China Trip, Kaifeng 14th Nov

We travelled to Kaifeng, the famous Song （宋）dynasty capital on 14th Nov. Our very 1st stop was Justice Bao's Temple（包公祠）. The stories of Justice Bao were passed down by word of mouth by the commoners from Song dynasty, and with the drama serial by China and Taiwan, most Chinese Singaporeans would have heard a bit about him.

All stories of Justice Bao depict him as a righteous and upright offical, helping to redress innocents' woes and punishing the evil doers who were rich and powerful. In his temple, we learnt that Justice Bao was not actually as dark skin as most of us believed him to be. This is because in traditional Chinese opera, upright figures have a black or red face, hence the tales and opera has changed the colour of his skin and included the crescent moon to signify his status among the commoners. A huge black tablet was placed in Justice Bao's temple, and the names of all the magistrates that have served Kaifeng were all carved on the black tablet. As Justice Bao was so popular among the commoners, people who visited Justice Bao's temple used their fingers to touch Justice Bao's name on the tablet. After many centuries, his name has been "erased" due to all the rubbing action of the visitors' fingers, leaving a black dent behind.

In the following photos, we see Justice Bao's court in session, giving trial to the all famous case of Chen Shimei （陈世美）betraying his wife for fame and power. In the story, Chen Shimei headed to Kaifeng to sit for the imperial exams, leaving his wife behind in their hometown. When he became the top scholar, it was customary for the emperor to bestow his daughter's hand in marriage to the top scholar and award him a post. Desiring power and faithless to his wife, Chen accepted the marriage proposal and became the royal consort prince.

Chen's wife waited in vain for his return, and her case was brought to the capital. Justice Bao presided over the case, declaring Chen Shimei to be lying to the emperor about his marital status and betraying his wife. Needless to say, Justice Bao had to pit himself against the empress dowager, who seeked to protect her son-in-law. In the photo on the right, you see the whole court of Justice Bao present in court. The scholar is Gongsun Ce （公孙策）, Justice Bao's advisor and reputed to be quite intelligent himself. The constables by the side are the famous quartet, Zhang Long（张龙）, Zhao Hu（赵虎）, Wang Chao（王朝）, Ma Han（马汉）.

Despite the strong resistence, Justice Bao prevailed in the end and ordered the execution of Chen Shimei by the dragon head execution blade（龙头铡）.

The dragon head execution blade is used to execute royalty, especially those convicted of treason or upsurping the throne. The tiger head execution blade （虎头铡）is used to execute those corrupt officials who abused their powers. The dog head execution blade （狗头铡）is used to execute those ruffians and robbers.

After touring Justice Bao's temple, we proceeded on to Long Ting（龙亭）to see the replicated palace of Kaifeng. Right at the entrance to Long Ting, we see a model of what Kaifeng used to look like during the Song dynasty. From the model, it seemed that Kaifeng was pretty big at that time, indicating the wealth and prosperity of China during peaceful times.

As the flower represeting Kaifeng is chrysanthemum and it just so happens that chrysanthemum is in full bloom during our visit, the streets of Long Ting are aligned with pots and pots of chrysanthemum. After some photo-taking and ice-cream savouring (no doubt started by the student), we went on to view the Kai Bao Si Pagoda（开宝寺塔）,or better known as Iron Pagoda（铁塔）because the colour of the bricks resemble that of iron.

The pagoda is unique because it is built using singular bricks of coloured glaze（琉璃）, which was not a common building material then and now. Also, each singular brick is crafted with designs and carvings. This means the process of building this particular pagoda took more efforts than usual in terms of collecting building materials and design. It was originally tilting towards the northwest direction. Due to constant strong winds in the area, the pagoda now slants towards southeast.