Northern Song Dynasty famous ministers Bao Zheng , famous for his integrity and justice, and is known by the world as " Bao Qingtian ". His selfless image of Qingtian has long been integrated into the hearts of the people.
Bao Zheng has many popular stories throughout his life, and people praise Bao Zheng as "clear heart is the root cause, and straightforward way is the plan". In the hearts of the people, Bao Zheng has a high status. He is honest and diligent in his work, and he dares to give straight advice and do his best to the country and the people. Later generations regard it as a synonym for honest officials, and the beautiful name of "Bao Qingtian" has been remembered for generations.
The people of later generations all recognized Bao Zheng as the reincarnation of Wenquxing and worshipped him as a god. Due to folk rumors that Bao Zheng’s black-faced image, Bao Zheng was also called “ Bao Black Charcoal ”.
In 1062 AD, Bao Zheng died of illness at the age of 64.
According to historical records, on the day of Bao Zheng's funeral, 21 coffins were carried out from the city gate at the same time. The people who came to attend Bao Zheng's funeral rushed in like a tide, standing alleys all over the streets.
The 21-mouth coffin actually has a certain anti-theft effect. It is said that tomb robbers have set a rule since then.
"Bao Qingtian" Bao Zheng
Bao Zheng, whose courtesy name is Xiren, was born in the second year of Emperor Zhenzong of Song Xianping , a native of Hefei, Luzhou.
Bao Zheng received a good education since childhood and had the ambition to "exert loyalty and die righteousness", but in fact, Bao Zheng's career was not smooth.
First of all, Bao Zheng's path to the imperial examination. Song Renzong Tiansheng 2 Tiansheng 5th year Bao Zheng passed the imperial examination and was awarded the position of Dali's evaluation and became the county magistrate. At that time, Bao Zheng was already 28 years old.
Later, in order to serve his elderly parents, Bao Zheng resigned and returned home. It was not until his parents passed away and the mourning period expired that Bao Zheng took office again and became a magistrate.
Bao Zheng is an honest official, never embezzled and accepted bribes, and his daily life at home is also very simple. After the expiration of the term of the magistrate, Bao Zheng's reputation gradually spread.
After this, Bao Zheng's official position began to grow bigger and bigger. He was gradually promoted from the eighth-rank sesame official to the deputy envoy of the Privy Councilor.
Privy Council in Song Dynasty is equivalent to the highest authority of the country's military aircraft, and is an official rank of the second rank. Bao Zheng's power and function is equivalent to the position of prime minister, and he can also manage military and political power. At that time, he could be said to be the highest "high-ranking official".
According to historical records, Bao Zheng held many official positions throughout his life, among which the most well-known "Bao Qingtian" is the position of " Kaifeng Prefecture Prefecture ".
This is a very important official position in the Northern Song Dynasty. Song Taizong , Song Zhenzong and other emperors also held this position before ascending the throne. This position requires taking charge of all local people's livelihood and judicial affairs and having great real power.
Throughout history, there have been many officials in the court, and there are many people like Bao Zheng who are honest and honest. However, there are very few who can truly be remembered forever like him.
In the final analysis, it is because Bao Zheng is the real parent official of the people in the country, and he always regards caring for the people as his responsibility.
During Bao Zheng's reign, he was good at understanding the people's sentiments everywhere, using his rights to distinguish right from wrong, punish evil, and eliminate evil, and restore the people to a clear world. He can be said to be a blessing for all the people.
Bao Zheng is very diligent in handling political affairs and works tirelessly.
Song Renzong Qingli Third year, heavy snow was blowing in Chenzhou area, and many mulberry jujube trees in the local area were frozen to death, which directly led to a significant reduction in the number of spring silkworms and wheat in the second year.
The local magistrate wrote a letter to Song Renzong to request exemption from " transfer , change".
"Subsiding" and "reversal" were a form of taxes paid by farmers in the Northern Song Dynasty to the court at that time. However, in fact, these methods greatly increased the cost of tax payment for the people. When encountering this extremely bad natural disaster , it was even worse for the people.
Episode : Bao Zheng, who was the censor at the time, went to Chenzhou to inspect the situation in person after hearing this. After learning about the local situation, he immediately submitted a memorial requesting the emperor to issue a special edict, which ultimately prevented the local people from suffering from "change" in the year of great disasters.
"Bao Gong went to Chenzhou", " Bao Bao waiting to make Chenzhou rice ", and "Bao Gong let the grain" all evolved from the fact that Bao Zheng requested to exempt Chenzhou from "change".
Bao Zheng's character of selflessness and fearlessness of the powerful is also very prominent in history.
