Why is Judge Bao always in dark face? There are many different stories about that: it is said that when Bao Zhen was still a child, he once grazed cattle in the countryside. A horse stepped on him when he was sleeping on roadside, resulting in a scar. So later, the character is always in dark crescent slanting face on the stage.
According to the data from Guo Weigen: Formerly called Bao Zhen or Bao Wenzheng, Judge Bao was bereft of his mother from childhood and raised up by his elder brother's wife. When he grew up, he always said to himself in front of the mirror: Bao Wenzheng, Bao Wenzheng, you are to be a just official in the future; VS Yang in the daytime and Yin at night, you must help the people against power polities. Gradually, he smiled at the mirror, and painted a sun with a moon in it on the forehead, regarding it as what an official looked.
One day, his elder brother's wife laughed at his face painting. Then Bao Wenzheng asked her whether he looked like a respectable and morally lofty official. She looked and looked and said: Yes, but it does not match---red and white above should match some color below. So Bao Wenzheng painted the lower face dark. He thought it looked very doughty like an iron face. He was already a leader among children from childhood. He was very proud of his painted face, but the children were quite shocked at it. Wondering whether he was a god or a ghost, they dared not get close to him. He said to them: I will help the Song Dynasty by revenging the wrong for the people as a respectable and morally lofty official. The children were glad to hear that. Then Bao Wenzheng pointed at the firewood chopper that was used to cut up bavin in the countryside, saying: When I become an official, I must cut those evil up with the chopper. So both the children and the adult praised him for his lofty quality. Later, on the stage, that chopper was artistically exaggerated as a Dragon/Tiger Head Guillotine, which can cut both malfeasants and heartless royal members.
 
 
In the traditional Cantonese Opera entitled Judge Bao VS Guo Huai , Judge Bao is painted in iron-colored face, Yin-yang Taiji circle on the central forehead, weapon patterns on the left eyebrow and 7-star loop on the right eyebrow. In the Peking Opera entitled Beheading Chen Shimei , Judge Bao is painted with black-and-white crescent pattern on the forehead. According to statistics, there were only the exaggerated white brows instead of Taiji pattern or crescent pattern on the face of Judge Bao in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The dramatized Judge Bao' s Taiji Eight Diagrams and crescent patterns symbolize that Judge Bao can both handle matters in the world and decide a case in the hell. The ancient people expected the Taiji immortals to kill the evil for them. In the modern TV plays, Baozhen 's model is relevantly close to the life with darker face instead of facial make-up. Artistic truth is really different from realistic truth.
(Resources: Southland Love Pea )