The man who gave us Gongbao chicken

A statue of Ding Baozhen at Lidui Park, Dujiangyan, Sichuan province. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Ding, an honest and upright official, had long hated this man and wanted to get rid of him.

So, when An arrived in Jinan, the capital of Shandong province, after collecting a large amount of money while traveling to the city, Ding had him arrested and jailed.

He then had it proclaimed that An had violated imperial rules that a eunuch should not leave the imperial city.

When the Empress Dowager got to know about this, she sent a special envoy to Jinan with an imperial edict ordering Ding to send An back to Beijing in order, of course, to save his life.

But having made up his mind to get rid of An, Ding ordered that An to be executed and when the Empress Dowager's special envoy arrived at his office he told him that it was too late.

This much remembered incident was later described as "accepting the imperial edict at the front gate but executing the man in the backyard".

However, Ding did one thing which earned him the Empress Dowager's gratitude. After An's execution, Ding ordered his body be displayed in the city center for three days.

For years, both court officials and the common people believed that An Dehai was not really a eunuch but the Empress Dowager's lover.

But when the body was displayed people got to see that An was really a eunuch and the rumor died.