"5,000 Years of China"
Chapter VIII Song Xia Xi Liaojin
Chapter Seven: The Iron Mask Selflessly Wraps the Blue Sky
When it comes to Qing officials, there is hardly anyone who does not know Bao Zheng. Throughout his life, he was a clean and honest official, honest and selfless, and was called "Bao Qingtian" by the people. There are also two folk songs circulating: "The joints are not enough, there are Yan Luo and Bao Lao." ”
Bao Qingtian stills (network picture)
"Judgment like a God"
Once, an old man went to the county court to report that the cattle were tied to the cowshed, and when he got up in the morning, he found the cattle lying on the ground with blood in their mouths. When I opened the cow's mouth, the cow's tongue had been cut.
But this is a headless public case, where to catch the person who cut the cow's tongue? The county grand master who is in power is Bao Zheng. In order to lure the snake out of the hole, Bao Zheng comforted the old man: "You don't make a sound first, go back and slaughter your cattle." "The cow is the treasure of the old man's home, and it is a little reluctant to slaughter the cow, but after listening to Bao Zheng's words, the old man did not say a word, and when he returned home, he killed the cow."
According to the law of the time, cattle could not be slaughtered privately. The next day, someone came to the county court to report that someone had slaughtered cattle privately and asked the county officials to punish them.
Bao Zheng asked about the situation, and immediately lowered his face and said, "So bold, you actually cut off the tongue of other people's cattle, but instead came to sue people for private slaughtering of cattle!" The people who came to complain were stunned when they heard it.
It turned out that this man had a vendetta against the owner of the cow, so he first cut the tongue of the cow and then went to report the slaughter of the cow. All this is in Bao Zheng's expectations, he judges the case like a god, and can always find the problem. The man was convinced and confessed honestly.
Stills of Jin Chaoqun's version of "Bao Qingtian" in 1993 (network picture)
"Law Enforcement Must Be Strict"
Later, Bao Zheng was promoted to be the governor of Kaifeng Province in the capital.
However, handling cases under the eyes of the emperor is much more difficult than in a remote place. Here are the relatives of the emperor and the state and all kinds of powerful officials and nobles, and no one can afford to offend. But Bao Zheng did not buy their accounts, what to do, will not care about the situation.
Once, there was a series of floods in the capital, losing a lot of life and property. The most important thing in front of Bao Zheng is to find a way to solve the problem of flood control.
After investigation, the flood was related to many illegal buildings on the embankment and had to be demolished. However, the pavilions and pavilions built here all belong to big people with backgrounds, who dares to move the soil on the head of the taiyi?
A great eunuch did not take Bao Zheng in his eyes at all. Unexpectedly, Bao Zheng found out the facts and reported it to the emperor, and the eunuch demolished the illegal building he had built on the embankment on time. The other officials saw that Bao Zheng had moved the real character, did not dare to disobey the order, and obediently dismantled them all.
"Iron Mask Selflessness"
Bao Zheng not only handled the case fairly, but also reformed the litigation system.
According to the regulations of the imperial court, if someone went to the Yamen to file a complaint, he had to ask someone to write it first, and he had to pass it on to the prefect through the Yamen official. As a result, some litigants took advantage of the opportunity to extort money.
This is an unreasonable rule. Bao Zheng told the people that if they wanted to file a complaint of injustice and beat the drum in front of the government gate, as long as the drum sounded, the government would open the main door and let the hundred go directly to the court to complain.
In this way, the little official will not have the opportunity to do anything. Bao Zheng's iron-faced selflessness is also manifested in the fact that he is also very strict with his relatives and friends. Some relatives wanted to use him as a mountain, and he didn't take care of him at all. Relatives and friends knew his temper and did not dare to go to him for private matters anymore.
Later, Emperor Renzong of Song was very reassuring and promoted him to be a privy councillor.
Even if he became a high official, the life of Bao Zheng's family was still very simple, just like ordinary people. In his lifetime, he hated corrupt officials the most, and said in a "Family Training" that if his descendants become corrupt officials, they are not allowed to return to their hometowns; after they die, they are not allowed to be buried in the ancestral graves of the Bao family.
Bao Zheng's honesty and integrity have always been praised and admired by people.
Historical Archives
The Case of The Beauty of the United States
Chen Shimei stills (network picture)
Bao Zheng is an important figure in folk literature and opera, the most famous of which is the "Gongmei Case", which has been rumored to be a beautiful talk through the ages. According to legend, Chen Shimei was a Song Dynasty leader who was later summoned by the emperor to be a donkey. However, his ex-wife Qin Xianglian was still alive, and for his own future, Chen Shimei actually sent someone to kill his wife. Qin Xianglian sued her husband for being ungrateful, but no one dared to take the case, and later Qin Xianglian stopped Bao Zheng's car and cried out for injustice. In the public court, Guo Tai and Huang Gu both came to intercede for Chen Shimei, and Bao Zheng naturally handled the case impartially, and ignored it, and Guo Tai made a big fuss in court. Finally, Bao Gong took off his black gauze hat and held it high in his hand, and beheaded Chen Shimei according to law.