Feng Yan, styled Jingtong, was from Duling in the capital region. When Liu Xuan declared himself emperor (the Gengshi Emperor), Feng Yan was recruited by the imperial advisor Bao Yong to serve as a general, defending the Shangdang region alongside Governor Tian Yi. Soon, Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu took the throne. Upon hearing that Liu Xuan had fallen, Tian Yi surrendered to Liu Xiu, but Feng Yan stubbornly refused. He harshly rebuked Tian Yi, saying, "You have abandoned the greater cause and harbored disloyalty toward the Gengshi Emperor!" Only after receiving confirmed news of Liu Xuan's death did Feng Yan reluctantly withdraw his troops and surrender. For this reason, Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu refused to employ him. Source: *Book of the Later Han*, "Biography of Feng Yan"
Feng Yan served as an official for over twenty years, once holding high office with a purple seal cord and a golden seal, yet he remained incorruptible, never coveting the top ministerial posts or a fortune of a thousand gold pieces. His own memorial to the emperor read, "My home has no stored cloth or grain, and when I go out, my carriage lacks any ornament," revealing his frugality. After Emperor Liu Xiu sent him home, Feng Yan cut ties with officials and scholars, shutting himself away to write poetry. Living in poverty, he had to till the fields himself to feed his family. He married a fierce woman from the north named Ren, who so abused their only maid that she was barely alive and unable to work, leaving their young children to pound rice and fetch water. In this harsh life, Feng Yan maintained his integrity until his death in old age.
Later, the idiom "Drawing Water and Grinding Grain" came to describe doing household chores oneself.
Source: *Book of the Later Han*, "Biography of Feng Yan"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "井臼亲操" came to describe how doing household chores oneself.