During the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song, there were many talents in the dynasty, and the Bao Zheng, who was known to posterity, appeared during this period.
Song Renzong
Bao Zheng was a native of Hefei, Luzhou, and his grandfather was just an ordinary farmer, and his father was admitted to the Jinshi, and the official worshiped the servant of the Punishment Department. From a very young age, Bao Zheng began to receive a rigorous education. At the age of twenty-eight, he passed the entrance examination.
Confucius once said, "Parents are here, not far away." Because of this sentence, after The Filial Son Bao Zheng became a jinshi, he did not immediately accept the appointment of the imperial court, but stayed at home and continued to serve his parents. Later, his parents passed away one after another, and Bao Zheng, who was already thirty-six years old, officially embarked on his career and became a Zhixian.
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Bao Zheng had divine help in judging the case in the process of doing Zhi County.
Once, a thief secretly cut off the tongue of a farming cow in a farmer's house. The owner of the cultivating cattle came to the county court to report the crime, and Bao Zheng instructed him to go back and slaughter the cultivating cattle first, and then sell them. At that time, the law stipulated that it was forbidden to slaughter cultivating cattle without permission, but since the Lord of Zhixian county had ordered it, the owner of the cultivating cattle had to do as he commanded.
It didn't take long for someone to go to the county court to expose the criminal acts of the cattle owners. Bao Zheng said to the whistleblower of this righteous speech: "You have cut off the tongue of the cattle of others. Now I'm going to sue him again, why on earth are you doing this?" The whistleblower understands that his crime has been seen by Bao Zheng, and can't help but be surprised, but also admires Bao Zheng's ingenuity.
Saving his talents in case adjudication soon made him famous. Two years later, he was transferred to Duan Prefecture as Zhi Prefecture. Duanzhou is now the city of Zhaoqing, Guangdong, where the World famous duan yan is one of the "four treasures of the study room" (the other three treasures are lake pen, emblem ink and rice paper).
The Song Dynasty poet Zhang Jiucheng once wrote a poem to praise Duan Yan: "Duanxi Guyan is strange in the world, and the purple flowers are half spitting out rainbow neon in the night." Because of this, Duan Yan became a tribute hand-picked by the imperial court. In the past, every time when paying tribute to the imperial court, Duanzhou Zhizhou would loot Several times more Duan yan than the number of tributes to bribe officials in the capital.
After Bao Zheng came to Duanzhou to serve as Zhizhou, such a situation never happened again. He handed over as much as he needed to pay tribute to the court. Even the piece of the stone he used in his office was not taken with him when he left office.
Duan Yan
It is said that the people of Duanzhou respected this Zhizhou lord very much and wanted to give him a piece of Duanyan as a souvenir. Therefore, someone quietly hid a piece of Duan Yan in the cabin where Bao Zheng was sitting. When Bao Zheng left Duanzhou by boat and passed through the mouth of Antelope Gorge, the weather suddenly changed and the wind and rain were great. Bao Zheng felt that something was strange, so he personally inspected it in the cabin, and found that the people had sent him a stone. Bao Zheng did not want to take this brick platform for himself, so he threw it into the river. Subsequently, a small sandbar was formed in the place where Bao Zheng threw the end of the stone, known as "ink stone sand".
After Bao Zheng left Duanzhou, he came to the capital to take up his post. He was appointed as an envoy to the Liao state. Officials of the Liao State ridiculed Bao Zheng and said, "The city of Xiongzhou in your country has recently opened a new gate, is it not intended to use this to lure traitors from the Liao state to defect, so as to spy on the military intelligence of the Liao state?" Bao Zheng did not humble himself and retorted: "Zhuozhou City in your country has also opened a convenient door, is it also to spy on the military intelligence of the Great Song Dynasty?" When the other party heard this, he couldn't help but be dumbfounded.
