Bao Zheng Temple a scenic site in Hefei, capital of Anhui Province. Bao Zheng was a famous high-ranking official of the Song Dynasty.
Bao Zheng (Bao Gong) was born in April 999 AD in present- day Feidong County near Hefei City. He was a senior official of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) during the Three Kingdoms Period. Esteemed for his strictness in upholding justice and opposing corruption no matter how powerful the official, Bao died in 1062.
Many Chinese tourists have visited the tomb in the ensuing centuries, fragments of bone were found here in 1973. In the centre of the Main Hall stands a 10 foot high bronze statue of Bao Zheng. At the southeastern corner to the temple is the hexagonal dragon-well pavilion. The reflection of the dragon's head at the tip of the pavilion is clearly seen in the water of the well. According to legend, if a corrupt official drinks the water from the well, he will get a headache.
Bao Zheng appears in a number of Operas including Beating the Dragon Robe (Da Long Pao) in which Bao Zheng stages a play for Emperor Zhao Zhen at the Lantern Festival about an undutiful son who is killed by a thunderbolt. This angers Zhao because it suggests he has been an undutiful son. The emperor learns, however, that his mother has been driven out of court by another concubine of his father and is leading a miserable life in a village. The emperor immediately orders her brought back to the court. The mother censures her son and tells Bao Zheng to give him a beating for having been so unfilial. Bao asks the Emperor to take off his robe and beats that instead.