Bao Zheng is the most famous Qing official in ancient Chinese history, his story is all over the major literary works and film and television dramas, deeply loved by posterity, more than a thousand years have passed, people still enjoy the story of Bao Zheng, Bao Zheng's life experience is even more curious, such a Qing official, what kind of life experience does such a Qing official have?
In fact, after understanding Bao Zheng's life deeds, we will find that there are great differences with literary works and film and television dramas, but this still does not affect our love for Bao Zheng, because the real Bao Zheng in history is more three-dimensional and full, and by understanding Bao Zheng's life deeds and endings, we can understand many philosophies of life.
Bao Zheng's life and ending
Bao Zheng was born in 999 AD, from childhood to read poetry, after more than twenty years of hard work, finally in 1027 high school, began to enter the official field of the Northern Song Dynasty, when Bao Zheng was 28 years old, with full of enthusiasm and ambition, planning to do some practical things for the country.
Unfortunately, at that time, Bao Zheng's parents were already old, and Bao Zheng, who was filial to his parents, was unwilling to go to a place too far away, hoping to stay in a place closer to his hometown, so that he could ensure that he could take care of his parents. At that time, the emperor of the Song Dynasty was Song Renzong, and after hearing Bao Zheng's appeal, Song Renzong was very moved, so he changed Bao Zheng from Jianchang (present-day Yongxiu, Jiangxi) Zhi County to Hezhou (present-day Hexian County, Anhui) to supervise taxes.
The distance between Hezhou and Bao Zheng's hometown of Hefei is also about a hundred kilometers, if it is put to the present, it is indeed quite close, but in ancient times, more than a hundred kilometers is still inconvenient to take care of the family, so later Bao Zheng felt that it was not good to continue to embarrass the imperial court, so he took the initiative to resign and go home to take care of his parents.
Bao Zheng resigned from the government and went home to take care of his parents for many years, until his parents were old one after another, and after Bao Zheng's filial piety period ended, Bao Zheng accepted the persuasion of the fathers and elders of the villagers and went to Beijing again to accept the work arrangements of the imperial court, and in 1037, Bao Zheng, who was already 38 years old, served as Tianchangzhi County under the appointment of the imperial court, which was the beginning of Bao Zheng's real official career in his life.
After taking office at the age of 38, Bao Zheng's career was smooth sailing, and he was repeatedly promoted by the emperor, for example, he only served as Tianchangzhi County in 1037, and as a result, by 1041, he had become the prefect of Duanzhou (now Zhaoqing, Guangzhou), and in 1043 he entered the capital as a palace attendant, and later as an inspector of imperial history; in 1045, Bao Zheng was involved in diplomatic work, served as a Khitan Zhengdan envoy, responsible for sending envoys to the Liao state, and later also served as a transit envoy of Jingdong Road (present-day Shangqiu, Henan), a transfer envoy of Hebei Road, and a transfer envoy of Hebei Capital The transshipment envoy was equivalent to the highest official of a place at that time, similar to the governor of the Qing Dynasty.
In 1055, Bao Zheng suffered a small Waterloo incident in his life because of a mistake in recommending officials, and was temporarily demoted, but thanks to Song Renzong's trust in Bao Zheng, only a year later, Bao Zheng was appointed to the position of Governor of Kaifeng Province, and later promoted to the position of Right Counselor and Quan Ren Yushi Zhongcheng.
In 1062, Bao Zheng was working in the Privy Council, suddenly fell ill, on July 3 of that year, Bao Zheng died of illness at the age of 63, after his death, Song Renzong personally mourned, for him to quit the dynasty for one day, posthumously gave Bao Zheng the official Shangshu, giving the title of "Filial Piety", from this ending, Bao Zheng can be regarded as a good death.
After understanding Bao Zheng's life deeds and ending, we should analyze Bao Zheng in depth, in the official arena at that time, Bao Zheng had returned home for ten years because of filial piety to his parents, and as a result, he could still walk in peace after returning, what was the basis for all this? There is also Bao Zheng who has always adhered to principles in the DPRK and has offended many important officials, so why can he still have a good death?
Why can Bao Zheng walk in peace?
Looking at Bao Zheng's rich and wonderful life, we will inevitably have a kind of doubt, why can Bao Zheng have such a legendary life experience? In fact, anyone's success will not be accidental, behind everyone's success, there is an inevitable reason for his success, Bao Zheng's success mainly comes from his ability and the principle of adherence.
First of all, let's talk about the principles that Bao Zheng adheres to, from the perspective of his life, one of the principles that Bao Zheng has always adhered to is to do practical things for the people and add bricks and tiles to national construction, as long as people and things that violate Bao Zheng's principle, Bao Zheng will vigorously oppose it, including not only corruption, but also inaction or laziness, which are not allowed by Bao Zheng.
