Ding Baozhen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Governor of Sichuan Province
Ding Baozhen
Bust of Ding Baozhen at Erwang Temple
In office 1876 – 1886
Head of Shandong Province
In office 1866 – 1876

Born	1820 Pingyuan, Guizhou Province
Died	1886 Chengdu, Sichuan Province

Ding Baozhen (丁寶楨) was the Qing Dynasty governor of Sichuan Province, China after whom the Szechuan dish Kung Pao chicken was named.^[1]^[2]

[edit] Biography

Born in Pingyuan, Guizhou Province in 1820, Ding was appointed a government official in 1854 after an outstanding performance in the annual Royal Examination. He served as head of Shandong Province and later as governor of Sichuan province. In the second year of Guangxu period of Qing Dynasty he supervised the reconstruction of the Dujiangyan Irrigation Project. His statue can be seen on display at Erwang Temple in Dujiangyan City. His title was Gōng Bǎo (宮保), or palatial guardian from which the name Kung Pao chicken is derived.

[edit] References

^ China Heritage Project. Ding Baozhen—an outstanding minister of the Qing Dynasty (English). Guizhou Provincial Government. Retrieved on April 27, 2008. “Ding Baozhen was born in 1820, the 25th year in the Jiaqing Reign in the Qing Dynasty, in Pingyuan (now Zhijin County) in Guizhou. In 1854, he was appointed a government official because of his outstanding performance in the yearly Royal Examination. Since then he had been the head of Shandong Provinec for ten years, and then the governor of Sichuan Province for another ten years. In 1886, Ding died in Chengdu. In his lifetime, he was an outstanding government official, contributing a great deal to the society and much remembered at the bottoms of the hearts of the Chinese people. A TV series captioned Ding Baozhen is on display at the present, attracting the national attention. The following is a short introduction to his life story.”
^ "Ding Baozhen", Dujiangyan Irrigation System Museum. (English) "Ding Baozhen was born in Pingyuan, Guizhou Province. When he was the Governor of Sichuan he reconstructed Dujiangyang Irrigation System in the second year of Guangxu Period of Qing Dynasty with the financial support from the central government."