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Abstract
This is a case study of the Baos of Luzhou, an important Northern Song (960–1127) elite family. Based on multiple biographies, archeological findings, and local gazetteers, the present article examines the lives of three generations of Bao men and women, starting with the renowned statesman Bao Zheng (999–1062). It argues that Bao Zheng’s quick rise to the national scene confirms the openness of the political system to new arrivals during the Northern Song. Despite Bao’s early success, his and his descendants’ failure to consolidate the fortunes of the family led to its irrevocable decline by the early twelfth century. In addition to delineating details relating to the rise and fall of the Baos, this article highlights the overwhelming task of family preservation and the vulnerability of elite status in the Northern Song.
Notes
1 The earliest commemorative shrine in Bao Zheng’s honor was established in Luzhou in 1066, a mere four years after his death; the shrine was expanded in 1181. Bao Zheng, Bao Zheng ji jianzhu (Annotated Collected Works of Bao Zheng, hereafter referred to as BZJ) (Hefei: Huangshan shushe, 1999), 310–13; Zeng Zaozhuang and Liu Lin, eds., Quan Song wen (The Complete Song Prose) (Chengdu: Bashu shushe, 1988), 598·251. Another major site in Luzhou was Bao Zheng’s tomb, which was fifteen li (about five miles) outside of the city of Hefei. According to Lin Zhi 林至, who wrote on the occasion of a renovation in 1199, the tomb received scholar-official visitors both in the Northern and Southern Song (1127–1279). Bao Zheng, BZJ, 316–17. In Zhaoqing 肇慶 (in Guangdong), where Bao Zheng served from 1140 to 1142, a shrine was set up in the 1240s at the latest. Bao Zheng, BZJ, 315. Other Bao-related sites will be referred to later in the paper.
2 The appendix to BZJ lists 163 accounts from the Southern Song to the Qing (1644–1911). Bao Zheng, BZJ, 354–61. Most recently, Wilt Idema has translated some of the earlier works into English. See Idema, Judge Bao and the Rule of Law: Eight Ballad Stories from the Period 1250–1450 (World Scientific Publishing Company, 2009).
3 For a study of the development of court case fiction, see Ann Waltner, “From Case Book to Fiction: Kung-an in Late Imperial China,” Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 110, no. 2 (1990): 281–89.
4 Longtu was an official title that Baozheng once held. Patrick Hanan, “Judge Bao’s Hundred Cases Reconstructed,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, vol. 40, no. 2 (1980): 301.
5 Hanan, “Judge Bao’s Hundred Cases Reconstructed,” 302.
6 For a discussion of the “pure official culture,” see He Feng, “Luelun Bao Zheng yu Zhongguo de qingguan wenhua (On Bao Zheng and China’s Pure Official Culture),” Hefei shifan daxue xuebao, vol. 27, no. 2 (2010): 28–31.
7 Bao’s ideas on governing are the subject of a large number of recent articles. See Fu Yuzhang, “Shilun Bao Zheng de yongren zhi dao (On Bao Zheng’s Idea on Personnel Management),” Anhui daxue xuebao, no. 6 (1998): 60–63; Xu Biao, “Lun Bao Zheng de sifa daode guan (On Bao Zheng’s views on Justice and Morality),” Anhui daxue xuebao, vol. 24, no. 2 (2000): 54–58; Yang Guoyi, “Bao Zheng guanyu Liao Xia wenti de duice (On Bao Zheng’s Countermeasures to Matters related to the Liao and Xia),” Anhui shifan daxue xuebao, vol. 27, no. 1 (1999): 99–103, “Luelun Bao Zheng fan fubai (A Brief Discussion of Bao Zheng’s Ideas on Aiti-Corruption),” Anhui shixue, no. 1 (1995): 11–15; and “Luelun Bao Zheng de minben sixiang (A Brief Discussion of Bao Zheng’s Ideas on People as the Foundation),” Anhui shifan daxue xuebao, vol. 30, no. 1 (2002): 75–82; Shen Ruiying, “Luelun Bei Song taijian yu Bao Zheng (A Brief Discussion of Bao Zheng and the Northern Song Censoring and Remonstrating System),” Henan daxue xuebao, vol. 40, no. 2 (2000): 30–34; Hong Renjie, “Lun Bao Zheng de zhiguan guanli sixiang (On Bao Zheng’s Ideas on Personnel Management),” Anhui shixue, no. 1 (2002): 9–12.
8 This privilege allowed high ranking officials to name one or more of their relatives as officials. The number of relatives one could protect depended on one’s actual rank. John Chaffee, The Thorny Gates of Learning (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1995), 23–25 and 28–30.
