It is told that when Lord Bao was prefect of Dingzhou, there was a man named Li Hao, a native of Yangzhou, worth a vast fortune, who came to Dingzhou to trade. Some ten li from the city he got so drunk that he could not walk, collapsed in the middle of the road and fell asleep. At dusk two men, Ding Qian and Ding Wan, saw the money he carried, and while he lay drunk they carried him off to a lonely spot and robbed him of a hundred taels of gold, which they split evenly and took home to hide. Then they talked it over: "When this fellow sobers up and finds his money gone, he's sure to file a complaint in Dingzhou. Better to beat him to death and pull the trouble up by the root." So they beat Li Hao to death, hauled his body into a kiln and burned it. After nightfall they took out the ashes and bones, pounded them to powder, mixed them into clay, and fired a clay pot from it.
Later an old man named Wang in Dingzhou bought this black clay pot to use as a chamber pot. One night he got up to relieve himself, and to his surprise the black pot cried out in protest: "I am a traveler from Yangzhou — how dare you piss into my mouth?" Old Wang, badly startled, lit a lamp and asked, "Pot, if you truly have been wronged, tell me plainly, and I'll see you avenged." The black pot answered, "I am a man of Yangzhou, surnamed Li, named Hao. I came to Dingzhou to trade, fell down drunk on the road, and the robbers Ding Qian and Ding Wan took a hundred taels of gold from me, killed me, burned me to ashes, mixed me into clay, and made me into this pot.
Such is the wrong done to me. I beg you, take me to see Prefect Bao." Old Wang listened with his hair standing on end. After the night had passed, the next day he took the pot to the prefecture and reported the crime. Lord Bao asked for the details, and Old Wang recounted everything the clay pot had said in the night. Lord Bao had his men set the pot below the steps and questioned it, but the pot made no answer at all. Lord Bao said angrily, "This old man is trying to hoodwink the court with this nonsense," and ordered him thrown out. Punished, Old Wang carried the pot home, aggrieved beyond words.
That night the pot cried out again: "Don't be downcast, old man. Today when we saw Lord Bao I had nothing to cover me, so I couldn't tell my wrong. Lend me a garment and take me to Prefect Bao again, and I'll lay it all out point by point — I won't say anything different." Old Wang was amazed. Having little choice, the next day he covered the clay pot with a garment and went again to see Prefect Bao and explain the matter. Lord Bao questioned it, half reluctantly, and the pot told him the whole wrong done to it.
Lord Bao was deeply shocked and sent constables to summon Ding Qian and Ding Wan. After a long while the constables brought the two in, and Lord Bao questioned them closely about the killing of Li Hao. Both swore no such thing had happened and refused to confess. Lord Bao had them locked in prison for rigorous interrogation, yet still they would not yield. So Lord Bao sent for their two wives and questioned them, and the wives too refused to confess. Lord Bao said, "Your husbands murdered Li Hao, took a hundred taels of gold, burned his bones to ash and mixed it with clay to make a pot. The gold is in your keeping — your husbands have plainly admitted it. What are you still denying?" The wives, terrified, told Lord Bao, "There is indeed a hundred taels of gold, buried in the wall." Lord Bao at once sent men to escort the wives home, and sure enough they found it in the wall and brought it before him. Lord Bao had Ding Qian and Ding Wan brought out and said, "Your wives have produced the hundred taels of gold right here. It's plain you two murdered Li Hao — why won't you confess?" The two stared at each other and had no choice but to confess. Lord Bao convicted them of murder for gain; both deserved death, and both were beheaded. Since Old Wang's report proved true, the court rewarded him twenty taels of silver. The clay pot, along with the stolen gold, was handed over to Li Hao's kin to take home and bury. A most extraordinary affair.
