"Judge Bao traces the footsteps of a Spirit" by Feng Menglong (1574-1646) & Michael Henrik Wynn

China has one of the oldest bureaucracies on earth. In the 17th century they popularized romanticized stories about the doings of legendary judges. Most famous are Judge Dee and Judge Bao.

In this video Michael Henrik Wynn (who does not speak one word of Chinese) retells one of Judge Bao's supernatural exploits. The legend was originally made famous by Feng Menglong (1574-1646), one of China's ancient writers of popular fiction. It is a very moral tale, and the purpose of many such stories was to justify state authority to the wider public. But it is in essence not much different from legends of Robin Hood, or later stories by Arthur Conan Doyle about Sherlock Holmes.

Judge Bao is one of China's most beloved literary characters, and features in many Tv series and movies. It is pure entertainment, not politics.