and writing a summons in blood with a cut finger. He recalls an earlier conspiracy uncovered by Cao Cao, but the others dismiss the comparison, arguing that Cao Cao had been far more perceptive than Sima Shi.

The conspirators’ confidence proves misplaced. As they leave the palace, Sima Shi confronts them and asks why they have stayed so long. They claim they were studying the Classics with the emperor, but he is not deceived. He discovers the shirt bearing the blood-written edict, and the evidence makes the plot impossible to deny. Li Feng, Zhang Qi, Xiahou Xuan, and their entire clans are executed. The narrative gives no separate account of Li Feng’s actions during the confrontation or of his individual fate beyond this collective punishment.

A Minor Figure in Two Political Crises

Li Feng’s appearances are defined by affiliation and consequence rather than by a developed personal arc. In Shu, his appointment follows his father’s demotion and occurs under Kong Ming’s authority; in Wei, he stands with officials attempting to recover power for an emperor already isolated by the Sima brothers. The contrast is sharp: one episode presents a place in government preserved after a parent’s fall, while the other ends in the destruction of Li Feng’s own family along with the failed resistance.

The bloody shirt gives the Wei conspiracy a concrete and politically charged record. Cao Fang’s written appeal turns a private plan into visible evidence, which Sima Shi finds immediately after confronting the group. Li Feng’s ending thus belongs to a wider pattern of court opposition being exposed and punished, though the account supplies no further details about his motives or character.