Records of Strange Cases in the Song Dynasty

On the eve of the Qingli New Deal, there was an undercurrent in Bianjing. Kaifeng Prefecture official Cheng Yunzhong was ordered to investigate the case. From the breach of the Bianhe River to the burning of papers in the Gongyuan, from the old accounts of salt banknotes to the fight for the reputation of a poor family, one murder case after another led to the struggle for river engineering, military rations, tribute, official administration and court power. Fan Zhongyan supervised the operation, Ouyang Xiu reviewed the essays, and Fu Bi checked the accounts. Using corpses, account books, documents, and fire marks as evidence, several people approached the truth step by step amid the obstruction of old ministers and the cover-up of the powerful.