网友讨论：有哪些多大数人都不知道的中国历史上的趣事

Yves Hermit
, 10+ years working in China
Li Song
, Docter Mathematics & History, Colleges and Universities (2020)
I think it’s last year I read an article about ancient Chinese diplomacy, which I found is quite interesting. So here we go.
China, as we all know, is one of the oldest civilizations in the world. Back to the very old time, the ancient Chinese were pretty proud of themselves and thought of China as the centre of the world.
Like more than a hundred years ago, in the late Qing dynasty of China, there was a famous Chinese statesman and a military general named Zeng Guofan.

好像是去年，我读过一篇关于古代中国外交的文章，我觉得很是有趣，所以我来说说吧。
众所周知，中国是世界上最古老的文明之一，在很古老的时代，古代中国人以自己为荣，认为中国是世界的中心。
就如一百多年前的清朝，有一位著名的中国政治家和军事将领 -- 曾国藩。

Zeng Guofan
Back to that time, because of the pride and the arrogance of the Qing government, they secluded China from the outside world because they thought there was no need to cooperate with any other countries, China was totally self-sufficient, which hampered China’s progress and communication with the outside world, and it’s also considered by the Chinese today as the main reason of the collapse of ancient China.

曾国藩画像
在当时，由于由于清政府的自满和傲慢，他们将中国与外部隔绝了，因为他们认为没有必要与任何其他国家合作，中国可以完全自给自足，这阻碍了中国的进步，也断绝了其与外界的交流，这也被今天的中国人认为是古代中国崩溃的主要原因。

Empress Dowager Cixi

慈禧太后

However, after the Second Opium War, the war that the British Empire and French Empire against the Qing government, Zeng realized how advanced the western was and the importance of science technology.
Then he proposed three new foreign policies, which subverted the values of the Chinese society of Qing dynasty:
1. Treat the westerner as equals, treat them as human.
2. Be in good faith and keep the promise.
3. Consider the true interest of the country instead of one’s “Face”.

然而，第二次鸦片战争后（也就是英法与清政府的战争），曾国藩意识到西方是多么先进，意识到了科学技术的重要性。
随后，他提出了三项新的外交政策，颠覆了清代中国社会的价值观：
1.平等对待西方人，将其视为人。
2.诚实守信。
3.要考虑国家的真正利益，而不是“面子”。
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处

It’s pretty interesting when I got into detail.
The truth is, in Qing dynasty, the Qing government never considered the foreigners as ‘human beings’, in their mind only Chinese people were human, and the westerner was considered as some kind of creature between human and animal, which was lower than the real human being. So, when the western businessman came to China, they were not allowed to live in the city (be grateful that today’s China allows you to come to their country and live in the city).
Even after the First Opium War, the Chinese had lost a lot of money and some of their cities as compensation to the UK, however, their “westerner is not human” thought didn’t change at all. The British still weren’t allowed to live in the city, and they had already fought for their equality for ten years, and the proud Qing government just kept ignoring them. And it’s said that this was one of the excuses for the British to start the Second Opium War.
After the second war, Zeng who also treated the westerner as “dog and sheep” before had changed his mind. He said: “Faithfulness, trustworthiness and respectful (come from Confucianism) are the core of our culture, we Chinese treat each other by those, we should treat the westerner like this as well, we should treat them as equals.”

当我了解到细节的时候，这很是有趣。
事实是，清政府从来没有把外国人视为“人”，在他们心目中，只有中国人才是人，西方人被认为是介于人与动物之间的某种生物，比真正的人要劣等。所以，当西方商人来到中国时，他们不被允许在城市居住（不胜感激，今天的中国允许你来到他们的国家，住在城市里）。
即使是第一次鸦片战争之后，中国人也损失了很多钱，他们的一些城市还作为赔偿割让给了英国。然而，他们心中“西方人不是人类”的想法根本没有改变。英国人仍然不允许住在城里，他们已经为平等而战了十年，骄傲的清政府就是不理他们。据说这是英国发动第二次鸦片战争的借口之一。
第二次鸦片战争后，曾经也将西方人看作“狗和羊”的曾国藩改变了看法。他说：“忠诚、守信、重礼节（来自儒家思想）是我们文化的核心，我们中国人以这些为中心，所以我们也应该这样对待西方人，我们应该平等对待他们。”

That’s where the first foreign policies came from.
The second one is for the same reason since they never treated the westerner as real human, they didn’t think that they have to be sincere and honest to the westerner.
Now we see how arrogance the Qing government was, they valued their “Face”, which refers to dignity more than the interest of the country and the life of their citizens. They didn’t care about the money and their territory at all. Lost the war? Fine with it, just took the money and some part of our territories and get out.