9 Bao Zheng, BZJ, 270, 274, 278.
10 Bao Zheng, BZJ, 270, 279.
11 In his study of Song Dynasty Fuzhou, Robert Hymes has identified seven categories of men (and their affinal kin) and women as members of the elite. They can be further classified into four groups: (1) office-holders, (2) graduates of the prefectural examination, (3) organizers and contributors of funds to local projects, and (4) members in academic or poetic societies. Hymes, Statesmen and Gentlemen, the Elite of Fu-chou, Chiang-hsi in Northern and Southern Sung (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 7–10.
12 Beverly Bossler makes this argument in her study of Northern and Southern Song grand councilors. She has found that, “By the mid-Northern Song and thereafter, grand councilors included both descendants of families who had established themselves in the bureaucracy very early in the dynasty, and the children of families whose entry into office was considerably later.” And “throughout the Song, men of politically illustrious ancestry had to share their power with others whose rise to high position, and sometimes even into classical literacy, was more recent.” Bossler, Powerful Relations: Kinship, Status, and the State in Sung China (Cambridge, MA: Council on East Asian Studies, 1998), 39.
13 For some major studies on the Song ruling elite, see E. A. Kracke, “Family Versus Merit in Chinese Civil Service Examinations.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, vol. 10, no. 2 (1947): 103–23; Robert Hartwell, “Demographic, Political, and Social Transformations in China, 750–1550,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, vol. 42, no. 2 (1982): 365–442; Chaffee, Thorny Gates of Learning; Richard L. Davis, Court and Family in Sung China: Bureaucratic Success and Kinship Fortunes for the Shih of Mingchou (Durham: Duke University Press, 1986); Hymes, Statesmen and Gentlemen; Bossler, Powerful Relations; and Tao Jinsheng, Bei Song shizu: jiazu, hunyin, shenghuo (Northern Song Elites: Family, Marriage, and Life) (Taibei: Zhongyang yanjiuyuan lishi yuyan yanjiusuo, 2001). The literature on the late imperial gentry is too vast to be cited here. For a very useful survey, see Joseph W. Esherick and Mary Backus Rankin, “Introduction,” in Esherick and Rankin, eds., Chinese Local Elite and Patterns of Dominance (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1990), 1–24.
14 In addition to works mentioned above, see also Hugh R. Clark, “The Fu of Minnan: A Local Clan in Late Tang and Song China,” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 38, no. 1 (1995): 1–74 and Portrait of a Community: Society, Culture, and the Structures of Kinship in the Mulan River (Fujian) from the Late Tang through the Song (Hong Kong: the Chinese University Press, 2007); Huang Kuanzhong, “Renji wangluo, shehui wenhua huodong yu lingxiu diwei de jianli—yi Songdai Siming Wangshi jiazu wei zhongxin de guancha (Interpersonal Network, Social and Cultural Activity, and the Establishment of Leadership Status: The Wangs of Siming in the Song),” Taiwan daxue lishi xuebao, vol. 24, no. 2 (1999): 225–56 and “Songdai Siming shizu renji wangluo yu shehui wenhua huodong—yi Loushi jiazu wei zhongxin de kaocha (Interpersonal Network and Social and Cultural Activity of the Siming Elites in the Song: A Case Study of the Lous),” Zhongyang yanjiuyuan lishi yuyan yanjiusuo jikan, vol. 30, no. 3 (1999): 627–69; and Nicholas Tackett, The Transformation of the Medieval Chinese Elite, Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 2006 and “Great Clansmen, Bureaucrats, and Local Magnates: the Structure and Circulation of the elite in Late-Tang China,” Asia Major Third Series, vol. 21, no. 2 (2008): 101–52.
15 Hartwell, “Demographic, Political, and Social Transformations in China.”
16 Hymes, Statesmen and Gentlemen.
17 Davis, Court and Family in Sung China.
18 Bossler, Powerful Relations.
19 Clark, Portrait of a Community.
20 All these biographies, except the one of Miss Cui in the Song History, are included as appendices in Bao Zheng, BZJ, 265–90.
21 Bao Zheng, BZJ, 265–267.
22 For emperor Renzong’s reign, the compilation project began in 1063 and completed in 1069. Cai Chongbang, Songdai xiushi zhidu yanjiu (A Study of the System of Historical Writing in the Song) (Taipei: Wenjin chubanshe, 1993), 79; also see Kong Fanmin, “Song Guoshi ji Songshi Bao Zheng zhuan bianzheng (An Investigation of Bao Zheng’s biography in Song Guoshi and Songshi),” no. 1 (1991): 6–10. This biography survived because it was attached to Bao’s collected works, posthumously compiled and published by his friend Zhang Tian 張田, who was the prefect of Luzhou right after Bao’s death and around the time of his burial. Zeng and Liu, Quan Song wen, 1042·196.
