There were many famous people in ancient China, among which there were probably two people, Di Renjie and Bao Zheng, who were famous for their cases. Bao Zheng, also known as Bao Qingtian, was a famous courtier in the Northern Song Dynasty, he was not only known for his honesty and justice, but also for being able to judge cases, one of which was more strange, there was a bride who committed suicide on the second day of marriage, but Bao Zheng gave a pair of upper links, and said that the murderer who could get out of the lower league was the murderer. Why?
Bao Zheng was born in the second year of The Love Song Zhenzong Xianping (999), and not long after he was admitted to the jinshi as an official, he chose to take up a position in front of his parents because his parents were older. He did not return to the official field until the death of his parents, and Bao Zheng's incorruptibility was reflected as early as the early stages, and Duanzhou was rich in Yantai and had to pay tribute to the imperial court every year. Officials who served as officials in Duanzhou would choose to add more to bribe high-ranking officials, but Bao Zheng did not, he only handed in the prescribed number, and he did not want more than one brick platform.
This deed of Yantai was written into a novel by many people, which exaggerated the corruption of high-ranking officials, after Bao Zheng was framed, the people covered bao zheng, and then Bao Zheng was even angrier and personally beheaded the imperial relatives. Although Bao Zheng was the governor of Kaifeng Province, he did not treat him like other officials, but treated both powerful people and commoners. At the same time, the rules of Kaifeng Province were also changed, and the person who filed the complaint was to be handed over to the government officials first, but many government officials would rely on this to make money, that is, the common people could not sue without money. When Bao Zheng understood this matter, he omitted the matter of going to the government to report to the officials, and directly opened the door of the government, so that the people could directly sue the officials.
Bao Zheng broke countless cases for the people during his time in Kaifeng Province, including a story of killing cattle and solving cases. There was a farmer whose cattle had their tongues cut off, and this cow could not work after cutting his tongue, and he could not eat well. In this way, the farmer can only keep it, but sooner or later the cow will die. According to the criminal law of the Song Dynasty at that time, the people were not allowed to kill cattle. But after Bao Zheng listened to the peasants, he asked him to go back and kill the cattle, and the peasants had no choice but to listen to Bao Zheng's words. Not long after, a man came to bao zheng to complain that the farmer had killed the cow, which was a crime.
Bao Zheng immediately ordered this person to be arrested, and the man asked: Why didn't the cattle killer arrest me? Bao Qingtian smiled at this time, if you don't pay attention to the farmers every day, how will you know that he killed the cattle? And you're paying attention to that farmer, I'm afraid you're doing to his cattle, right? The suspect could only admit the fact that he had done something bad, and it turned out that this man had a vendetta against the farmer and cut off the cow's tongue, so that the cow could not work, and it was against the law to kill.
Bao Zheng also showed his cleverness in another case. A newlywed bride committed suicide after the second day of marriage, and her husband's family felt that the cause of death was abnormal and came to report to the authorities. After Bao Zheng heard about the process of the incident, he ordered a couplet and said that whoever could match the couplet would have a large bounty. Many people came to try it, but Bao Zheng arrested one of them. It turned out that this person had a couplet with Bao Zheng, and Bao Zheng's couplet was left by the bride who committed suicide.
The bride gives a couplet on the wedding day and asks the groom to give a couplet before he can go into the room and sleep. But the groom was tired for a day, and he accompanied the guests to drink a lot of wine, where can it be right, so he went to sleep in the study groggy. The next day the bride shyly said to him: Your couplet yesterday was so good, the groom was confused and said that I slept in the study yesterday. At this time the bride was silent for a while, and went into the room alone, and it was not long before she was found to have committed suicide in the room, and a couplet was left on the table.
Obviously, it was not the groom who came out of the bride's couplet, and the bride had said before that the bride could only come out of the cave, and the bride must have later learned that it was not the husband who was in the cave with her. Finally, after investigation, it was found that the person who Was caught by Bao Zheng and gave it to Xia Lian attended the wedding on the same day, and after interrogation, he also admitted to the crime. He was a friend of the groom, and when he saw this couplet, he thought of the next couplet, so he took advantage of the groom's inability to go to the bride's cave, and the next day he was afraid that the bride would know and quickly left.
Reference: History of the Song Dynasty