The famous Bao Qingtian will be “reversed” every once in a while. (Picture / Retrieved from YouTube)
Is Bao Zheng, known as the “God of Justice” in China, actually a corrupt official? The “reversal culture” that has prevailed in mainland China in recent years has once once more pointed the finger at Bao Qingtian, and also took out the “precious treasure” found in Bao’s cemetery in 1973, pointing out that Bao Zheng in history was actually a corrupt official, and this statement is natural. Make Bao Gong’s descendants angry.
“Song History” pointed out that Bao Zheng’s character was “sturdy and upright, harsh on evil officials, and honest, and although he was very jealous of evil, he did not refuse to be loyal and forgiving.” He also often pleads for the people’s orders, not like a power-fighting politician who only makes profit for himself or his party. And his unselfish image, following being exaggerated by later generations, has become an unchallenged god of justice and integrity. It was not until the Chinese Cultural Revolution that Bao Zheng’s evaluation first reversed.
Under the fanatical call to “break feudal superstitions”, even the Yellow Emperor might not escape the criticism of Mao Zedong’s followers. Bao Gong’s Temple in Hefei was also unable to escape the catastrophe. Not only was the ancestral hall looted and statues were destroyed, even the legend of nearly a thousand years ago. Bao Gong’s portrait and “Pao’s Genealogy” were also set on fire. And when Bao Cemetery and Bao clan tombs were forcibly relocated in 1973, one of the small tombs was found to contain a very delicate “Golden Nanmu Coffin”, which is known as “National Wood”. Qianjin, it is definitely a wood that people can afford.
In addition, on both sides of the bottom of the coffin, there are 6 “holdings” used to fix and pull the coffin, which was the extremely high treatment given to important officials by the imperial court at that time, and the most important “Inscription on the cemetery of Xiaosubao, the minister of the Song Dynasty, the minister of Zengli”, Convince everyone that this tomb is Bao Qingtian’s tomb, and because of the wrong impression of the public that “a clean official equals thrift”, Bao Gong suddenly changed from a good official with integrity to a corrupt official who made a name for himself. Although experts have found that the tomb is not Bao Zheng’s tomb, and the “Bao family tree” preserved by Bao Gong’s descendants also confirms that Bao Zheng’s tomb is in the main tomb, not in the “small tomb”.
Although the misunderstanding that “Bao Gong is a corrupt official” has been dispelled by experts and his descendants, every once in a while someone will point out that Bao Gong is a corrupt official with a “golden silk nanmu coffin”, but ignore the image that a clean official must be frugal. The embarrassing history of “unusually low official salaries” in the Qing Dynasty, and the tragic truth of ignoring the fact that most Ming and Qing officials might hardly live without a sideline.