In "Bao Zheng Collection", it records a lot of historical materials about Bao Zheng impeaching officials and even royal relatives and nobles.
One is Bao Zheng Qibang Corrupt Official Wang Kui .
This person has a good relationship with ministers from the prime minister Chen Zhizhong, and he is also deeply loved by Song Renzong, so he is not ruthless when he engages in corruption.
This Wang Kui was the transferee of Jinghu South Road and had illegally plundered a lot of money and goods.
The local people gathered to resist. After the scandal that Wang Kui did was exposed, he was demoted to Chizhou magistrate.
In the fifth year of Qingli, Wang Kui was promoted to Jiangnan West Road Transportation Commander, but he remained unchanged and bullied the people.
Bao Zheng was the censor at that time and submitted a memorial to impeach Wang Kui.
In the sixth year of Qingli, Bao Zheng impeached Wang Kui twice in a row. Wang Kui was first changed to the transfer envoy of Jinghu North Road, and later changed to the governor of Xuzhou .
In November of the second year of Huangyou, Wang Kui was promoted to Huainan Transportation Commissioner.
see Wang Kui as a fisherman, but the emperor never imposed a substantial punishment on Wang Kui. Bao Zheng, who was the Censorate at the time, continued to submit a memorial to impeach Wang Kui, but this time he did not receive a reply from the emperor.
After this, Bao Zheng still did not give up. He submitted memorials and impeachments three times in succession, and told the emperor that appointing corrupt officials like Wang Kui as transshipment envoys would be a great disaster for the people.
Bao Zheng's righteous words shocked the entire court, and finally the court removed Wang Kui from his post as Transportation Envoy.
The second is Liutan Guozhao Zhang Yaozuo .
This Zhang Yaozuo is the uncle of Concubine Zhang, who was favored by Song Renzong. He has always relied on Concubine Zhang's power and called himself the "father-in-law" to the outside world.
During the Qingli period, Zhang Yaozuo jumped from magistrate to magistrate Kaifeng Prefecture, and later was suddenly promoted to the Third Session in the first year of Huangyou, equivalent to the position of deputy prime minister at that time.
Although Zhang Yaozuo has a high position in his official position, he is essentially a mediocre person. He only cares about human nature and worldly affairs every day, and has made no achievements in the local people's livelihood.
So, starting from the second year of Huangyou, Bao Zheng of Zhijianyuan began to submit a memorial to impeach Zhang Yaozuo.
At the beginning, Song Renzong ignored his attitude.
Bao Zheng did not give up, and submitted two impeachment memorials one after another, repeatedly discussing the inadvertent actions of the local people and Zhang Yaozuo, and begging the emperor to select talents to serve as the position of the Three Divisions.
After Bao Zheng's repeated impeachment, Song Renzong reluctantly dismissed Zhang Yaozuo's position as a three-level envoy, but in a blink of an eye he was granted a higher position as the Prime Minister. Once the appointment was made, the court was in an uproar.
Bao Zheng knew that Song Renzong's move meant that he had been angry with him before, but he was not afraid at all. He immediately submitted a memorial to the emperor, not only rebuked Zhang Yaozuo for being ashamed and stole the power, but also pointed out that Song Renzong had a "private intimacy in the harem".
Song Renzong continued to turn a blind eye to Bao Zheng's impeachment. Bao Zheng was not discouraged and submitted a memorial again, requesting that Song Renzong remove Zhang Yaozuo from his position.
In November of the second year of Huangyou, after all the officials retired from the court, Bao Zheng still argued in front of Song Renzong about Zhang Yaozuo's issue, and his words were fierce, and even spitting his spit on Song Renzong's face inadvertently.
Song Renzong knew that Bao Zheng was loyal, so he did not blame him. In the end, he followed Bao Zheng's opinion and removed Zhang Yaozuo from both positions.
Bao Zheng held an official position in his lifetime, in addition to the positions of managing property such as , Sansi and Transport, he also mainly serves as a censor who specializes in supervising speech and affairs such as the Censor and the Censorate.
During his tenure as censor , Bao Zheng was also a brave and dared to speak out. At that time, the literati and officials in the court said that Bao Zheng would become the "Zheng Zheng Zhenzhong".
For a long time, Bao Zheng dared to be arrogant and straightforward to Song Renzong.
Whether it is discussing state affairs in daily life or encountering disasters, Bao Zheng submitted a memorial to Emperor Renzong of Song. On the one hand, he made suggestions on the major plan of governing the country and ensuring national security, and on the other hand, he dared to criticize Emperor Renzong of Song himself.
