Judge Bao fiction

The character Judge Bao in a 2009 Sichuanese opera performance in Chengdu, Sichuan, China.

Judge Bao stories in literature and performing arts are some of the most popular in traditional Chinese crime fiction (gong'an fiction). All stories involve the Song dynasty minister Bao Zheng who solves, judges and sentences criminal cases.

Literary tradition

Plays from the Yuan and Ming dynasties

In the Yuan Dynasty, many plays (in the forms of qu and zaju) have featured Bao Zheng as the central character.[1] These plays include:

Story Collections from the Ming dynasty

In 1594, the Yupan tang (與畔堂) bookstore owner An Yushi (安遇時) published the first Judge Bao-themed short story collection Cases of A Hundred Families Judged by Dragon-Design Bao (包龍圖判百家公案).

A Peking opera performance featuring Bao Zheng (seated) and his officers to his back.

Judge Bao stories in other collections include:

Chantefables from the Ming dynasty

In 2010, the scholar Wilt Idema published an annotated translation of eight ballad-stories (chantefable) from a late Ming dynasty collection printed in Beijing in the late Ming and which had recently been found in a tomb. [2]

Novels from the Qing dynasty

Famous cases

Sculptures 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.

References

  1. West, Stephen H.; Idema, Wilt L. (2010). Monks, Bandits, Lovers, and Immortals: Eleven Early Chinese Plays. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company.
  2. Idema (2010), p. Introduction.

Sources

Further reading

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