这就是中国第一条外交政策的来源。
第二条外交政策的来源也是因为同样的原因。因为他们从来没有把西方人当作真正的人，所以他们认为也不必对西方人真诚和诚实。
现在我们看到了清政府是多么的傲慢，他们看重的是“面子”，这更多的是关于尊严、而不是国家利益和人民福祉。他们根本不在乎金钱和领土。战争失败了？好吧，给你些钱和领土，请滚。

That’s the attitude of the Qing government.
Today’s China always considered the late Qing dynasty as the humiliation part in the Chinese history, they use this part of history to teach their children and future generation that never be this arrogant and ignorant like the Qing government, keep learning, keep working, and keep developing.
I guess modern China has learnt something from their history. In fact, not just for the Chinese, there is also something for the rest of the world to think about.
Racial discrimination happens every day, but why this even happens? I mean, the physical body is only the container of our soul, hundred years later we’ll all be dust. Is it really important? Black, yellow or white? Tall or short? Thin or fat?
We are all human being after all. Or are we? Maybe there is no difference between us and grass. Therefore, not only human but respect all the creatures on this planet.

这就是清政府的态度。
今天的中国通常会把晚清视作中国历史的屈辱时期，他们用这一部分历史来教导他们的孩子和后代，今天的中国从未像清政府那样傲慢无知，而是不断学习、不断努力、不断发展。
我认为，现代中国从他们的历史中吸取了一些教训。事实上，不仅仅是中国人，还有一些事情、也值得世界上其他国家去思考。
种族歧视每天都会发生，但为什么会发生这种情况呢？我的意思是，肉体只是我们灵魂的容器，一百年后我们都会成为尘埃。所以肤色很重要吗？黑皮肤，黄皮肤还是白皮肤？高还是矮？瘦还是胖？
毕竟我们都是人类，难道不是吗？也许我们和草木没有区别。因此，不仅仅要尊重人类，而且要尊重这个星球上所有的生物。

Callan Chua
, Been Learning how to make it in China for the past 10 years.
One interesting thing I find is that most of the common peasants in ancient China are not really literate despite the focus on meritocracy as a form of governance. Now this is what I concluded from my own reading of Chinese history, so feel free to disagree.
To talk about literacy rates in ancient China we got to talk about instruments use on the spread of literacy.
Despite the invention of paper by the chinese in Han dynasty in 105CE, paper is considered a valuable asset like most new technologies(at that time). It’s use was not widely spread until late Tang dynasty.
It was not even commonly used as toilet paper as the scholars thought it an insult to use something as percious as paper which is used to pen their thoughts on their asses. All the way from Han to the 3 kingdoms, scholars mostly used bamboo strips as the main medium for writing. Paper is only used on very important occasions that calls for luxury. The problem with bamboo strips is that it is very heavy and inconvinient to move around. So despite those who are literate writing on them, it is on the onus of the illterate to go to these bamboo strips to gain literacy which they find no purpose for when they are a agriculture based economy!

