Robert van Gulik (1910-1967) wrote 14 original novels, 2 novellas and 8 short stories about the Chinese crime-solving magistrate Judge Dee of the Tang Dynasty. As is well known, Van Gulik, a sinologist and diplomat, discovered Judge Dee through the 18th century Chinese novel Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee, which he found in a second-hand bookstore in Tokyo. He translated the book and had it published in 1949, hoping it would teach Japanese and Chinese crime writers about their own rich traditions. When no one took notice, Van Gulik began writing his own detective stories, basing his character on the Judge Dee of the novel he had translated. (What Van Gulik probably didn't know was that such a "homegrown" historical detective already existed in modern Japanese fiction. Okamoto Kido had written a long series of stories between 1917 and 1937 featuring Japan's first detective, a trustworthy old Edo detective named Hanshichi, who is comparable to Judge Dee in terms of historical setting. And we have of course the excellent stories by Edogawa Ranpo...)
[Robert van Gulik, 1945]
Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee was not translated in its entirety by Van Gulik. He took only the first part, in which Judge Dee solves three cases when he was a local magistrate. And indeed, as a mystery, this part can stand on its own. In fact, the Chinese original was not a detective story at all, but an account of Judge Dee's life on two levels, first as a loyal servant of the throne in the provinces, and in the untranslated second part in a high position in the capital, at court, solving various palace intrigues. But this part of the novel does not describe a detective investigation.
Of course, there is a fundamental difference between the traditional Chinese detective story and the modern mystery novel: in the Western detective novel, a crime is solved; in the traditional Chinese story, a case of gross injustice is undone. The Chinese novel is not a detective story, but the criminal is known to the reader from the very first page. He is usually a corrupt official or underworld boss who escapes punishment through intimidation and bribery. The incorruptible judge doesn't even have to be very clever, for he is aided by supernatural forces and can also use torture to extract a confession (see W.L. Idema, "The Mystery of the Halved Judge Dee Novel," Tamkang Review VIII, 1977:155-170).
Judge Dee (Di Renjie) was a real magistrate and statesman of the Tang court who lived from 630 to 700. He was not a detective (detectives are a modern invention!), but the magistrate of a district, the smallest unit in the Chinese local bureaucracy, which forced him to perform many different duties in one person: head of administration, head of police, and judge, to name a few (as you can see, our modern "separation of powers" did not exist in ancient China). Since Dee was a district magistrate who worked out of the "yamen," or district offices, it is not strictly correct to call him a "judge.Di Renjie was not the most famous administrator in Chinese fiction. That was Bao Zheng (Lord Bao, 999-1062), who lived during the Song Dynasty and was known for his honesty and integrity - so much so that he became a cultural symbol of justice. Bao Zheng not only appears in many novels and "gongan" (detective) stories, but also in many zaju plays written during the Yuan Dynasty. He is also popular in modern films and TV series - in fact, his popularity in China means that Judge Dee cannot stand in his shadow.
Van Gulik had two goals with the Judge Dee novels. First, he wanted to publish the books in Japanese and Chinese to show (against the background of the local popularity of the Sherlock Holmes stories) that there were indeed great detectives (and detective novels) in the East Asian tradition. Of course, he updated the form for the 20th century - for example, it would have made no sense to include the supernatural elements common in traditional Chinese fiction, as this would have disgusted contemporary readers in China, Japan, and the West (apart from the fact that supernatural elements are not allowed in Western detective fiction).
When this project did not take off (no interest from publishers at first), he began to publish his novels in English for a Western audience, and the goal became to show that China was a great country with a fascinating culture and that interesting crime solvers had lived there. This was against the background (we are talking about the 1950s) of the image of the "yellow danger" in the despicable books of Sax Rohmer, or the ridiculous Charlie Chan with his broken English and constant stream of aphorisms.
Thus, the Judge Dee novels give a good impression of classical Chinese culture at a time when China was at the height of its power, and were written with respect for Chinese tradition. These novels are more than mere chinoiserie, they were written with a serious purpose and are supported by Van Gulik's scholarship. Of course, they are novels, so one should not demand exactness in all respects - for example, Van Gulik mixes elements from different dynasties - his setting is the Tang Dynasty (618-907), but the material culture he describes, as well as the illustrations he made, are all from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) - something, by the way, that was also common in Chinese fiction.
