Bao Zheng (包拯) (999–1062) was a much-praised official who served during the reign of Emperor Renzong of Northern Song Dynasty in ancient China. Culturally, Bao Zheng today is respected as the symbol of justice in China. Throughout history, his largely fictionalized stories have appeared in a variety of different literary and dramatic genres, and has enjoyed sustained popularity.
Bao Zheng was born into a scholar family in Hefei, Anhui province. At the age of 29, he passed the highest-level Imperial examination and became qualified as a Jinshi. He was a magistrate in Bian (Kaifeng), the capital of the Song dynasty.
After passing the imperial examination in 1027, Bao deferred embarking on his official career for a decade in order to care for his elderly parents and faithfully observe proper mourning rites after their deaths. From 1037 until his death in 1062, Bao successively held several offices at the imperial court and in provincial locations. In his lifetime, Bao was renowned for his filial piety, his stern demeanor, and his intolerance of injustice and corruption. Due to his fame and the strength of his reputation, Bao’s name became synonymous with the idealized “honest and upright official” (qingguan 清官), and quickly became a popular subject of early vernacular drama and literature. Bao was also associated with the Buddhist god Yama and the “Infernal Bureaucracy” of the Eastern Marchmount, on account of his supposed ability to judge affairs in the afterlife as well as he judged them in the realm of the living.[1]
He is famous for his uncompromising stance against corruption among the government officials at the time. He upheld justice and refused to yield to higher powers including the Emperor’s Father-in-Law (Chinese: 國丈; pinyin: guózhàng), who was also appointed as the Grand Tutor (Chinese: 太師; pinyin: tàishī) and was known as Grand Tutor Pang (Chinese: 龐太師; pinyin: Páng tàishī). He treated Bao as an enemy. Although Grand Tutor Pang is often depicted in myth as an archetypical villain (arrogant, selfish, and cruel), the historical reasons for his bitter rivalry with Bao remain unclear.
Famous cases:
- Bao Mian – When Bao Zheng was an infant, he was raised by his elder sister-in-law Wu Miaozhen like a son. Years later, Wu’s only son Bao Mian became a magistrate, and was convicted of bribery and malfeasance. Finding it impossible to fulfill both Confucian concepts of loyalty and filial piety, an emotional Bao Zheng executed his nephew according to the law and later tearfully apologized to Wu, his motherly figure.
- Chen Shimei – Chen Shimei was a poor student who was placed first in the Imperial examination and as a result married a princess of the Song Dynasty. However, Chen hid the fact that in his hometown he had another wife called Qin Xianglian who he had left behind to care for his aging parents and two young children. When Chen’s parents died during a famine, Qin and the children set out for the capital and found out what had become of Chen. Qin managed to meet Chen and begged him to at least help his own children. Instead Chen sent his servant Han Qi to have the family killed in order to keep his secret, but Han let the family escape and killed himself. Qin sought help from Bao Zheng, who tricked Chen into coming to the court where he was arrested. Chen thought that as the emperor’s son-in-law he would not be convicted, but Bao proved him wrong and executed him, despite protests and threats from the imperial family.
- The Civet for Crown Prince (Chinese: 貍貓換太子案; pinyin: Límāo huàn Tàizǐ Àn) or Beating the Dragon Robe Case (Chinese: 打龙袍案; pinyin: Dá lóngpáo Àn) – Bao Zheng met a poor woman claiming to be the mother of the current Emperor Renzong. It turned out that many years ago she was Consort Li, an imperial concubine of Emperor Zhenzong, but later fallen out of favor for supposedly giving birth to a civet. What really happened was a jealous concubine Consort Liu plotted with eunuch Guo Huai to secretly swap Li’s infant son with a bloody dead civet minutes after birth. Throughout the years Liu also plotted many times to murder Li, but she managed to escape from the palace. The infant son later became Emperor Renzong, not knowing who his real mother was. Bao managed to solve the difficult case, but Emperor Renzong refused to accept the findings. Faced with this, Bao ordered a set of beatings for the emperor for failing to oblige filial piety; however, because the emperor could not be physically punished, the Dragon Robe worn by him was beaten instead. Eventually Emperor Renzong accepted Li and elevated her as the new Empress Dowager.
For the complete article, please read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bao_Zheng
An article form The Economist:
An ancient practice gives poor people a voice, but not justice
MANY Chinese cherish the memory of Bao Qingtian, a judge of the Song dynasty, whose reputation for sticking up for the common man has endured for 1,000 years. This may be because honest and competent officials can be hard to find in the Middle Kingdom these days. But that does not deter hordes of poor men and women from trying: each year, millions of them, in a curious hangover from the imperial past, individually petition the government for help.
To bring their cases before the relevant ministry, many journey to Beijing, where they may spend several months camping out near the city’s southern bus station. The campers tell harrowing tales. A woman from Shandong says she has come to demand justice for her son, who was murdered by her local police chief’s thuggish son. Other petitioners rail about land stolen or jobs lost. Most wield wads of supporting documents.
Clearly, confidence in China’s law courts is not high. Last year, the government reported a 60% rise in the number of petitioners seeking to circumvent them. By one estimate, over 10m petitions are ongoing. At the local level especially, judges are often poorly schooled and corrupt. And yet, according to a survey by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), only two out of every thousand petitioners are successful. Many claimed to have been beaten or jailed by local officials in a bid to stop them running to Beijing telling tales.
Continue reading the article at: http://www.economist.com/node/3899159