我发现一个有趣的现象是，尽管中国古代将精英政治作为一种治理模式，但大多数普通农民并没有真正识字。这是我从对中国历史的解读中得出的结论，所以请随意提出异议。
要谈中国古代的识字率，我们得先谈谈用于传播识字率的工具。
尽管中国人在公元前105年在汉朝发明了纸，但与大多数新技术（在当时）一样，纸张被视为一种宝贵的资产，纸张的使用直到晚唐才得到广泛的传播。
纸张甚至都不会常被用作厕纸，因为学者们认为：用纸张这样珍贵的东西来当厕纸是一种侮辱，这样就相当于把他们的思想写到了屁股上。从汉代到三国，文人大多以竹简为主要的书写媒介。纸张只在重要场合使用（需要奢华的地方）。竹简的问题是，它非常的重，不便于移动。因此，尽管识字之人在竹简上写了字，但是要让文盲阅读到这些竹简？则是毫无意义的，因为彼时的经济是以农业为基础的！

Now, paper only started to gained prominence when the woodblock printing press is invented in late Tang because paper is the only medium in which paper can be used suitably for the printing press. Thus the process of making paper itself was revolutionized during this period to bring down cost and allow production of larger volume at the same time.
Ironically, the reason to invent the wood block printing press was not really for the spread of education, but rather for the spread of Buddhism as Buddhism was regarded as a main religion during the Tang dynasty. So it’s only fitting that buddhist scxtures be printed on precious paper. But this brings about the problem of only the monks becoming the literate ones since they want to spread their teachings and propagate by word of mouth to their believers. This again reduce the chance of commoners to come into contact with actual literacy since they can just listen to what the monks have to say instead of reading it themselves. In fact during the Tang dynasty, one would need to pass an examination to prove one’s literacy should he decides to become a monk! So most common folks are still iliterate!

直到晚唐，雕版印刷机发明时，纸张才开始崭露头角，因为纸是唯一适合印刷的媒介。因此，造纸工艺本身在这一时期也发生了革命性的变化，成本也得以降低，同时还允许大批量生产。
具有讽刺意味的是，发明雕版印刷机并不是为了传播教育，而是为了佛教的传播，因为佛教在唐代被视为主要宗教，所以佛经印在珍贵的纸张上才最合适。但这样带来了问题，即只有僧侣才能成为有文化之人，因为他们想把自己的教诲和学说传播给信徒。这又减少了平民接触实际识字的机会，因为他们只能听僧侣说什么，而不是自己去读。事实上，在唐代，如果一个人决定出家，就需要通过考试来证明自己的文化水平！所以大多数普通人还是文盲！

Things started to change abit in the Song dynasty. Meritocracy was revamped by the Song dynasty. Meritocracy though already invented during Qin and Han dynasty by Confucius, was more reserved for choosing the most able within the aristocracy. Even in Tang dynasty the idea of meritocracy was still very much limited to choosing from the various social classes (non-business family), a good example would be the famous Tang poet Li Bai who could not take part in the imperial examinations despite his literanic geniues because his father is a business man. And also it is restricted by quota of regions and only by recommendation from someone with a respectable background. Ironically, though Li Bai never took part in any imperial exams, he has the prestige to recommend someone to do that.

到了宋代，情况开始发生了一些改变。到了宋朝，精英政治制度得到了改观。虽然孔子在秦汉时期就已经发明了精英政治，但彼时比较保守，更倾向于在贵族中选贤举能。即使是在唐代，精英政治的想法、仍然局限于从各个社会阶层中选择贤能之仕（非商贾家庭）。一个很好的例子就是 -- 著名的唐代诗人李白，因为他的父亲是个商人，尽管他很有文学天赋，却不能参加科举考试。同时，选贤举能也受到地区配额的限制，而且必须得到有名望之人的推荐。讽刺的是，虽然李白从未参加过任何科举考试，但他却有足够的威望、可以推荐其他人参加考试。

In the Song Dynasty, imperial examinations were revamped to allow a common peasant to take part in the examinations. One does not need recommendations anymore. This increase the chance of upward mobility of the common peasant to move into officialdom. Thus more peasants are willing to start studying from young to have a better future. Unfortunately, mediums of knowledge transfer are still expensive. But as Song dynasty calls for more capable officials to help run the nation, the mediums of knowledge transfer was also improved over time. The Movable printing press was invented, first on clay (porceain) blocks. But again as most new technologies, they were expensive to implement, but after moving to wooden blocks which is not as durable but a lot cheaper to produce, large scale printing of books for the masses started to begin. In fact, it is one of the most vibrant times in ancient China for cultural and literacy exchange. But even that, only about 10–15% of the population is considered literate. In fact, base on statistics, those who actually try their luck at the imperial examinations is only about 1 in 10 of the population because it is a very tedious process which happens only once every 3 years. Most give up half way though there are some who tries throughout their lives without success.