He also wrote his books in the 19050s and 1960s, and his view of such elements of Chinese culture as Daoism and Buddhism reflects the state of Sinology at that time, not today. But thanks to Van Gulik's deep knowledge of China's material culture (architecture, interiors, clothing, household objects), the stories really come to life. I read detective novels primarily for the atmosphere, and in that respect the Judge Dee novels are at the top of the list - and that is why they are still interesting.
Here is a chronological overview of all Judge Dee novels and stories, seen from Dee's fictional career. In the vast bureaucratic system of the Chinese Empire, the district magistrate was replaced every three years.
First posting: Penglai District (a fictional river port near the coast of Shandong Province)
- The Chinese Gold Murders (novel, 1959) *****
The fourth original Judge Dee novel written by Van Gulik in 1959, but in the Judge Dee chronology it is the first book in the series, set in the spring of 663 in Penglai, a fictional port city in Shandong near the unsettled border with the Korean kingdom of Goguryeo (which would fall to the unified Korean kingdom of Silla in 668). It describes a young Judge Dee on his first assignment as a magistrate, a job made more difficult because his predecessor was murdered. While trying to find clues to the murder, Judge Dee must also solve the cases of a missing bride and the murder of a clerk. In the end, he will uncover a huge smuggling case with ramifications in the highest echelons of the capital.
Van Gulik wrote this novel in six weeks in Beirut and Damascus in 1956. He managed to reduce the number of characters compared to his first three efforts (Bell, Maze and Lake) and it was the first novel that really satisfied him. Judge Dee's assistants have become real people, and the characterization of the other characters is also better, as he himself mentioned. It is indeed one of the best in the series.
- "Five Auspicious Clouds" (Short story, collected in Judge Dee At Work, 1967) ****Set in the summer of 663. As Judge Dee completes a project to control the shipping industry with the help of two shipowners, he is warned of the suicide of the wife of one of them. He quickly realizes that it is a case of murder rather than suicide, thanks to an unexpected witness: an incense clock. Used in China since the 6th century, incense clocks are actually specialized censers that work by burning lines of powdered incense. While religious purposes were of primary importance, these clocks were also popular at social gatherings and were used by Chinese scholars and intellectuals. One or more grooves (often in intricate patterns, such as the auspicious clouds shown here) were etched into a plate of stone or metal, and the time could be roughly read by how far the powder trail of incense had burned along the pattern.
- "The Red Tape Murder" (short story, collected in Judge Dee At Work, 1967) ****
Set in the summer of 663. As an official of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Van Gulik was a bureaucrat, and keeping good files and dossiers without missing documents is a concern he shares with his protagonist, Judge Dee. A missing document in a dossier leads Judge Dee to the massive military fort at the mouth of the river near Penglai, where he helps solve the murder of Colonel Su, the fort's second-in-command, even though the fort is outside his jurisdiction. He shows that careful attention to bureaucratic details, even if they seem superfluous and "hair-splitting", can be very useful...
- "He
Came with the Rain" (short story, collected in Judge Dee At Work, 1967) ***
Set in midsummer 663. The final story set in Penglai, in the marshes that lie between the city and the coast. It is a hot and humid day when Judge Dee, after six months at his post, is finally joined by his wives and children. On this day, he also solves a crime whose only witness is deaf and mute...
- The Lacquer Screen (novel, 1962) ***
Set in the summer of 664. The Lacquer Screen was first published in 1962. Judge Dee, accompanied by his faithful assistant Chiao Tai, enjoys a few days' vacation in another district; he brings an introduction from the prefect to his colleague, Magistrate Teng, a famous poet. Despite his vacation, Judge Dee soon finds himself involved in the alleged suicide of a silk merchant, the fraud of a banker, and most importantly, the murder of Magistrate Teng's wife.
This novel is the first book of the second series of Judge Dee novels written by Van Gulik, which again consists of five books like the first series, but in a different format. Van Gulik did away with the Chinese template (frame story, chapter titles in parallel lines, large cast of characters, strong reliance on Chinese motifs) of his first novels and wrote more concisely and more for a Western audience - while in the first novels he was still thinking of a Chinese or Japanese audience. So in this second series we find Judge Dee always out of his own district and only accompanied by one of his assistants, which makes the stories much leaner. The plots are also more psychological.