Returning from the Liao Dynasty, Bao Zheng once served as an advisor. The counselor, as the name suggests, is to directly point out the faults of the monarch and persuade him to correct them in a timely manner. Taking Wei Zheng, a famous minister of the Tang Dynasty, as an example, Bao Zheng immediately copied the three pieces of grass that Wei Zheng wrote to Tang Taizong and presented them to Emperor Renzong to remind Emperor Renzong to learn from the experience and lessons of his predecessors, be modest and prudent, distinguish between right and wrong, know people and make good use of them, be sympathetic to the people, and so on. Emperor Renzong was a relatively enlightened monarch and adopted many of Bao Zheng's advice.
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In the autumn of Bao Zheng's first year as an advisor, there was a great flood in the capital. Before long, the floods receded and the weather turned sunny. Emperor Renzong was overjoyed, feeling that this was the north of the great auspiciousness given by god, and immediately held a large-scale sacrifice, and planned to promote all the officials in the court and the world. Bao Zheng said: "Prisoners should be punished for the crimes they have committed, and whether the flood of the ancient city recedes or not, it has nothing to do with the punishment they are going to receive." Whether an official can be promoted or not is the only basis for his or her political performance during the official period. Only those officials with outstanding political achievements are eligible for promotion. If the emperor arbitrarily gave the opportunity for promotion for other reasons, it would greatly discourage the enthusiasm of those diligent officials. ”
During Bao Zheng's tenure as an advisor, he impeached many corrupt officials, including even three major officials such as the three envoys. The "Three Envoys" were the highest financial officers of the Northern Song Dynasty, and Zhang Fangping, who was then the Envoy of the Three Divisions, was mean and greedy, and often abused his power and infringed on the interests of the people. At that time, there was an ordinary businessman named Liu Baoheng in the capital, and the tavern he opened lost money one after another, and he owed a lot of debts to the government. Zhang Fangping ordered him to sell all his family property to pay off his debts. Due to the urgency of the situation, Liu Baoheng could not find a buyer who could buy his own family property for a while, so Zhang Fangping bought all his family property at a low price and profited from it. Later, this matter reached Bao Zheng's ears. Bao Zheng wrote to Emperor Renzong, saying that Zhang Fangping had taken advantage of his position to oppress the people and must be severely punished. Emperor Renzong believed that Bao Zheng's words were justified, so he deposed Zhang Fangping from his official position.
At that time, Emperor Renzong was very fond of Zhang Meiren, one of the harems, and planned to appoint Zhang Meiren's uncle Zhang Yaozuo as the "Three Envoys". In fact, with Zhang Yaozuo's talent, he was completely unable to fill this position. Bao Zheng explained this to Emperor Renzong and implored Emperor Renzong to take back his life. Emperor Renzong not only made Zhang Yaozuo an envoy of the Third Division, but also gave him the post of envoy of Jiedushi, and a year later, he was also appointed as an envoy of Xuanhui Southern Courtyard. During this period, Bao Zheng twice wrote to Emperor Renzong, and finally had a fierce dispute with Emperor Renzong above the court. Under pressure, Emperor Renzong eventually had to follow Bao Zheng's advice and dismiss Zhang Yaozuo from his official post.
Bao Zheng is a very persistent person, once he decides to do something, he will definitely stick to the end. He wrote three times and finally succeeded in impeaching Zhang Yaozuo. Later, in order to impeach Wang Kui, he wrote to the book seven times in succession. Wang Kui was a local official who was cruel to the people and insatiable. Wang Kui often killed people indiscriminately, so that in the area under his jurisdiction, many people hid in caves in the mountains and lived like savages in order to avoid his persecution. During Wang Kui's tenure, he often set up a clever name and snatched the people's fat and people's ointment. He bribed officials in the capital with money obtained from embezzlement and bribery, thus constantly obtaining opportunities for promotion. He was able to maneuver left and right in the official arena, and later the official visited Huainan to transport envoys. Bao Zheng wrote seven times to impeach Wang Kui, and finally caused this angry and resentful corrupt official to be deposed by Emperor Renzong.