23 Bao Zheng, BZJ, 270–73; Tuo Tuo, Song shi (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1997), 316·10315–18.
24 Tuo Tuo, Song shi, 460·13479–80.
25 Bao Zheng, BZJ, 283; Zeng and Liu, Quan Song wen, 1851·170.
26 See Daming yitong zhi, 14·11a, 14·13b, 14·15a–b, 14·18b, 14·19a, 14·22a–b; Jiaqing Luzhou fu zhi, 5·7a, 5·8a, 5·32a-b, 24·2b, 26·12b–15b, 42·1a; Jiaqing Hefei xian zhi, 12·5a, 12·7a, 14·6b–7a, 14·12b, 14·14a–b, 14·16b, 22·6a–9a, 25·1a–b, 31·13a–14b, 13·29a, 32·4a–7a, 32·13a–14a, 32·33b–34a, 32·43b–45a, 33·24a–26a, 35·2b–3a, 35·7b-8a; and Guangxu xu Luzhou fu zhi, 11·7a, 11·10a–11a, 12·1b–2a, 26·22a, 33·6a, 33·8b, 67·1a–b.
27 The Bao family graveyard was located 15 li in the eastern suburbs of Hefei city. The tomb complex was excavated in 1973. The epitaphs under discussion here and Bao Zheng’s remains were protected by Bao Zheng’s descendants for many years before the items were relocated to a large complex in the center of Hefei city in the mid-1980s. The discovery of the Bao tombs and their eventual movement were accompanied by many dramatic turns of events. See Cheng Rufeng, Jiekai Baogong mu zhi mi (Uncovering the Puzzles Related to Bao Zheng’s Tomb) (Hong Kong, Tianma chuban youxian gongsi, n.d.) and Baogong mu zaisheng (The Rebirth of Bao Zheng’s Tomb) (Hong Kong, Tianma chuban youxian gongsi, n.d.). Cheng participated in the entire process of excavating and restoring the Bao tomb complex. His works contain fascinating details that are beyond the focus of this article.
28 These epitaphs are all included as appendices to Bao’s collected memorials. Bao Zheng, BZJ, 273–90.
29 The story related that a man reported to the local government that somebody had cut off the tongue of his ox. Bao Zheng ordered the man to pretend to kill the ox and sell its meat. When the news spread, a villager approached the county government, accusing the first man of secretly killing an ox, which was against the law. Bao therefore concluded that the villager was the one who had cut the ox’s tongue. The moral of the story is that Bao was quick in understanding the underlying issue (somebody might have held grudges against the ox owner) and his intuition in solving the problem. Bao Zheng, BZJ, 265, 268, 270–71, 274.
30 Bao Zheng, BZJ, 269, 272, 277. In his biographies, Bao Zheng was also said to have implemented an important measure to make sure that people would have an opportunity to come inside the prefectural office compound to hand in their complaints instead of turning them over to clerks at the entrance, a practice that could easily create corruption. Bao Zheng, BZJ, 266, 272, 277.
31 It should be noted that the length of Bao’s tenure was nothing out of the ordinary. Based on a survey of extant Song local gazetteers, Miao Shumei has concluded that, during the Northern Song—but only occasionally—prefects stayed on in their positions for longer than three years; overall, most prefects served between one and a half to two years. The average tenure of a Northern Song prefect was a mere year and seven months. Miao Shumei, Songdai guanyuan xuanren yu guanli zhidu (Personnel Selection and Management System in the Song) (Kaifeng: Henan daxue chubanshe, 1996), 262.
32 Bao Zheng, BZJ, 1.
33 Bao Zheng, BZJ, 263.
34 Bao Zheng, BZJ, 270, 272, 273, 277, 278. Bao was indeed not shy in criticizing his colleagues. His memorials singled out 61 officials for wrongdoing.
35 Bao Zheng, BZJ, 266, 268, 269, 271, 272, 274.
36 Bossler, Powerful Relations, 42.
37 Bao Zheng, BZJ, 279.
38 Both Hymes and Bossler have found that men new to the bureaucracy came from families who had long established in their native places. Hymes, Statesmen and Gentlemen, 41–53; Bossler, Powerful Relations, 35–39.
39 Neither Bao Zheng’s biographies nor other extant Song sources referred to Bao Lingyi’s examination record. The late appearance of this information in Jiaqing Luzhou fuzhi (26·12b) and Guangxu Luzhou fuzhi (33·6a) makes us wonder if Lingyi was a full-fledged degree holder.
40 We know that Lingyi and his wife died before 1034 because by 1036 Zheng had finished mourning both parents and assumed his first position. Bao Zheng, BZJ, 265, 267–68, 270, 274.
41 This number may include children born to concubines. Ebrey, The Inner Quarters, Marriage and the Lives of Chinese Women in the Sung Period (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1993), 172.
