Much has been made of the corruption that has tarnished the image of Chinese local government officials but it seems bribery among the country's authoritative ranks was in full swing more than 2,800 years ago. The inscriptions on two bronze urns unearthed recently in northwest China's Shaanxi province tell the story of how, in 873 BCE, a noble man managed to bribe the judiciary in order to dodge charges of appropriating farmland and slaves.