To give a few simple examples, during Bao Zheng's tenure as inspector of imperial history, there was a very famous corrupt official Wang Kui, who not only took people's lives, but also cleverly set up a pretext to exploit the people, after Bao Zheng took office, he repeatedly impeached him five times, and once it did not work, he impeached him several times in a row, until it worked, after six impeachments, Song Renzong did not clean up Wang Kui, Bao Zheng was angry and directly scolded Song Renzong: "If you do not listen to advice, you are not sympathetic to the people, and you appoint cool officials."
After Song Renzong listened, he felt very ashamed, and later finally gave up on Wang Kui. You see, Bao Zheng will not be merciful to corrupt officials and corrupt officials, but to say that Bao Zheng is only aimed at corrupt officials, it seems that Bao Zheng's cognition is too superficial, his principle is for the sake of national construction, so not only corrupt officials will affect national construction, those who do nothing will also affect, such as Prime Minister Song Ku is one of them, he served as prime minister for seven years, but did not do anything, Bao Zheng directly went to find Song Renzong to impeach Song Sheng, under Bao Zheng's impeachment, even if it is a prime minister like Song Zheng, Still being dismissed by Song Renzong, it is enough to see how unswerving Bao Zheng's adherence to principles is.
But then again, if a person only has principles but no ability, it is obvious that he cannot be reused, and the essential reason why Bao Zheng can rise to the top is that Bao Zheng is superior, his ability is not only reflected in the well-known trial of cases, the real history of Bao Zheng, the time to try cases is very small, his real ability should be reflected in the outstanding contribution to national construction, selection of talents, military, diplomatic and financial aspects.
During Bao Zheng's tenure as a transfer envoy and Zhizhou, he repeatedly made suggestions for the selection of talents for the country, and also recommended many talents who were useful for national construction, although occasional mistakes were made, but on the whole, the talents recommended by Bao Zheng were indeed the pillars of the country's construction.
In terms of military diplomacy, after Bao Zhengdan served as a Khitan envoy to the Liao State, he was deeply inspired, and the Liao State defended the dignity of the Northern Song Dynasty by virtue of its outstanding diplomatic talent, and after returning to China, Bao Zheng began to suggest that the state strengthen military training, and only with strong military strength could it truly guarantee the interests of its own country.
In terms of finance, Bao Zheng has served as a transshipment envoy and a three-division envoy in many places, these official positions need to manage the finances of one region or more regions, during Bao Zheng's tenure, everything was handled in an orderly manner, it can be said that Bao Zheng can be regarded as a first-class economist or financial expert at that time.
A person who can have superior wisdom and achievements in understanding people, military, diplomacy, and economy, while not giving up the principles he adheres to in his heart, such a person, no matter in any dynasty, as long as it is an emperor who wants to do practical things and wants to build a country, will reuse Bao Zheng.
Why did Bao Zheng die well?
Obviously, from the official positions held by Bao Zheng, we understand that Song Renzong is indeed a good emperor who wants to build the country, if he does not want to build the country, he will not use Bao Zheng so much, but Bao Zheng is too insistent on principles, and has offended many high-ranking officials and nobles during his tenure, Song Renzong will inevitably be embarrassed, in the face of these things, what will Song Renzong do?
It can be said that Song Renzong's treatment of Bao Zheng is complete trust and unconditional support, which is the essential reason why Bao Zheng can die well, but if he changes an emperor, perhaps Bao Zheng has already landed on the ground, why do you say so? And listen to me speak for you.
As I said earlier, Bao Zheng always adhered to principles, especially looking down on corrupt officials and officials who did not act, so he impeached Wang Kui and Song Yu and others, these people were considered to be down-to-earth officials and nobles at that time, and impeaching them was equivalent to directly touching the fundamental interests of this group, so there must be many people staring at Bao Zheng and trying to frame him.
In such an environment, how does Bao Zheng achieve full retreat? In fact, all this depends on the assistance of Song Renzong, and Song Renzong's trust in Bao Zheng can reach the point where Bao Zheng's impeachment of Song Renzong Zhang Guifei was wrong, and Song Renzong did not pursue it.
When talking about Bao Zheng's life deeds, we said that Bao Zheng was once impeached by people because of the improper recommendation of people, and finally was demoted by Song Renzong, presumably this should be the most tragic experience in Bao Zheng's life, but only a year later, Bao Zheng was reused by Song Renzong, which is enough to show that Song Renzong really means Bao Zheng.
If it were changed to an ordinary emperor, it is estimated that after Bao Zheng's accident, he would listen to the rumors of those villains who continued to impeach Bao Zheng, shake Bao Zheng to the end, and even directly execute him, fortunately, Song Renzong trusted Bao Zheng and always maintained Bao Zheng, so that Bao Zheng became the person who dared to tell the truth and do the most practical things in his court.
epilogue
Bao Zheng's legendary life is not replicable, since ancient times, there are many people who are talented and always adhere to principles like Bao Zheng, but these people are difficult to meet a Ming Jun, who has always maintained the sages like Song Renzong, and Bao Zheng can be able to die well, which can be said to be due to ability, but it is also due to luck!
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