到了宋代，科举考试被改为允许普通农民参加考试，不再需要推荐了。这增加了普通农民向上层流动、进入官场的机会。因此，更多的农民自愿从小开始学习，以拥有更好的未来。不幸的是，知识传递的媒介仍然很昂贵。但随着宋朝呼吁更多有才干的官员来帮助管理国家，知识传递的媒介也随着时间的推移而得到了改进，宋朝发明了活字印刷机，一开始是用黏土块。但是，与大多数新技术一样，它们的实施成本很高，但后来用木块代替了黏土块，虽然不那么耐用，但生产成本更低了，从那之后，大规模的、面向大众的书籍印刷开始了。事实上，宋朝是中国古代文化和文学交流最活跃的时期之一。但即便如此，也只有大约10-15%的人口可被认为识字。事实上，据统计，真正参加科举考试的人只有十分之一的人口，因为这是一个非常繁琐的过程，每三年才举行一次。大多数人都会半途而废，也有一些人尝试了一辈子都没有成功。

When Song dynasty fell totally and Yuan dynasty took over the entirety of China, literacy rates fell drasticially to about 6-8% because Yuan dynasty do not allow the majority of Han Chinese to take up official posts. Imperial examimations though still exists, is only allowed for the Mongol ethnicity. It is only in the later part of Yuan dynasty that imperial exams for Hans were setup seperately and only a limited number of official hoods were offered.
After Yuan fell and Ming dynasty took over, the focus on imperial examinations for the capable resumed and you see literacy rates during this time going up again. But only back to only about where Song left off at 10% for early Ming. Over the entire Ming dynasty, literacy rates improved to about 15% mostly due to foreign missions visiting China and explosion of mass printing advances. But still for a meritocratic nation, 15% is still very low.

当宋朝全面沦陷，元朝接管整个中国时，由于元朝不允许大多数汉族人担任公职，识字率急剧下降到6-8%左右。帝国的考试虽然仍然存在，但只允许蒙古族参加。只有元代后期、才分开设置了汉人的科举，而且只提供少量官位。
元朝灭亡后，明朝接管中国。选贤任能的科举制度又恢复了，这期间的识字率又开始上升了。但在明朝初期，识字率也仅达到宋末的水平，也就是10%的水平。在整个明朝时期，识字率提高到了15%左右。这主要是因为外国使团访问中国和大规模印刷技术的迅猛发展。但对于一个精英管理的国家来说，15%的识字率仍然很低。

During the Qing Dynasty, literacy rates went up to about 20%, due to the early policies of Kangxi and Qianlong wanting to integrate their rule of China with Han Chinese culture. The learning of the Han Language and culture was greatly encourage by the emperors. But when Qing finally fell, literacy rates went down to 18%. This is due to the Late Qing goverment opening up lowly ranked officialhood for sale through money. A somewhat backward slide for their advamces in meritocracy.
After the Qing Dynasty we enter the modern history of China, it is only during this period that literacy rates was brought up from 18% to the current 96.4%.
So my thought is that if meritocracy can run through most of China’s history with only a literacy rate of 10–20%, what happens now with 96.4% of the population being literate?Can the 2 data find a relative relation to each other in Mordern Chinese History?

在清朝，由于康熙和乾隆的早期政策（希望将他们的统治与汉文化结合起来），识字率上升到了20%左右，汉语言文化的学习受到皇帝的大力鼓励。但当清政府最终倒台时，识字率下降到18%。这是由于晚清政府开放了等级较低的官职，也就是用钱来卖官，清朝在精英政治方面的主张有点落后。
清朝之后我们进入中国近代史，只有在这一时期，识字率才从18%提高到现在的96.4%。
因此，我的想法是：如果在中国历史的大部分时间里、精英政治以10-20%的识字率都能够贯穿始终；那么，现在中国的人口识字率高达96.4%，又会发生什么呢？这两个数据在中国近代史上能否找到一个相对的关系？