Bao Zheng also specially submitted a memorial to "Three Memorials of Duke Zheng of Wei", and copied three memorials of Wei Zheng to Song Renzong, hoping that Song Renzong could be a "wise and admonishing leader" like Tang Taizong .
Southern Song famous ministers Han Yuanji also commented on Bao Zheng, saying that he "responsible and has the style of a loyal minister in ancient times."
Bao Zheng was in funeral, and 21 coffins were carried out from the city gate at the same time
Bao Zheng married two wives in his life. The original wife Li died early without giving birth. There are only a few words about this lady in history books.
After Li's death, Bao Zheng continued to marry Dong. The two of them were in a similar position and respected each other. Dong also gave birth to a man and two daughters for Bao Zheng.
Become a father for the first time, Bao Zheng was very happy and named his eldest son Bao Zhuang .
By the time Bao Zhu grew up, Bao Zheng was already in a high position. Song Renzong loved the house and the Wuwu. Bao Zheng's only son was also named Taichong in Taichong Temple. He married the Cui family in Huaiyang when he was 19 years old, and the couple was loving.
However, it is this kind of Baohu, who has a double harvest in career and love, passed away a year later.
Fortunately, Bao Zhu was already a father at that time, and finally he still left behind his descendants.
Bao Zheng was fifty-five years old and suddenly lost his only son. The pain of a white-haired man sending a black-haired man can be imagined, but fortunately there was a little grandson by his side to chat with comfort.
But fate seems to be so cute. Bao Zheng's grandson unfortunately died at the age of five. This is undoubtedly the greatest pain for Bao Zheng.
Bao Zheng did not expect that his later years would be so miserable. He first lost his son, then his grandson, and now he has no future.
In the huge Bao Mansion, in addition to Bao Zheng, only his wife Dong, daughter-in-law Cui, and Dong's dowry maid Teng concubine Sun.
's successive huge blows also made Bao Zheng look much older with his naked eyes, and his physical condition is getting worse day by day.
historical records show that Bao Zheng finally died of illness.
On May 13, the seventh year of Jiayou, Song Renzong, Bao Zheng suddenly fell ill while handling official duties in the Privy Council. After returning home, Bao Zheng began to fall ill. Song Renzong sent many imperial physician ministers to see a doctor, but it was useless.
On the 25th of that month, Bao Zheng unfortunately passed away at the age of 64.
Bao Zheng died when his second son Bao Zhuang was only five years old.
Bao Hu was born in his own home for Teng concubine Sun. Later, he was welcomed back to Bao Mansion by Bao Zheng's daughter-in-law Cui. Later, he became the position of Fenglang of the Chaozhou and the magistrate of the Tongzhou. After Bao Zheng passed away, Song Renzong was heartbroken and went to his home to pay condolences in person, and stopped the court meeting for one day to mourn for loss.
In order to handle the funeral and escort Bao Zheng's coffin back home, Song Renzong ordered Bao Zheng's son-in-law Wen Xiao to be promoted to the governor of the Bao Xinjun Jiedu, responsible for handling related matters of Bao Zheng's funeral.
After learning about Bao Zheng's death, the people in the capital were all sad. The lament and crying of the people could be heard everywhere on the streets and alleys.
For that period, the people and officials and people of the Song Dynasty were mourning Bao Zheng.
For this reason, the court specially set up Bao Zheng’s mourning hall next to Daxiangguo Temple , in order to allow the people of the world to meet the last time they meet "Bao Qingtian".
The people who came to the mourning hall to worship Bao Zheng came from all directions.
In addition, Song Renzong said that Bao Zheng was honest and honest, filial to his parents, and honest, and was upright and unrighteous. He also enfeoffed Bao Zheng as the founding prince of Donghai County. He was posthumously awarded the Minister of Rites and was posthumously named "Xiao Su". Therefore, later generations also called Bao Zheng " Bao Xiao Su ".
The one who escorted Bao Zheng’s coffin was Bao Zheng’s son-in-law Wenxiao. On the day of Bao Zheng's funeral, local people came to see him off. In order to cover up, Wen Xiao arranged a total of twenty-one coffins to carry them out from the seven city gates at the same time.
In fact, in these twenty-one coffins, only one coffin is real.
is arranged in this way to prevent Bao Zheng's enemies from robbing the tomb or destroying Bao Zheng's corpse.
Bao Zheng was upright all his life, and he offended many powerful people in the process of handling the case. I don’t know how many corrupt and perverted the law hate him because of this, and he even wanted to cut him into pieces.
has made so many coffins, which is actually the same as the doubts of Cao Cao's , and it is all about preventing graves from being stolen.
