It is told that when Lord Bao was serving at Kaifeng Prefecture, there was a man named Liu Quan who lived in Little Sheep Village east of the city and made his living by farming. One day he came back from ploughing, and when he went out again later he found his ox with its mouth full of blood, panting as it walked. Looking it over carefully, Liu Quan realized someone had cut out the ox's tongue. He wrote a complaint and brought it to Lord Bao: "Complaint concerning a killing: A farmer lives by ploughing; ploughing depends on the ox. An ox without a tongue cannot plough. To have it cut out is as good as murder. I beg that the culprit be pursued."
Lord Bao read the complaint, thought it over carefully, and asked Liu Quan, "Which of your neighbors do you have a feud with?" Liu Quan had no answer and only pleaded, "I beg Your Honor to see justice done." Lord Bao gave him five hundred strings of cash and told him to go home, slaughter the ox and sell the meat to his neighbors; once he had the meat money, he could use this cash to buy another ox for ploughing. Liu Quan dared not accept, but Lord Bao insisted, so he took it and left. Lord Bao then had a notice posted: anyone who catches a person privately slaughtering a plough ox will receive a reward of three hundred strings of cash from the court.
Liu Quan went home and had a butcher slaughter and skin the ox, then sold the meat among his neighbors. His eastern neighbor, a man named Bu An who had an old grudge against Liu Quan, grabbed hold of him and said, "There's a notice up at the prefecture gate right now — three hundred strings of cash to whoever catches someone privately slaughtering a plough ox, no mistake. And you dare slaughter one?" At once he tied Liu Quan up, meaning to haul him before Lord Bao. But let us set that aside for now.
Meanwhile Lord Bao, sleeping that night until the third watch, had a dream. Suddenly he saw a patrol officer leading a woman who rode on a saddle, held a knife in her hand and had a thousand mouths; it was said to be "a chou-born person," and then it vanished. When he woke he pondered it but could make no sense of it. Early next morning he took his seat in the hall to hear cases, just as Bu An came to accuse Liu Quan of slaughtering his ox. Lord Bao reflected that the previous night's dream matched this exactly: the patrol officer must be Bu An; a woman on a saddle makes the character an (安); holding a knife means cutting; a thousand mouths make the character for tongue (舌); and chou-born means the ox. Bu An must have a grudge against Liu Quan; the man who cut the ox's tongue the other day must be him, and that was why he came today to accuse Liu Quan of killing the ox. So he had Bu An thrown in jail for interrogation. The jailer brought out the instruments of torture, set them before Bu An and said, "Confess the truth and spare yourself the pain." Bu An was frightened and had no choice but to confess: because Liu Quan had refused to lend him firewood, he had nursed a grudge, and on the evening of the thirteenth day of the seventh month, seeing Liu Quan's ox grazing on the slope, he had cut out its tongue. The jailer confirmed the confession. The next day it was reported to Lord Bao, who sentenced Bu An according to law to wear the long cangue in public for a month. His written judgment read: "Upon investigation, Bu An is Liu Quan's enemy. To vent a grudge on a dumb beast — how could his heart bear it? To cut the tongue of a useful animal — the intent is viler still. Ordering the ox slaughtered and then forbidding it was a small stratagem; when the meat was sold, he came to inform, thinking he had seized his chance. Little did he know that the ban was issued to be broken, with a deeper purpose behind it. Truly, he who schemes with his heart brings ruin on himself. In consideration of his rustic ignorance, he is flogged as punishment and cangued as a warning."
When the judgment was written, everyone marveled at Lord Bao's uncanny insight.