Vincent Tang
, Grew up in China and still frequently visits
Li Song
, Docter Mathematics & History, Colleges and Universities (2020)
Most answers desribe interesting facts from China’s early history (pre-PRC).
I’m gonna tell a small interesting side story that happened right after the start of the economic reforms in the 1980s. It’s not a huge event, but it is very interesting, especially in the setting of early stage of introduction of the free market economy.
It has to do with this:

大多数答案都描述了中国早期历史中有趣的事实（即中华人民共和国之前的历史）
我要讲一个发生在20世纪80年代经济改革开始之后的小故事，虽然不是什么大事件，但却颇有意思，尤其是在自由市场经济引入初期的背景下。
这件事与它有关（君子兰）

It’s a nice flower. But just that little flower was able to make some people into millionaires overnight, and also bankrupt some unfortunate people overnight.

The flower is the Cliva Miniata (Bush Lily) 君子兰. It was introduced to northeastern China by the Japanese during the Japanese occupation of Manchuria in the 1930s. After the People’s Republic of China was formed, this flower spread throughout the city of Chang Chun, into ordinary people’s yards. And 30 years go by and nothing much happened to the flowers.

Now the year is 1979, and the economic reforms just started happening. A market for the bush lily formed. And it immediately became popular, especially after a wealthy merchant sold his Swiss watch to buy one pot of bush lily for 180 RMB. At that time, ￥180 was a huge amount of money to most people in China, higher than the average monthly salary.
That transaction made national headlines. And people started paying attention to this flower. In a free market economy, when demand increases, price increases. This encouraged Changchun locals to start mass planting the bush lily. The flower market in Changchun was very busy every day, as people rushed in to buy the bush lily, hoping to profit.
The Changchun city government noticed the craziness of the bush lily, so they passed a law that sets a maximum price of ￥200 for the bush lily. But that didn’t last long…

这种花很美，但正是这种小花，使一些人一夜之间成为百万富翁，也使一些人触了霉头，一夜之间破了产。
这种花叫“君子兰”。20世纪30年代日本占领满洲时，由日本人传入中国东北，中华人民共和国成立后，这种花传遍了长春市，走进了普通百姓的院子。30年过去了，这些花都没有发生过什么事。
时间到了1979年，经济改革刚刚开始。君子兰的市场形成了，并立即流行了起来，特别是在一个富有的商人卖掉他的瑞士手表、以180元人民币买了一盆君子兰之后。在那时，180元对中国大多数人来说是一笔巨大的财富，比平均月薪还高。
那笔交易成为全国头条新闻，人们开始关注这种花。在自由市场经济中，当需求增加时，价格就会上涨。这促使长春当地人开始大量种植这种君子兰，长春的花市每天都很热闹，人们争先恐后地去买这种君子兰，希望从中获利。
长春市政府注意到了君子兰市场的疯狂，于是他们通过了一项法律，规定这种花的最高价格不能超过200元，但没能持续多久…

In the spring of 1982, there was a fundraising event in Changchun for saving pandas. The event organizers charged an admission price of ￥0.5 for people to view some bush lilies, and donated the revenue for saving pandas. It was a good event, but the attendance was much higher than expected, due to the presence of the bush lily. And then, the Changchun city government cancelled the price limit and started a new economic policy: the balcony economy.

The Balcony Economy (窗台经济) was simple: encourage everyone to plant bush lilies on their balconies, and sell them for profit.
1982年春，长春市举行了一次“拯救大熊猫”的募捐活动。活动主办方收取0.5元的门票，让人们观赏一些君子兰，并将门票收入捐掉、用于拯救熊猫。这是一次很棒的活动，但出席人数远远高于预期，是因为有君子兰的存在。随后，长春市政府取消了限价令，并开始了一项新的经济政策：窗台经济。
窗台经济很简单：鼓励每个人在也窗台上种植君子兰，并出售君子兰以获利。

And the fun begins.
At the time, no one knew that they would soon be the first victims of an economic bubble in the People’s Republic of China.
As more and more people across China became interested in the bush lily, its price was skyrocketing. Bush lily planters in Changchun were very very very happy as they made an insane amount of return on investment for their bush liles.
And the price kept climbing, and climbing, and climbing. In January 1985, a Hong Kong businessman offered a Toyota Crown (valued at ￥90000 at the time) to a bush lily grower, but he still refused to sell. Just to give a context: at that time, literally no one in Mainland China could afford private cars.