After Bao Zheng was buried, his family also spread some rumors about false cemeteries and institutions in order to prevent Bao Zheng's cemetery from being destroyed.
Bao Zheng loved the people all his life, and after his death, even the tomb robbers set a rule that they were not allowed to destroy or care about Bao Zheng's cemetery.
More than 60 years after Bao Zheng's death, the Jin army went south, the Northern Song Dynasty was destroyed, the Anhui territory was trampled on, and Bao Zheng's cemetery was eventually artificially destroyed.
As a senior official of the Song Dynasty, Bao Zheng's cemetery was even more retaliated by the Jin army. Bao Zheng and his wife's cemetery were excavated by the Jin army, but in Bao Zheng's cemetery, there was only an ordinary inkstone besides the corpse, which was enough to show how honest he was.
In Bao Zheng’s entire family tomb, the most valuable cultural relics are the epitaphs and the written records above. Behind these words are Bao Zheng’s death sentences and the spirit of integrity.
Bao Zheng's life is thrifty and extremely simple. Even though he later became the deputy envoy of the Privy Councilor, equivalent to the position of deputy prime minister, his salary was enough for him to live a better life, and he had no shortage of food, clothing and expenses, but his living and living food and food were still as frugal as when he was the magistrate.
Bao Zheng hates corrupt officials very much. Historical records have recorded that Bao Zheng once found more than 180 corrupt officials during his one year of official career.
Bao Zheng is an immortal image. Although Bao Zheng passed away, the people will never forget this upright and plead for the people.
Because Bao Zheng once served as Kaifeng Prefecture, the people later built the "Bao Gong Temple" next to the government office to commemorate this loyal minister.
Later generations have always been circulating about where Bao Zheng's burial place was. Before the cemetery of Bao Zheng's family was actually excavated, Anhui and Henan often argued that there was a red face when " Bao Cemetery ".
, one said to be in Daxingji, eastern suburbs of Hefei City, Anhui Province, and the other said to be in Gong County, Henan Province.
It was not until April 1973 that Hegang Second Factory was expanded, and at that time, all graves within the expansion scope of the factory were ordered to be moved away. The Provincial Museum conducted rescue excavations of Bao Zheng’s tomb.
After four months of discovery, a total of 12 family tombs of Bao Zheng were discovered in the local area, including 4 brick room tombs and 8 earth pit tombs. The burial objects were all porcelain, silver and other objects.
The entire Bao Zheng family tomb does not have precious gold, silver and jewelry, but only epitaphs, bronze mirrors, , inkstones and other ordinary things.
According to investigation, these tombs include Bao Zheng and his wife Dong, eldest daughter-in-law Cui, second son Bao Shou , second daughter-in-law Wen and eldest grandson Bao Yongnian , etc.
In the epitaph of Bao Gong , in addition to recording Bao Zheng's life and deeds, his death time and the process of transporting the coffin back to Hefei are described in detail.
After the experts tested the corpses in the tomb, they determined that this was Bao Zheng’s original tomb.
Bao Zheng's youngest son Bao Shou started to become an official in the court since he was 25 years old, and he served as the Chief Secretary of the Imperial College and the General Judge of Ruzhou.
Bao Shou has been an official for more than 20 years, but after his death, he couldn't even take out the money for moving back to his hometown for burial, so he was not buried back in the ancestral grave for a long time.
Sixteen years after Bao Shou's death, he waited until Bao Shou's sons all became adults and finally collected enough money to move Bao Shou back to Hefei for burial.
During the turbulent period in China, Bao Zheng's remains had nowhere to be buried and were wandering everywhere. Bao Yixu and others secretly buried Bao Zheng's remains in Bao Zheng's hometown.
A local reporter learned about this and wrote an article titled "The Story of the Burial of Bao Gong's Remains" in the Hefei Evening News in September 1984. This article attracted the attention of the provincial party secretary and immediately asked the Hefei Municipal Government to prepare for the related matters of Bao Zheng's tomb and bury Bao Zheng's remains in the Bao Gong Temple.
Bao Zheng's last official title during his lifetime was the Second-rank Minister of Rites, so his tomb was also planned and designed according to the specifications of the Second-rank official in the Song Dynasty.
Later, Bao Zheng Tomb was rebuilt, and the tombs of his relatives were scattered around Bao Zheng's tomb.
In this way, Bao Zheng's soul was resting again.
Reference:
from Xu Gaobin. Biography of Bao Zheng [M]. 2018
from Chen Yong. Biography of ancient Chinese supervisors [M]. 2019: Bao Zheng
from Zhou Yizhi. Reading and Leadership [M]. 2020: Bao Zheng "Bao Zheng Collection"
