Bao Zheng, a native of Hefei, Luzhou, was admitted as a scholar at the age of 28 and became a magistrate of Tianchang County at the age of 36.
Bao Zheng, famous for adjudicating cases, in the first year of Li Qing (1040), 40-year-old Bao Zheng was transferred to Duanzhou (now Zhaoqing, Guangdong) as a magistrate and was promoted several times. He has served as a bachelor of Longtuge, a transshipment ambassador of Hebei Province, an assistant ambassador of Kaifeng, and a secretary of the Council.
During his tenure, Bao Zheng was honest and clean, not afraid of powerful people, strictly enforced the law, and promoted good and punished evil. During his tenure in Kaifengfu, he greatly restricted the treacherous court official in Beijing, and sometimes he said, "If you can't reach the joint, you will always be in Yamaraja.".
Bao Zheng was the 35th grandson of Shen, a loyal minister of Chu in the Spring and Autumn Period. His grandfather Bao Shitong was a commoner from a peasant background. His father Bao Lingyi was a scholar in the eighth year of Taiping Xingguo (983) and served as assistant minister of punishments.
Bao Zheng has two brothers, the eldest brother Bao Ying and the second brother Bao Ying both died young, so he naturally became the only child to carry on the family line.
In order to accompany his parents, Bao Zheng has never left his hometown for more than ten years. After his parents died, he kept filial piety for three years and didn't leave his hometown until he was in his thirties.
Bao Zheng had a wife and a concubine, and his wife Dong Shi gave birth to Bao Mao, who died before his father, and his wife Cui Shi gave birth to Bao, who died unfortunately.
Bao Zheng couldn't bear to see his daughter-in-law Cui Shi live alone all her life, so she advised her to remarry, but Cui Shi vowed not to leave the Bao family: "Be a wife, die a ghost, and swear not to be a man!"
At the age of 59, Bao Zheng gave birth to another son, Bao Shou, the second son, who was born to his concubine Sun Shi.
Unfortunately, when the child was five, his 64-year-old father died.
Before Bao Zheng died, he sent his aunt Sun Shi back to her family and asked her daughter-in-law Cui Shi to raise Wanbao. Cui Shi raised his brother-in-law as his own. Wanbao treated his sister-in-law with his mother's gift and called her "sister-in-law".
Later generations transferred this period of history to Bao Zheng and passed it around. Bao Zheng was rumored to be childless.