The Code of Xia

Bao

In common with the Wuxia tradition, Bao Zheng also follows the path given by Heaven. From the start of his administration, he collected people along the way, including his entire staff.

Bao surrounds himself with a disgruntled scholar genius and Jianghu artists sufficiently skilled to ensure his safety. Together, they set about offering justice and administering the law. No one is beyond his reach, especially those in high places.

It isn't necessary to reconcile the historical lives of these men with how they have been portrayed in the Wuxia tradition. What is more important concerns what they have come to symbolize in the Chinese imagination. Both men represent a belief and hope in Nature's capacity to correct and balance out-of-control situations.

However, actions to create just and fair conditions cannot be unfair or unjust. If the end is to be accepted by the people, actions must also follow Nature's way or Tao.
The hope expressed in the fictional ideals of Di and Bao concerns the desire for Peace. In the Chinese imagination, only a person following the Tao can be trusted to make a just decision. This decision isn't based on power, privilege, or prestige but compassion.

The belief is that when compassion truly guides an individual who walks on the path, then each class or level of society can accept their decisions and, thereby, acquiesce to their own lot or fate in life without begrudging those higher or lower theirs. When a society knows that individuals are walking the path in their interest, the land can be at Peace.

I believe this is the meaning held in the saying:

"On behalf of Heaven, walk path."