Bao Zheng (Lord Bao)

Also known as Zi Xiren · Bao Qingtian · Shi Xiaosu

Bao Zheng, courtesy name Xiren, came from Hefei in Luzhou and passed the jinshi examination in 1027, but declined office to care for his aged parents until he had mourned them. As prefect of Duanzhou, which sent inkstones to court each year, he collected only the tribute quota rather than the surplus earlier prefects had taken as gifts for the powerful, and he left without a single stone. As censor and remonstrance official he repeatedly impeached the fiscal commissioner Wang Kui and opposed the rapid promotion of the imperial in-law Zhang Yaozuo. As acting prefect of Kaifeng from 1056 he opened the main gate so that litigants could come straight before him, and the capital said that no string-pulling could reach Old Yama Bao. He became vice commissioner of military affairs in 1061 and died the next year at sixty-four, named Xiaosu. His family rule barred any descendant convicted of corruption from the family home and graves.