If you go to Dabao Village, Baogong Town, Feidong County, Hefei to visit the Bao Ancestral Hall, the person who introduces the Bao Ancestral Hall to you and tells you the magical stories of Bao Zheng is probably the descendant of Bao Zheng. The "Bao Qingtian" lord Bao Zheng, whom we are familiar with, has been dead for more than a thousand years, and his descendants are also scattered in various places, among which the more concentrated are Anhui and Jiangsu.
Bao's Ancestral Hall was founded in the Song Dynasty, is the northern Song Dynasty famous minister Bao Zheng's family ancestral hall, after years of wind and rain, Bao's Ancestral Hall has also undergone countless renovations, the existing ancestral hall is a Guangxu period building, and has now been listed as a key cultural relics protection unit in Anhui Province. In the early 1990s, Bao Xianliang, the 35th generation of Bao Zheng, was guarded in the ancestral hall, and it has been more than 20 years now.
Today, Bao Xianliang is also nearly 80 years old, and he has been sticking to the ancestral hall since 1994. In the past two decades, many villagers have left the village and gone to the city to seek a more comfortable life. However, Bao Xianliang was not moved, he was not incapable of working at that time, but he had been silently sticking to the ancestral hall, what was the reason for this?
Perhaps, we can find the answer from a poem left by Bao Zheng. Bao Zheng wrote in the poem "Shuduan Prefecture County Zhaibi": "Pure heart is the cure, and straight road is the body plan." Xiugan eventually became a building, and steel was not hooked. The hamster is happy, and the grass is full of rabbits and foxes. There are testaments in the annals of history, and there is no shame in those who come here. ”
This poem clearly states the image of the official that Bao Zheng expects, and also writes out the principles of Bao Zheng's behavior and work. He believes that to be an official, we must first straighten out our thinking, we must be upright, and we must also maintain a just and upright character in our own cultivation. If the trees are good enough, they will be able to become the talents of the pillars, and the steel with good toughness and fine craftsmanship will not bend easily.
The idea that Bao Zheng conveyed in the poem was to stick to himself and not be moved. That's what he said and that's what he did. During his tenure as an official, he was devoted to justice and incorruptible, and the people called him "Bao Qingtian". Bao Zheng has such a character, and he also hopes to pass on what he considers to be a beautiful character to future generations, and it just so happens that Bao's descendants have also inherited this quality.
The Records of the Book of Nengjiazhai records Bao Xiaosu's family training: "Future generations of eunuchs, who have committed adultery, shall not be released to their own homes; after their death, they shall not be buried in the Great Tomb." Not from my will, not from my descendants. Bao Zheng said in his family training that if anyone in the future generations corrupts the law, he will not only be removed from the family, but also not allowed to be buried in the family cemetery after his death.
With such a family training as Bao Zheng, future generations are always alert and dare not slacken off. In fact, the descendants of the Bao family are not only guarding the Bao Ancestral Hall, but also the spirit of Protecting Bao Zheng. It is precisely with the unremitting protection of Bao's descendants for thousands of years, Bao Zheng's image has become more and more plump and deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, making the novelists who have written stories for Bao Zheng in the past and the present emerge in an endless stream, and also leave us with many stories that are reverie.
In the novel "Seven Heroes and Five Righteousness", Bao Zheng is portrayed as a parent official who is not afraid of power and has repeatedly decided strange cases. In the folk, the Three Treasures of Kaifeng Province, that is, the tools used by Bao Zheng to judge cases- ancient and modern basins, yin and yang mirrors and youxian pillows are also widely circulated.
In the novel "The Case of Long TuGong", Bao Zheng not only maintains the imperial power, but is not humble and unassuming, always asking for the people's lives and seeking justice for the people. He was shaped into a mortal immortal, from the Jade Emperor to the Yin Cao Di Mansion, all of whom looked at Bao Zheng differently and responded to everything he needed.
In fact, although Bao Zheng is not as divine as in the novel, he is absolutely selfless. There is such a story that Bao Zheng was sent to Duanzhou as a zhi county. We don't hear much about Duanzhou, but we still hear about Duanyan's prestige. The Yantai produced in Duanzhou has a good texture and is sought-after everywhere.
ZhiXian, who had previously served in Duanzhou, would collect Yantai on a large scale under the banner of the imperial court, often much more than the Yantai required by the imperial court, and the Zhixians would go out to give gifts with excess Yantai. Over time this has become a convention. In order to produce these bricks, the people were miserable, tired, and would delay agricultural production and miss the agricultural time.
After Bao Zheng took office, he resolutely abolished this regulation, and he never collected a brick platform, and at the same time strictly required his own officials on duty, until Bao Zheng left office at the end of his term of office, and he did not have a local brick platform on his body.
There are many, many stories about Bao Zheng's strict self-discipline and honesty for officials. Now, with the help of local people, the descendants of the Bao clan have formed a committee to manage the Bao Clan Ancestral Hall. They said that the Bao Ancestral Hall did not belong only to the Bao family, but to the common wealth of the whole society. For such a spirit, whether it is Bao Xianliang or other descendants of the Bao family, they will not hesitate to silently guard the ancestral hall, guard the spirit of Bao Zheng's inheritance, and will always explain and spread those stories that are always inspiring to the world.