On the 28th of May, the Vilnius University Confucius Institute held an online lecture. The lecture was lead by J. Asist. Balys Astrauskas, he is both a professor at Vilnius University and an expert in Chinese history and classical literature. The theme and title of the lecture was “Judge Bao and classical Chinese detective fiction”.
Detective Bao himself was the main talking point for the first half of the lecture. Questions like who is he? Why is he important? What does he look like? Is he the Chinese Sherlock Holmes? Were both raised and answered. Summarised, judge Bao is a very popular figure among Chinese pop and ancient culture. He is seen as a symbol of righteousness and he is very uncompromising, these elements can also be seen in the way he looks. It is thought that his looks originate from Peking Opera.
In Peking Opera the characters face or mask determines a lot about the characteristics of the character. Judge Bao is portrayed as having a black mask or black face. The color black means that the character is very righteous.
Further in the lecture the context around judge Bao is mentioned. He is described using a specific term “Honest Official” (qīng guān 清官). Usually these “honest officials” are the politicians who are just and act in the interests of average netizens, and they show disdain for corruption. Most of the time these officials were real historical figures. Some of them are even alive nowadays, with the “honest official” cult still thriving, as a result a lot of historical and contemporary figures are seen as symbols of righteousness.
Judge Bao lived during the period of the Northern Song dynasty (999–1062).. In literature about judge Bao the action happens in the city of Kaifeng, the capital of imperial China at the time. Bao was a real person named Bāo Zhěng (包拯). He was especially smart, his knowledge on Chinese culture and classical literature were vast. He passed the national examination system with high marks and earned a government post. During his political career he worked up to be the main governor of Kaifeng. It is thought that today some judge Bao’s descendants still live on.
The other half of the lecture was focused on detective fiction (gōng’ān 公安). This genre has a few special characteristics. Firstly, the reader usually knows more than the detective himself. Secondly the villain is usually someone of very high rank. And lastly, the detective is also someone of high rank, for example he can be the prime minister of an area. In this genre of fiction both fantastical and real facts are intertwined.
Other famous detective novels and detectives were mentioned nearing the last part of the lecture. Dutch write Robert van Gulik was also praised for being able to authentically and understandably present (gōng’ān 公安) fiction to a western audience. And in the very end of the lecture various gōng’ān 公安 novels were recommended. This genre of fiction is unique in the way it merges mythology with real social problems. And as for Bao, he always manages to triumph over evil.
To those who want to dive deeper into the topic or even see the recommendations they are invited to watch the recording of the lecture.