According to Sima Guang, who compiled the Zizhi Tongjian, Bao Zheng was a man of filial piety and justice, handled cases fairly, and did not love to be inflamed and attached to the situation, and really could not compare with him. As one of the most well-known officials in our country, Bao Zheng was an obvious spiritual sustenance in ancient and modern times, because his righteousness was really a representative of the Qing officials.
As a famous Qing official in history, many stories happened to Bao Zheng, some of which were true and some were false, some of which were transferred by posterity to other people's stories, and some of which really happened to him.
In 1050, Bao Zheng repeatedly reprimanded the magnates, asking Song Renzong to take a good look at people, cherish talents, and not preconceived not. Concubine Gui's relative Zhang Yaozuo held a series of official positions, Bao Zheng wrote a letter to speak, and several ministers of the dprk and the central government generously stated that they wanted the emperor to remove some of Zhang Yaozuo's positions, but he did not expect that the emperor would also promote his official position, Bao Zheng was even more unhappy, and a few days later he wrote a passionate speech to state the pros and cons. After several battles, Zhang Yaozuo resigned from two positions in order to retreat.
In 1059, Bao Zheng impeached Zhang Fangping, and after this person was removed from office, Bao Zheng impeached the successor Song Qi, and after Song Qi was removed from office, the emperor saw that he could not find anyone, so he asked Bao Zheng to temporarily replace this official position. At this time, Ouyang Xiu said that Bao Zheng's impeachment against them was already very serious, and he even wanted to occupy their position! Ouyang Xiu also said that he had not read many books and did not understand human feelings, although it was a derogatory remark, but it was also a little explanation for Bao Zheng's approach.
Why is there so many things on Bao Zheng's body, but only these two things? Because from these two things, we can see the cause of Bao Zheng's death. In 1062, Bao Zheng suddenly fell seriously ill, and after the emperor sent him some medicines, Bao Zheng died two months later. After his death, Song Renzong personally went to mourn him, and Bao Zheng's body was sent to the family mausoleum and buried with his long-dead wife.
In modern times, with the development of archaeology, 900 years later, experts began to excavate ancient tombs, Bao Zheng's tomb is also among them, according to the funerary products of the tomb and the relevant records of Bao Zheng, experts have determined that this is Bao Zheng's tomb. Because people have always questioned the cause of Bao Zheng's death, experts also want to solve this age-old mystery, so they examined his body.
Unexpectedly, experts actually found that the mercury content in his bones was abnormal, to know that mercury is a metal, most of which exists in the form of cinnabar in the world, and cinnabar is a very common thing in ancient times. It can be seen that Bao Zheng did not die normally, but was poisoned by others.
So who killed him? Judging from the previous two events, Bao Zheng was just and upright in his life, and he would not be smooth in his life, which offended many ministers in the dprk and the emperor Song Renzong. However, in the eyes of other officials, although Bao Zheng was hateful, he could not be killed at all, because the sudden death of a korean minister could easily arouse suspicion and cause himself to be burned. Then, the key suspect is Song Renzong, after all, he is often made unable to get off the stage by Bao Zheng, and he has been angry many times because of Bao Zheng's advice, so it is very likely that he will secretly drug him.
Of course, it is also said that in ancient times, mercury was used in tombs to preserve corpses. Some people even mixed it for surgical use, perhaps to be a natural death, and the mercury only entered his body through other channels. Regardless of the truth, we must affirm Bao Zheng's contribution to the people of that time and praise his selflessness and full of wind.