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At the age of fifty-eight, Bao Zheng was appointed prefect of Kaifeng. As the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, Kaifeng can be imagined how important the prefect of Kaifeng is. During the Northern Song Dynasty, more than 180 people served as the prefect of Kaifeng, with an average tenure of only more than half a year, and most of these people were princes and nobles. After Bao Zheng became the prefect of Kaifeng, he still enforced the law impartially as before, and even if the imperial relatives came to him, they enjoyed less than half a privilege. The originally arrogant imperial relatives and state relatives did not dare to behave as brazenly as before during Bao Zheng's tenure as the prefect of Kaifeng. Bao Zheng was a serious man and rarely smiled, and the people said that unless the water of the Yellow River became clear, there was no need to expect to see Bao's smile.
Bao Zheng decided the case
Bao Zheng's iron-faced selflessness allowed his good name to spread throughout the streets of the capital, and even women and children knew his name. In the capital city, there is a saying that goes like this: "If the joints are not enough, there are Yan Luo Bao lao." People compare Bao Zheng to the King of Yan Luo, which means that anyone who comes to Bao Zheng and wants to rely on the dredging of relations to win the lawsuit is a fool's dream
During the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a stipulation that if the people wanted to file a complaint, they must first submit the complaint to the petty officials at the bottom, and they could never personally hand over the complaint to the prefect. However, during Bao Zheng's tenure as prefect of Kaifeng, he opened the gates of Kaifeng to all the people. Anyone who has a grievance can directly present it to him.
Bao Zheng decided the case
According to legend, Bao Zheng's face is as dark as charcoal, and there is a crescent moon on his forehead. Because he was an official and a righteous official, and judged cases like a god, the people called him "Bao Qingtian". It is said that Emperor Renzong once gave Bao Zheng the dragon head, the tiger head and the dog head, which were placed in the lobby of The Kaifeng Mansion, using different knives according to the identity of the prisoners. Whether it is the imperial relatives or the ministers of the DPRK, after committing the death penalty, they are like the common people, and they are sentenced to capital punishment. In folklore, during the period when He was the prefect of Kaifeng, Ju zheng once broke off famous cases such as the exchange of tanuki cats for eldest sons and the case of Zhenmei.
Shen Kuo, in "Mengxi Pen Talk", records a case-breaking story by Bao Zheng: a prisoner bribed a minor official in Kaifeng Province to escape the cane punishment he should have accepted when he passed through the church. The petty officer instructed him to shout as soon as he went to the church, pretending that he had been tortured with a rod, and when the time came, the prisoner was taken to the church and immediately shouted. The petty officer then reported to Bao Zheng that the man had apparently been tortured with a cane. But where can their tricks catch Bao Zheng's eyes? Bao Zheng immediately ordered the petty officer to be arrested and interrogated. The petty officer had no choice but to tell the truth and the truth of the matter. Bao Zheng then asked him to take the place of the prisoner and receive a cane punishment as a punishment.
Shen Kuo
Dream Creek pen talk
In some legends of later generations, people added many magical elements to deify Bao Zheng into an omnipotent god. These are naturally just jokes, and they cannot be taken seriously, but in the minds of the people, Bao Zheng is indeed the blue sky they admire.
Throughout his life, Bao Zheng was strict with himself, devoted himself to official duties, rarely interacted with people on weekdays, did not even have personal letters, and had long been cut off from relatives and friends. He was an official and incorruptible, and there was no difference between him and the ordinary people in terms of food and clothing. Bao Zheng once said: "If my descendants are officials, they will never allow corruption and pervert the law, otherwise they will not be allowed to return to their hometown when they are old, and they will not be allowed to be buried in the family cemetery after death." Anyone who violates this is not a descendant of My Salvation. He had these words engraved on the stone tablets so that future generations would always remember them.
Although Bao Zheng has been dead for more than a thousand years, his image of a Qing official is still deeply imprinted in the mind of Bai Surname. Literati and scholars of successive dynasties wrote many poems praising Bao Zheng, and many places in Wang China have commemorative buildings built for Jurchen. It can be seen that at any time, the people need a clean official like Bao Zheng.
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