有趣的事情开始了。
当时，没有人知道他们很快就会成为中国经济泡沫的第一批受害者。
随着中国越来越多的人对君子兰感兴趣，它的价格飞涨。长春的君子兰种植者非常非常高兴，因为他们由于君子兰获得了疯狂的投资回报。
价格不断攀升...不断攀升。1985年1月，一位香港商人向某位君子兰种植者提供了一辆丰田皇冠车（当时价值90000元），但他仍然拒绝出售。说一个背景把：在当时，中国大陆基本没什么人买得起私家车。

Later in 1985, a Harbin businessman bought a bush lily in Changchun and set the record for the price of a bush lily: ￥140,000. At the time, that amount is equal to 2 kg of gold, or $43750 1985 USD, or 5 3-bedroom apartments inside the 2nd Ring Road of Beijing.
And now comes the nightmare.
In June 1985, the People’s Daily (China’s official national newspaper) published 3 major headline articles about the abnormal price of the bush lily. And in the last one, the newspaper directly called the bush lily market a bubble. And people started panicking.
And the bubble collapsed almost immediately. As buyers stopped buying and Changchun residents realize the danger of their ‘investment’, everyone began selling, and the price dropped by around 99%.
And that is the first major economic bubble in post-economic reform China.
Other economic bubbles also took place at the time, such as Hainan Real Estate Bubble of 1993 and the Pu’er tea.
After the Changchun Bush Lily Incident of 1985, Chinese people became more conservative with investments, and the frequency of similar schemes started declining. But even today, it can be argued that there are still major economic bubbles in China, such as the housing market, but whether it is a bubble or not can only be answered by time

1985年晚些时候，一位哈尔滨商人在长春买了一棵君子兰，创下了14万元的价格纪录，当时的价格相当于2公斤黄金，在1985年折合43750美元，相当于北京市二环路内的5套三居室公寓。
然后噩梦来了。
1985年6月，《人民日报》（中国官方的全国性报纸）发表了3篇主要头条文章，报道了君子兰的异常价格。在最后一次，《人民日报》直接称君子兰市场为“泡沫”，人们开始恐慌了。
泡沫几乎立刻崩塌了。随着购买者停止购买，长春市民意识到他们的“投资”的危险，所有人都开始抛售君子兰，价格下降了99%左右。
这是中国经济改革后的第一个重大经济泡沫。
其他经济泡沫在当时也有发生，比如1993年的海南房地产泡沫和普洱茶泡沫。
1985年长春百合花事件后，中国人民对投资变得更加保守了，类似事件的频率开始下降了。但即使在今天，也可以说、中国仍然存在房地产市场等经济泡沫，但究竟是不是泡沫，只能通过时间来回答。

Ishtevan Peter
, studied at Shanghai International Studies University
1.The incredible death of an emperor: Duke Jing of Jin was from 599 to 581 BC the ruler of the State of Jin, a major power during the Spring and Autumn period of ancient China. In summer 581 BC, the 19th year of his reign, Duke Jing fell ill. According to the Chinese classic text Zuo Zhuan, he died because of falling into the toilet pit.

