page_title: Bao Zheng
section_title: Stories
hierarchical_section_title: Bao Zheng / Legend / Stories
caption_attribution_description: English: Bao Zheng portrayed by a actor
context_page_description: Bao Zheng, commonly known as Bao Gong, was a Chinese politician during the reign of Emperor Renzong in China's Song Dynasty. During his twenty-five years in civil service, Bao consistently demonstrated extreme honesty and uprightness, with actions such as sentencing his own uncle, impeaching an uncle of Emperor Renzong's favourite concubine and punishing powerful families. His appointment from 1057 to 1058 as the prefect of Song's capital Kaifeng, where he initiated a number of changes to better hear the grievances of the people, made him a legendary figure. During his years in office, he gained the honorific title Justice Bao due to his ability to help peasants overcome corruption.
  Bao Zheng today is honored as the cultural symbol of justice in Chinese society. His largely fictionalized gong'an and wuxia stories have appeared in a variety of different literary and dramatic mediums, and have enjoyed sustained popularity. In mainstream Chinese mythology, he is often portrayed wearing a judge's zhangokfutou hat and a crescent moon on his forehead. Some Chinese provinces later deified Judge Bao, equating him to the benevolent war god Guan Gong.
context_section_description: In opera or drama, he is often portrayed with a black face and a white crescent shaped birthmark on his forehead.
  In legends, because he was born dark-skinned and extremely ugly, Bao Zheng was considered cursed and thrown away by his father right after birth. However, his virtuous elder sister-in-law, who just had an infant named Bao Mian (包勉), picked Bao Zheng up and raised him like her own son. As a result, Bao Zheng would refer to Bao Mian's mother as "sister-in-law mother".
  In most dramatizations of his stories, he used a set of guillotines (鍘刀, "lever-knife"), given to him by the emperor, to execute criminals:
  The one decorated with a dog's head (狗頭鍘 or 犬頭鍘) was used on commoners.
  The one decorated with a tiger's head (虎頭鍘) was used on government officials.
  The one decorated with a dragon's head (龍頭鍘 or 火龍鍘) was used on royal personages.
  He was granted a golden rod (金黄夏楚) by the previous emperor, with which he was authorised to chastise the current emperor. He was also granted an imperial sword (尚方寶劍) from the previous emperor; whenever it was exhibited the persons surrounding, irrespective of their social classes, must pay respect and compliance to the person exhibiting as if he were the emperor. All guillotines of Bao Zheng were authorised to execute any persons without first obtaining approval from the emperor, whilst some accounts stating the imperial sword was a license to execute any royals before so reporting.
  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 (國丈), who was also appointed as the Grand Tutor (太師) and was known as Grand Tutor Pang (龐太師). 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.
  Bao Zheng also managed to remain in favour by cultivating a long-standing friendship with one of Emperor Renzong's uncles, the Eighth Imperial Prince (八王爺) and Prime Minister Wang Yanling (王延齡).
  In many stories Bao is usually accompanied by his skilled bodyguard Zhan Zhao (展昭) and personal secretary Gongsun Ce (公孙策). Zhan is a skilled martial artist while Gongsun is an intelligent adviser. When Sherlock Holmes was first translated into Chinese - Watson was compared to Gongsun Ce. There are also four enforcers named Wang Chao  (王朝), Ma Han (馬漢), Zhang Long (張龍), and Zhao Hu (趙虎). All of these characters are presented as righteous and incorruptible.
  Due to his strong sense of justice, he is very popular in China, especially among the peasants and the poor. He became the subject of literature and modern Chinese TV series in which his adventures and cases are featured.
caption: Bao Zheng portrayed by a Peking Opera actor.
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