Bao Zheng is a famous minister of the Northern Song Dynasty, known for his honesty and fairness, not afraid of the powerful, selfless and wise decision-making with an iron face, and is respected by later generations as "Bao Qingtian" or "Bao Gong".
His life has experienced ups and downs from cloth clothes to important ministers of the court, and he has also left many thrilling stories of case solving, showing Bao Zheng's wisdom, especially the "Bull Tongue Case". Today, let's talk about the story of Bao Zheng.
The development history of Bao Zheng
Bao Zheng was born in Hefei, Anhui Province, his father was an official, he traveled with his father since he was a child, and was diligent and inquisitive and received a good education, especially like reasoning and solving cases, laying a solid foundation for his later life.
Bao Zheng was gifted and intelligent, and he was admitted to the Jinshi at the age of 17, but because he was filial to his parents and did not want to leave his hometown, he resigned from his official position and went home to accompany his parents after his parents' death.
He successively served in Yangzhou, Luzhou and Duanzhou, showing outstanding talent and character and was deeply loved by the people, and then was reused and promoted by the imperial court.
Throughout the history of Bao Zheng's development, he served as the deputy envoy of the household department of the three divisions and the envoy in charge of finance, and also put forward many useful suggestions to reform the tax system and salt law to alleviate the country's financial crisis.
Later, he served as the prefect of the Imperial Court and the Imperial History, and during his tenure, he actively impeached some traitorous ministers such as Wang Kui and Li Shu, so Bao Zheng has a nickname called "Bao Dan".
Of course, compared with the above experiences, his most admired position is the right to know Kaifeng Fushi, that is, the Kaifeng Mansion Yin in the Northern Song Dynasty, which is equivalent to the highest administrator of modern Beijing.
The main reason for this is that Bao Zheng worked in a fair and strict manner during his tenure as governor of Kaifeng Prefecture, put an end to countless major and important cases, punished many corrupt officials and corrupt officials, protected the broad masses of the people, and won the reputation of "opening the right door."
Bao Zheng's case solving story has been passed down to this day, such as the popular "Young Bao Qingtian", "Kaifeng Mansion" and many other TV series in the early 21st century, which are planned based on Bao Zheng.
Of course, there are apocryphal situations in many film and television dramas, but there is one thing that is true, and it can also reflect the guaranteed wisdom and reasoning ability, that is, the case of cutting the tongue of the cow that has been widely circulated in history.
Cutting the tongue of a cow
The "Ox Tongue Case" happened very early, when Bao Zheng was not the Yin of Kaifeng Prefecture, but served as the county magistrate of Tianchang County in Yangzhou. One day, an old farmer complained to him that the tongue of his cattle had been cut off, and that cutting off the tongue of the cow meant that the cow would die soon after.
This matter is not worth mentioning in modern times, but it is a crime in ancient times. In ancient times, the ploughing ox was the main production tool of the agrarian society, which could save social labor and expand the scale of production and promote the development of social productive forces.
Therefore, in ancient times, cattle were protected by the law, and they were not allowed to kill them for no reason, otherwise they would be severely punished. Successive laws strictly prohibit the arbitrary slaughter of cattle, unless the cattle are too old and weak to farm, and the owner of the cattle can only slaughter the cattle with the permission of the government.
There are relevant provisions in the "Song Criminal Rule": In the future, there should be those who steal officials, private horses, horses, cattle and miscellaneous animals and kill them, or sneak and slaughter them out of hatred and jealousy, please kill them for theft. If you steal and kill horses and oxen, you will be put to death......
Therefore, in the Song Dynasty, it was illegal to commit suicide to commit suicide, and if it was serious, it would be executed, and it can also be seen from here that the heroes in "Water Margin" asked for "a few catties of beef" at every turn, which is not true at all.
To get back to the point, the old farmer came to the county government to report the case to Bao Zheng, firstly, to clear up his relationship, that is, the cattle were not killed by himself, and on the other hand, to let the government find out the truth behind the scenes.
After listening to the case described by the old farmer, Bao Zheng pondered for a while and then retreated, and secretly told the complainant in front of him: You go back and kill the cow, and take out the beef and sell it, and the thief will appear soon.
The old farmer didn't know why Bao Zheng had arranged it this way, but since the official had said so, he must have a reason, and when he returned home, he slaughtered the cattle and sold them in the market, which soon attracted a large number of people who bought beef.
The beef stall was very lively, and the county government of Tianchang County also came to an uninvited guest, the purpose of this person was to report the old farmer for slaughtering cattle and selling them without permission. Bao Zheng arrested him without saying a word, and claimed that the person in front of him was the prisoner who cut the tongue of the cow.
The truth of the matter is revealed
Bao Zheng made such a judgment not with empty words, it was a crime to kill a cow in the Northern Song Dynasty, but the original owner of the cow was killed by others was not guilty.
In other words, if the person who cut the tongue of the cow really wanted to kill the cow, he did not need to go to great lengths, so the purpose of the person was not to kill the cow, but to place the blame on the owner of the cow.
Speaking of which, the matter is simple, since the person who cut the tongue of the cow is to frame him, then when he sees the owner of the cow selling beef, he will definitely not buy some new ones like others, but sue the government to punish him for his sins.
It was precisely because of this thinking that Bao Zheng let the owner of the cow sell beef, so that the person who cut the tongue of the cow would fall into the net, and the truth did develop as he expected.
The guy who came to sue was made by Bao Zheng's sudden accusation and collapsed his psychological defense, coupled with the fact that he couldn't stand the torture, so he had to admit the crime under a big change in his face.
Soon the owner of the cow came to the county office, and when he saw the murderer, he also understood what happened, and there was a deep contradiction between the two that had not been resolved. Driven by hatred, this man took advantage of the night to cut off the tongue of the cow's owner.
The Song Dynasty forbade the slaughter of live cattle by the people, and once they were discovered, they would be severely punished, and they wanted to wait for the show to see the show and then seize the opportunity to step on the owner of the cow. Unexpectedly, the owner of the cattle not only did not get punished, but also generously sold beef to make a fortune.
The unwilling prisoner went to the county government to complain, and therefore fell into Bao Zheng's strategy and had to admit his guilt, "stealing and cutting the nose of the cow" was a major crime of death in the Northern Song Dynasty, so the end of this revenge is probably tragic.
Bao Zheng is a famous minister of the Northern Song Dynasty, a life of honesty and self-control, not afraid of the powerful, not attached to the power and not for personal gain, after his death was posthumously presented with the Ministry of Rites, and even by Taoism as the fifth hall of hell Yama King, is a model of the ancient Qing officials in the mainland.
Today, although he has been dead for thousands of years, the various legends about him are still the subject of many conversations, and the case of cutting the cow's tongue is one of them, which shows his extraordinary way of thinking and reasoning.
There is also a case of Leng Qing pretending to be a prince in history, this kind of case is real, and it is not made up on TV, Bao Zheng connects the limited information, turns decay into magic, and uncovers the truth of the matter step by step, which is amazing.
What are your thoughts on this?