Bao Zheng is one of the most well-known figures in Chinese history. He is known for his honesty and incorruptibility, selflessness with an iron face, and judgment like a god, so he is praised by the world as "Bao Qingtian". However, no one is perfect, and even a figure like Bao Zheng inevitably has some shortcomings. Tonight I will read the history books to talk to you about the unknown other side of Bao Zheng's body.
Bao Zheng was a famous courtier during the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song. He was admitted to the Jinshi examination in the fifth year of Tiansheng (1027), and this year's golden list was called the "Zaizhi List", from Wang Yaochen and Han Qi of the Yuanyuan Dynasty, to Zhao Shuo, Wen Yanbo, Wu Yu and others who were all honored in the Eastern and Western Provinces in their prime years, becoming the top ministers of the imperial court. In contrast, Bao Zheng's career is much bleaker. Bao Zheng was a filial piety, and in order to facilitate the care of his parents, he resigned from the post of Jianchangzhi County and went to his hometown of Hefei as a tax inspector with little prospects. Later, he simply resigned from all public office and went home to support his parents.
A few years later, Bao Zheng's parents died one after another. After completing his mourning period for his parents, he returned to Kyoshi to listen to the election and was appointed as Tianchangzhi County. At this time, the jinshi who were the same age as him had become the backbone of the imperial court, and Bao Zheng had to start from the grassroots level and start from scratch.
However, although Bao Zheng started late, his promotion speed was very fast. In just a few years, Bao Zheng went from Zhi county to Zhi prefecture, and then was transferred back to the Capital Division to serve as the temple of Zhongcheng, and then to the Imperial Shitai as the inspector of Yushi Lixing. The reason why Bao Zheng was able to soar all the way to the top was not because of how well he did in grassroots work, but because he met the most important condition for selecting outstanding talents at that time: filial piety.
The Song Dynasty ruled the country with Confucian culture, and the core of Confucian culture lies in the word "filial piety". At that time, people believed that only those who were filial to their parents would be sincerely loyal to the country and the king, so there was a saying that "filial piety comes first". In order to take care of his parents, Bao Zheng could give up his fame and fortune, so how could such an excellent cadre not be promoted?
Bao Zheng was an upright and honest person, and this kind of personality was very suitable for working in yushitai, because yushitai's duty was to picket, impeach, and rectify the gang discipline. Therefore, Bao Zheng, who had just taken office, immediately gave full play to his strengths and began to impeach "mediocre officials."
Bao Zheng entered the Imperial Observatory in November of the third year of the Qing calendar (1043). In this year, a major event occurred in the imperial court, that is, Emperor Song Renzong supported the reform of the "New Deal for celebrating the calendar" proposed by Fan Zhongyan, Fu Bi and others. Bao Zheng is a righteous gentleman, Fan Zhongyan and Fu Bi are also upright gentlemen, so will Bao Zheng work hard for the cause of the New Deal with all the gentlemen? The answer is not only not to support, but he is also a strong opponent of the New Deal.
Originally, the reason why Bao Zheng was transferred to Yushitai was mainly due to the support of Gongchen, the king of Yushizhong. Wang Gongchen, Fan Zhongyan, and others had contradictions due to discord in political views, and Bao Zheng, as a cadre general of the Imperial History Platform, naturally wanted to form a united front with his own leaders and jointly attack the New Deal.
After several rounds of hot fighting with the New Deal, Bao Zheng's impeachment work was fruitful. So he set a bigger goal: to impeach Zhang Yaozuo, The Uncle of Zhang Guifei (Empress Wencheng).
Zhang Yaozuo was born as a jinshi, but his personal ability was mediocre, so he did not improve as an official in his early years. Later, Zhang Guifei gained favor, and as a foreign relative, he rose all the way up, and soon entered the center of the imperial court to hold an important position. Bao Zheng and the others saw that such a person who was doing nothing was actually in such a high position, and the anger in their hearts could not be contained, so a group of officials began to pestering Song Renzong all day long to "shell" Zhang Yaozuo's various non-beings. After a long period of competition, Song Renzong could not resist the stalking of Bao Zheng and other officials, and finally had to dismiss Zhang Yaozuo from the two posts of envoy of Xuanhui Southern Courtyard and envoy of Jingling Palace.
The Great Song officials who marched from victory to victory were not carried away by the immediate success, and they understood that only by carrying out the impeachment work to the end could they fully reflect the value of the officials. So Bao Zheng and other officials targeted Prime Minister Wen Yanbo again. However, in the process of impeaching Wen Yanbo, Bao Zheng only played a supporting role, and the protagonist was a more stubborn official Than Bao Zheng. Wen Yanbo had outstanding achievements as an official, and there was no bad record of corruption and perverting the law, but as long as the officials of the Song Dynasty were collectively "shelled" by the officials, they often had to shed their skin without dying. As a result, Wen Yanbo was demoted due to impeachment by the yan officials.
In many Chinese concepts, Bao Zheng represents the image of "Bao Qingtian" who is selfless in iron and asks for the people's lives. But although Bao Zheng in real history is also a decent person who is just and upright, he also has shortcomings such as not knowing how to be flexible and being too extreme. As a Yushitai advisor, Bao Zheng and his colleagues gave full play to their strengths of outspoken advice, but whether it was Zhang Yaozuo or Wen Yanbo, in fact, the reasons for impeachment were only some small stains, but they were used by the officials to make a big fuss. As for opposing the "New Deal for celebrating the calendar," it is even more the same as the party and has nothing to do with whether the matter itself is just or not.
It is worth mentioning that at the same time that Bao Zheng and others pestered Song Renzong every day to impeach Zhang Yaozuo and Wen Yanbo. In the Song Dynasty, there was a super disaster of the diversion of the Yellow River (the diversion of the Yellow River has only occurred 8 times in history). However, these officials and officials who are in the banner of justice every day turn a blind eye to the disasters that endanger the rise and fall of the country and the survival of the people, and instead devote most of their energy to fighting their opponents. It is no wonder that Ouyang Xiu, the "Spit King" who was a vassal of the same dynasty as Bao Zheng, commented that he was "not deeply learned, not familiar with his thoughts, and behaved obediently, and his people are also a pity!" ”
Reference: History of the Song Dynasty