42 Bao Zheng, BZJ, 269.
43 Bao’s assignment to Luzhou was an extremely generous gesture of the court, as Song personnel management policies, collectively known as the Principle of Avoidance (huibi迴避) strictly prohibited officials from serving in their native places. Miao Shumei, “Songdai guanyuan huibi fa shulun (A Discussion of the Code of Avoidance in the Song),” Henan daxue xuebao, vol. 31, no. 1 (1991): 24–30. Extant material reveals little about Bao’s activities in these two years. One of the most plausible reasons for his moving to Luzhou was to arrange for his son’s burial.
44 It is possible that the concubine joined the Baos under a contract. When it seemed that she was failing to produce a child, she was sent home by the Baos. See Patricia Ebrey’s discussion of this issue in “Concubines in Song China” in her collection of essays, Women and the Family in Chinese History (New York: Routledge, 2002), 49–52.
45 Bao Zheng, BZJ, 283.
46 In particular, Miss Cui was labeled a chaste woman in imperial edicts and was the subject of Zhang Tian’s Biography of the Chaste Woman (Jiefu zhuan 節婦傳). A Chaste Woman Tower (Jiefu tai 節婦臺) was erected in her honor in Luzhou in the late Northern Song and occupied an important place in the local memory of Luzhou. Tuo Tuo, Song shi, 460·13479–80; Da Ming yitong zhi, 14·11a; Jiaqing Hefei xian zhi, 16·6b; Guangxu xuxiu Luzhou fu zhi, 11·10a.
47 Zeng and Liu, Quan Song wen, 1851·170.
48 Bao Zheng, BZJ, 285.
49 Of his daughters, one died before Shou; one married before his death, while the third was still very young. Bao Zheng, BZJ, 286.
50 Bao Zheng, BZJ, 289.
51 Bao Zheng, BZJ, 290.
52 Bao Zheng, BZJ, 285–86.
53 It should be noted that Liang’s study focuses on the Southern Song period. But similar evidence is abundant for the Northern Song. Liang, “Nan Song de pinshi yu pinhuan (Poor Scholars and Poor Officials in the Southern Song),” Guoli Taiwan daxue lishixue xi xuebao, vol. 16 (1990): 91–137.
54 Tao, Beisong shizu, 75–83, 87–97.
55 I could readily cite dozens of reference to changes of this nature. Chen Shidao 陳師道 (1053–1102), for example, wrote that his uncle seized his father’s share of property, leading to his father having no place to live in their native place. We may not want to take Chen’s story at its face value, but statements like this indicate that a family’s financial situation could change suddenly. Zeng and Liu, Quan Song wen, 2670· 8.
56 Bao Zheng, BZJ, 267, 270, 273.
57 Bao Zheng, BZJ, 281.
58 Bao Zheng, BZJ, 281.
59 Bao Zheng, BZJ, 281.
60 Bao Zheng, BZJ, 285.
61 Bao Zheng, BZJ, 290.
62 Anhui sheng bowuguan, “Hefei dongjiao Daxingji Bei Song Bao Zheng jiazu muqun fajue baogao (Excavation Report of Bao Zheng’s Family Tomb),” Wenwu ziliao congkan, no. 3 (1980), 154–77.
63 See, for example, the report about the tomb for an unnamed Northern Song couple. Linzhou shi wenwu baohu guanli yanjiusuo, “Henan Linzhou shi Bei Song diaozhuan bihuamu qingli jianbao (A Brief Report on the Brick Murals of a Northern Song Tomb in Linzhou, Henan),” Huaxia kaogu, vol. 1 (2010), 38–43. For an in-depth study of burial practices in the Song, see Dieter Kuhn, “Decoding Tombs of the Song Elite,” in Burial in Song China, ed. Dieter Kuhn (Heidelberg, Germany: Würzburger Sinologische Schriften, 1994), 11–159.
64 Bao Zheng, BZJ, 316.
65 Ruth Mostern, Dividing the Realm in Order to Govern: the Spatial Organization of the Song State (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2011), 226.
66 Mostern, Dividing the Realm in Order to Govern, 246.
67 Cheng, Jiekai Baogong mu zhi mi.
68 Bao Zheng, BZJ, 278–79.
69 Zeng and Liu, Quan Song wen, 656·7.
70 Bossler, Powerful Relations, 78–88.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Cong Ellen Zhang
Cong Ellen Zhang is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Virginia. Her research focuses on the political and social elites, travel culture, and women and the family in the Song Dynasty. She is the author of Transformative Journeys: Travel and Culture in Song China (University of Hawaii Press, 2011).
Correspondence to: Cong Ellen Zhang, Department of History, University of Virginia, PO Box 400180, Charlottesville, VA 22904. Email: [email protected]