Literary traditions '', as printed in 1859 by the Hall of Gold and Jade (金玉樓), featuring Bao Zheng as main character Bao Zheng's stories were retold and preserved particularly in the form of
performance arts such as
Chinese opera and
pingshu. Written forms of his legend appeared in the
Yuan Dynasty in the form of
Qu. Vernacular fiction of Judge Bao was popular in the
Ming and
Qing Dynasties. A common protagonist of
gong'an fiction, Judge Bao stories revolve around Bao, a magistrate, investigating and solving criminal cases. When Sherlock Holmes was first translated into Chinese in the Qing Dynasty, the Chinese called Sherlock “the English Judge Bao.” In the
Yuan Dynasty, many
plays (in the forms of
qu and
zaju) have featured Bao Zheng as the central character. These plays include: •
Rescriptor Bao Cleverly Investigates the Circle of Chalk () by
Li Qianfu •
Rescriptor Bao Thrice Investigates the Butterfly Dream () by
Guan Hanqing, English translation can be found in Yang & Yang 1958 •
Rescriptor Bao Cleverly Executes Court Official Lu () by
Guan Hanqing, English translation can be found in Yang & Yang 1958 (as
The Wife-Snatcher) •
Ding-ding Dong-dong: The Ghost of the Pot (), English translation can be found in Hayden 1978 The 16th-century novel
Bao Gong An by An Yushi () (partially translated by Leon Comber in 1964) increased his popularity and added a detective element to his legends. The 19th-century novel
The Seven Heroes and Five Gallants by the storyteller
Shi Yukun () (partially translated by Song Shouquan in 1997 as well as Susan Blader in 1997) added a
wuxia twist to his stories. In
Pavilion of Ten Thousand Flowers (),
Five Tigers Conquer the West (),
Five Tigers Conquer the South () and
Five Tigers Conquer the North (), four serial wuxia novels composed by Li Yutang () during Qing Dynasty, Bao Zheng,
Di Qing and
Yang Zongbao appear as main characters. In
What the Master Would Not Discuss (), a Qing Dynasty
biji by
Yuan Mei (), Bao Zheng as well as the belief that he was able to judge affairs of both human beings and supernatural beings is featured.
Stories actor. 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 (), 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 () 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 () by the previous emperor, with which he was authorized to chastise the current emperor. He was also granted an imperial sword () from the previous emperor; whenever it was exhibited to the persons surrounding, irrespective of their social classes, they must pay respect and compliance to the person exhibiting the sword as if they were the emperor (unless the person has an object of equal power). Each of Bao Zheng's guillotines were authorized to execute the corresponding social-ranked person without first obtaining approval from the emperor, though any interference from the emperor would stop the process. 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 (), who was also appointed as the
Grand Tutor () and was known as
Grand Tutor Pang (). He is depicted to have 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 () and Prime Minister Wang Yanling (). In many stories Bao is usually accompanied by his skilled bodyguard
Zhan Zhao () and personal secretary
Gongsun Ce (). 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 (), Ma Han (), Zhang Long (), and Zhao Hu (). 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.
Famous cases s inside the Lord Bao Memorial Temple, a tourist attraction in
Kaifeng,
Henan,
China. In this scene, a fearless Bao Zheng takes off his
official headwear to challenge the
empress dowager, in order to execute the
prince consort Chen Shimei. All of these cases have been favorites in
Chinese opera. •
Executing Chen Shimei ():
Chen Shimei had two children with wife Qin Xianglian, when he left them behind in his hometown for the
Imperial examination in the capital. After placing first, he lied about his marriage and became the emperor's new brother-in-law. Years later, a
famine forced Qin and her children to move to the capital, where they learned what happened to Chen. Qin finally found a way to meet Chen and begged him to help at least his own children. Not only did Chen refuse, he sent his servant Han Qi to kill them in order to hide his secret, but Han helped the family escape and killed himself. Desperate, Qin brought her case to Bao Zheng, who tricked Chen to the court to have him arrested. The imperial family intervened with threats, but Bao executed him nonetheless. •
Executing Bao Mian (): When Bao Zheng was an infant, he was raised by his elder sister-in-law, Wu, 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 was about to reluctantly execute his nephew. In the end, the real criminals were forced to confess and Bao Mian's sentence was commuted. •
Civet Cat Exchanged for Crown Prince (): Bao Zheng met a woman claiming to be the mother of the reigning
Emperor Renzong. Dozens of years prior, she had been
Consort Li, an
imperial concubine of
Emperor Zhenzong's, before falling out of favour for supposedly giving birth to a bloody (and dead)
civet cat. In reality, the jealous
Consort Liu had plotted with eunuch Guo Huai () to secretly swap Li's infant with a
skinned civet cat minutes after the birth and ordered palace maid
Kou Zhu to kill the baby. However, Kou gave the baby to chief eunuch Chen Lin (), who secretly brought the child to the
Eighth Prince, a younger brother of Emperor Zhenzong. Kou was later tortured to death by Guo when Consort Liu began to suspect that the infant had survived. The child was raised by the Eighth Prince as his own son and was subsequently selected to succeed Emperor Zhenzong, who had died heirless. Due to the passage of time, gathering evidence was a challenge. With the help of a woman dressed as Kou's ghost, Bao dressed himself as
Yama, lord of
Hell, to play on both Guo's fear of the supernatural and guilt, thereby extracting his confession. When the verdict was out, the emperor was reluctant to accept Consort Li. Bao then admonished the emperor and ordered that he be beaten for
lack of filial piety. The emperor's Dragon Robe was beaten instead. Emperor Renzong eventually accepted his mother and elevated her as the new
empress dowager. •
The Case of Two Nails (): Bao Zheng investigated a man's suspicious death whose cause had been ruled as
natural. After an
autopsy, his
coroner confirmed the earlier report that there was no injury to the whole body. At home, the coroner discussed the case with his wife, who mentioned that someone could force long steel nails into the brain without injuring the body. The next day, the coroner indeed found a long nail, and the dead man's
widow was arrested; she confessed to
adultery and
mariticide. Afterwards, Bao Zheng began to question the coroner's wife and learned that the coroner is her second husband, as her first husband had died. Bao ordered his guards to go to the cemetery and unearth her first husband's coffin. Sure enough, there was also a nail driven into the
skull. •
The Case of the Black Basin (): A silk merchant by the name of Liu Shichang was on a trip home when he decided to ask for food and overnight lodging at the place of Zhao Da, the owner of a
pottery kiln. Greedy for the riches carried by Liu, Zhao killed him by poisoning his dinner, burying his remains with clay in his kiln to make a black basin in order to destroy the evidence. An old man named Zhang Biegu, whom Zhao owed a debt to, soon took the basin from Zhao in lieu of cash payment. Zhang eventually encountered the Liu's
ghost, who had been possessing the basin ever since his murder, and was told the story of the latter's cruel death at Zhao's hands. Determined to bring the suspect to justice, Zhang soon brought the black basin to Bao Zheng's court in Kaifeng and after several attempts, finally persuaded Liu's ghost to tell the judge everything. As a result, Zhao was finally arrested and executed for murder. ==Modern references==