2.It is well known that Qin Shi Huang (Chinese: 秦始皇; literally: 'First Emperor of Qin'; 18 February 259 BC – 10 September 210 BC) was the founder of the Qin dynasty and was the first emperor of a unified China. However, China wasn’t completely unified because there was still a small state—the state of Wei. The reason why this state survives is because of a man in the State of Wei named Shang Yang. This man made a great contribution to the establishment of Qin, therefore, Qin Shi Huang allowed the state of Wei to coexist with the state of Qin in order to appreciate Shang Yang.
1.令人难以置信的帝王之死：晋景公（公元前599年—前581年在位）晋国的统治者，晋国 -- 中国古代春秋时期的一个大国，。公元前581年夏天，也就是景公在位的第19年，他病倒了。根据《左传》的说法，他是因为掉进茅坑死掉的。
2.众所周知，秦始皇是秦朝的创始人，是统一中国的第一位皇帝。然而，彼时中国并没有完全统一，因为还有一个小国 -- 魏国。这个国家之所以能幸存下来，是因为魏国有一个叫商鞅的人。这个人对秦国的建立做出了巨大的贡献，因此秦始皇为了感谢商鞅，允许魏国与秦国共存。
3.Most of Chinese consider Wu Zetian as the first female emperor, while the first one is Chen Shuozhen. She was a Tang dynasty woman from Muzhou (in modern Chun'an, Zhejiang), who led a peasant uprising in 653. During the rebellion, she declared herself Emperor Wenjia (文佳皇帝), becoming the only female rebel leader in Chinese history to assume the title of emperor.

4.Bao Zheng (5 March 999 – 3 July 1062), commonly known as Bao Gong, was a government officer during the reign of Emperor Renzong in China's Song Dynasty (Song Renzong Dynasty) . During his 25 years in the civil service, Bao consistently demonstrated extreme honesty and uprightness, with actions such as sentencing his own uncle, impeaching an uncle of Emperor Renzong's favorite concubine and punishing powerful families.

3.大多数中国人认为武则天是第一位女皇帝，然而第一位女皇帝其实是陈硕真，她是一位唐代妇女，来自睦州（今浙江淳安），于公元653年领导农民起义。在起义期间，她自称为“文佳皇帝”，成为中国历史上唯一一位获得皇帝头衔的女性起义领袖。
4.包拯（公元999年3月5日 -- 公元1062年7月3日），俗称包公，是中国宋仁宗时期的一名政府官员。在他25年的公务员生涯中，包拯一贯表现出极端的诚实和正直，例如给自己的叔叔判刑，弹劾仁宗皇帝宠妃的叔叔，惩罚权贵家庭。

Bao Zheng's stories were retold and preserved particularly in the form of performance arts such as Chinese opera and pingshu（storytelling）. Written forms of his legend appeared in the Yuan Dynasty in the form of Qu/play/drama (/Yuan Qu/Songs). Vernacular fiction of Judge Bao was popular in the Ming and Qing dynasties. In the modern society, the art creation about him is still prevail. There is a series prominent TV series about him named Justice Bao, where his character has extremely dark skin with a moon-shaped scar on his forehead. The picture below is his character in modern TV series.

包拯的故事被重述并流传了下来，特别是以戏曲、评书等表演艺术的形式流传下来。以曲/戏/（元曲）的形式出现在元代，关于包公的白话小说盛行于明清时期，在现代社会，关于他的艺术创作仍然盛行。有一部关于他的著名电视连续剧《包青天》，里面的角色皮肤非常黑，额头上有一道月亮状的疤痕，下图是他在现代电视剧中的样子。

Bao Zheng in Justice Bao

电视剧《包青天》里的包拯

The intriguing fact about Bao Gong is that his is a fair scholar and the moon scar doesn’t exist. If so, why people would create such a character?

It is said that the moon scar indicates his unusual identity—the immortals sent to the human world. With regard to the dark skin, it is because a Chinese phrase “an iron face（铁面无私）” which means impartial and incorruptible. The first two characters mean an iron face, which should be quite dark. This character that carries the people’s hope of justice is so impressive that few audiences know the real image of him.
关于包公，一个有趣的事实是，他是一个的学者，而且月亮形状的疤痕是不存在的。如果是这样，为什么人们要创造这样一个角色呢？
据说月亮形状的疤痕表明了他不寻常的身份 -- 是神仙派到凡间的。至于皮肤黝黑，是因为中国有句话叫“铁面”（铁面无私），意思是公正、廉洁。前两个字的意思是“铁脸”，而“铁脸”就应该很黑呀。这个承载着人们对正义的期盼的人物，令人印象过于深刻，导致几乎没有观众知道他的真实形象。

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