Lord Bao Fish 包公鱼
Lord Bao Fish is featured among the local specialties of Anhui.
Lord Bao Fish (包公鱼) is the name Hefei (合肥) gives to the crucian carp of the Bao River (包河), and to the dish of that fish served in the city's Lord Bao banquet (包公宴).
Where the name comes from
Crucian carp from the Bao River have dark backs, which people match to the black face of Lord Bao (包公), the Song-dynasty official Bao Zheng (包拯), whose image in legend is stern and incorruptible. The river's lotus root is said to snap without leaving threads, which is taken as a sign of his "selfless" (无私) conduct in office.
The fish also has a place in a Bao family story. After Li Hongzhang (李鸿章) paid for the rebuilding of the Lord Bao Memorial Temple (包公祠) in 1884, Bao's descendants cooked Lord Bao Fish, drumbeat chicken (击鼓鸡), rice wrapped in lotus leaf (荷叶包饭) and pagoda-tree-flower cakes (孝肃槐花饼) to repay him.
How it is eaten
Lord Bao Fish is also a course in the Lord Bao banquet, which the Hefei chef You Xiaobin (尤小斌) has devoted himself to researching since 1997. The banquet menu brings in lotus-pond flavours in summer, and Lord Bao Fish belongs to that summer set, alongside a stir-fry of three Bao River delicacies (包河三秀炒), lotus sprouts with garlic and pepper (蒜椒藕芽菜), deep-fried lotus flowers (香炸荷花) and loaches burrowed into tofu (泥鳅钻豆腐).
Questions before you order
What fish is Lord Bao Fish?
Crucian carp from the Bao River in Hefei. The fish's dark back is what links it to the black-faced image of Lord Bao.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-23. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.