From ancient times to the present, corrupt officials have never disappeared, they are like a tumor in society, affecting the social atmosphere and hindering the development of society, so in every dynasty, people are quite hateful to corrupt officials.
Since there are corrupt officials, there will inevitably be clean officials, and it is precisely because of their existence that society can return to the normal track and people's interests can be declared and safeguarded. In the history of the mainland, there have been countless Qing officials, who have been honest and upright all their lives.
They not only safeguard the rights and interests of the common people, but also have the courage to advise the emperor and eliminate the traitors in the imperial court, and the Qing officials we are familiar with are Di Renjie, Bao Zheng, Hai Rui, etc., who not only appear in books, but also appear often in film and television works.
Interestingly, one of the Qing officials, Bao Zheng, who was widely praised by everyone, had a very interesting thing happen when he died. He went out of 7 city gates with 21 coffins, why did he do such a strange thing? Let's talk today.
In order to honor his parents, he resigned and stayed in his hometown
Bao Zheng, also spelled Xiren, is a native of Luzhou. Bao Zheng has been studious since childhood and has a kind heart. He was praised by everyone for his filial piety to his parents from an early age, and at the age of 28, he was admitted to the jinshi, which was a very remarkable thing at that time.
Bao Zheng first served as a commentator at Dali Temple, and later promoted to Jianchang to do Zhi County, because the place where Bao Zheng was going to take office was far from Luzhou, and his parents were very old and often sick, so Bao Zheng was not at ease to leave his parents.
So he resigned from his official position and chose to take care of his parents at home. This stay is ten years, which is the best year of his life, but Bao Zheng would rather give up his great future and take good care of his parents, which is his choice and filial piety.
Until the death of his parents, Bao Zheng still stayed in front of his parents' mausoleum and could not bear to leave, and under the persuasion of his relatives and villagers, he re-entered the official field. There are not many people who can do bao zheng, and many people will give up their families for their careers.
For the sake of his parents, Bao Zheng has no complaints or regrets no matter what the price, and no matter what era he should learn the noble qualities. After returning to the imperial court, Bao Zheng first served as the governor of Tianchang County, and then transferred to Duanzhou as the prefect.
Enforce the law with integrity and dare to speak out
Duanzhou is famous for Duan Yan, and successive prefects before Bao Zheng would scavenged all kinds of Duan Yan from the people to give gifts and bribes, and Bao Zheng had not taken a piece of Duan Yan to give away since he took office, let alone taken it to his own home.
Bao Zheng did not serve as the prefect of Duanzhou for a long time, only two years, but in these two short years, he was already recognized by everyone as a diligent and honest clean official. To this day, there is still a well there, called "Bao Gong Well", which is one of the wells that Bao Zheng dug for the people in those years.
In 1043, Bao Zheng was transferred to the capital to supervise the imperial history, which is equivalent to the current supervision organ, specifically investigating and punishing officials for violating the law and discipline.
In historical records, Bao Zheng dealt with more than sixty officials who violated the law during his tenure, and all of them were removed from their posts, and one of Bao Zheng's highest achievements at that time was to let all three high-ranking courtiers in charge of the state finances fall, so that the country's finances were clear.
In addition, Bao Zheng would not only see clearly, he also sent envoys to the Liao State as an envoy. The Liao state bordered the Northern Song Dynasty, did not start a war for decades, and has been living peacefully. After Bao Zheng returned from a visit to the Liao State, emperor Shangshu sent some more shrewd and capable generals to protect the security of the frontier, and territorial security was an important project.
After Bao Zheng returned to China, he was arranged to serve as a judge in the Three Household Divisions, mainly in charge of finances. Later, he was promoted step by step, and finally became the Zhizhiyuan, who was responsible for making suggestions to the emperor, which was equivalent to an advisor.
In the middle of the court, Bao Zheng not only reported and punished the ministers for making mistakes and bluntly, but even in the face of the emperor, he was still not humble and did not give in the slightest. Fortunately, Song Renzong was one of the few tolerant and benevolent emperors in history, and he did not get angry at Bao Zheng's accusations, but humbly listened to his advice.
Later, Bao Zheng was transferred to many places as an official, and around 1056 AD, Bao Zheng went to Kaifeng Province to serve. Kaifeng was the capital at that time, for us modern people, when we mention Kaifeng Province, the first thing that comes to mind is Bao Gong.
In Kaifeng Province, Bao Zheng left many legendary stories to the world, such as "Chen Shimei of anger", "Tanuki cat for prince", "impeachment of Zhang Guozhang" and so on. Although the story somewhat deified Bao Zheng, it can be seen from this that in everyone's mind, the selfless image of Bao Zheng has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
Bao Zheng was secretly buried after his death
During Bao Zheng's reign, he was deeply loved by the people because he served the people wholeheartedly. He is not afraid of power, nor does he pay bribes for his own benefit, of course, this also brings him a lot of trouble.
Because he has punished many corrupt officials, he is bound to offend many people, and these people are everywhere against Bao Zheng and want to push him out. When Bao Zheng was alive, they did not succeed, because Bao Zheng was too supported by the people, and no one dared to stir up the people's indignation.
However, if Bao Zheng dies, there will be many people who hate him to take revenge on him. In ancient times, in order to take revenge, some people would even choose to dig people out of coffins and whip corpses to vent their anger, which was not uncommon.
Although Bao Zheng was not afraid of others retaliating against him, the ancients believed that the ancestors could bless the peace of the next generation, and if the ancestral graves were dug up, it would bring bad luck to his descendants, which was unlucky in the eyes of the ancients.
Bao Zheng also thought of this, and around 1062 AD, Bao Zheng died of illness. His family prepared 21 coffins in advance and went out from the seven city gates, and outsiders did not know which of the 21 coffins contained a bag.
In addition, there are also many places where the coffins go, which is dazzling, and people don't know where Bao Zheng is really buried. Bao Zheng's arrangement was generally more purposeful, one was that he didn't want others to know the location of his grave, after all, the grave had been dug up, and he was somewhat sorry for his ancestors.
Second, because there were many people sending Bao Zheng away, they went out from the seven city gates to disperse everyone, and there would be no crowded stampede accidents. Interestingly, because of Bao Zheng, there is also an "unspoken rule" in the tomb robbery world in later generations.
We all know that in ancient times, no matter which dynasty, there would be tomb robbers. In order to get it for nothing, they stole a large amount of gold, silver and treasure, antique jade from the tombs of princes and nobles and large families.
However, for Bao Zheng's grave, everyone has a conventional rule, that is, no one can dig Bao Zheng's grave. There are two reasons: First, everyone knows that Bao Zheng is a clean official, he has been a people all his life, he deserves the respect of everyone, and he is embarrassed to harm him.
Second, if the tomb of the robber is stolen, it will be condemned by the world, and the tomb robbers are afraid of bringing bad luck to themselves and their descendants, and dare not go to the tomb. In other words, although Bao Zheng has been away from us for many years, his spirit has been circulating in the world, and his glorious image is also indelible in the minds of everyone.
What do you think about that?