Van Gulik conceived this novel during a vacation in Greece in the fall of 1958, when he was stationed in Beirut. His main source of inspiration was a Ming Dynasty red lacquer screen he had bought in Tokyo in 1949.
Second posting: Hanyuan District (a fictional lake resort near Changan (now Xian))
The Chinese Lake Murders (novel, 1960) *****
The Chinese Lake Murders is set in the summer of 666 in Hanyuan, a fictional mountain resort town about 40 miles from the Chinese capital of Changan (now Xian). It is Judge Dee's second location in the fictional chronology of the series. Hanyuan is famous for its floating brothels, or "flower boats," and the story begins with the mysterious murder of a beautiful dancer on one just as Judge Dee is being wined and dined by the town's dignitaries for his new appointment. As usual in these novels, problems come in threes, and the investigation becomes a maze of political intrigue, sordid greed, and dark passions. Many of the motifs in the novel are based on old Chinese sources, such as the case of a young bride in suspended animation, a band of robbers hiding in the marshes, and most importantly, the big theme on which the novel ends, a revolt against the Chinese government by a secret religious sect.
This was the third original Judge Dee novel by Dutch sinologist and diplomat Robert Van Gulik, published in 1960, but written in the early 1950s. It has the form and style of the early Judge Dee novels, which was borrowed from Celebrated Cases Of Judge Dee, the Judge Dee novel Van Gulik translated from the Chinese: an introduction that serves as a frame, chapter titles in parallel lines, a description of the execution of the criminal, interest in the supernatural (although Van Gulik always provides a logical explanation), etc. - The idea of having the judge solve several mysteries at the same time also comes from that Chinese novel (in our lives, too, we are never occupied with just one thing, but have to multitask).
As usual, the novel derives much of its interest and fascination from Van Gulik's original description of Judge Dee and his assistants, Sergeant Hoong, Dee's loyal family retainer, Ma Yoong and Chiao Tai, former "Brothers of the Green Forest" (i.e. highwaymen), and Tao Gan, a reformed itinerant con man.
Van Gulik wrote this novel in 1952 when he was posted to New Delhi, with a view to publication in Chinese (which never happened). When his English publisher asked for a new Judge Dee book, he completely rewrote the manuscript, but still felt the story was perhaps too complicated. This complexity is also true for the other early novels (Bell Murders, Maze Murders) based on the traditional Chinese form, but I don't think it's a negative point - on the contrary, these early novels have a lot of atmosphere.
The Morning of the Monkey (novella, included in The Monkey and the Tiger, 1965) ****
"The Morning of the Monkey" is set in the fictional city of Hanyuan in the summer of 667. The work is dedicated to the memory of Van Gulik's gibbon Bubu, who died in Malaysia in 1962. For this pet, dear to his heart, the author imagined a story in which a gibbon serves as the point of departure for the mystery. While having breakfast on his terrace, Judge Dee enjoys watching gibbons swinging in the branches. Suddenly he notices that one of them is carrying a shiny object. After retrieving the object, Judge Dee discovers that it is a ring of great value. The jewel soon leads the magistrate to the corpse of a fifty-year-old man who is missing a finger, and then to a pretty prostitute who had asked a pawnshop to appraise the ring some time before. It later turns out that the old man was a successful pharmacist who left his home and family to start a new life, a bit like Simenon's Monsieur Monde Vanishes, who also "opted out".
This story was originally written in Dutch in 1963 under the title "Four Fingers" and was freely distributed by bookstores as a "bonus book" during the National Book Week in 1964 (a nice Dutch custom that still exists). Interestingly, Van Gulik's last scientific work, completed when he was already seriously ill, was The Gibbon in China: An Essay in Chinese Zoology (Leiden, 1967).
"The Murder on the Lotus Pond" (short story, collected in Judge Dee At Work, 1967) ***
Set in the midsummer of 667. Why and how was the retired poet Meng Lan murdered? His body was found in a small pavilion on the edge of a lotus pond, where he used to enjoy watching the moon. The murder weapon: an ivory-handled knife. The clues: an empty wine jug and a wine cup. At first glance, it seems that there were no witnesses... Van Gulik uses a motif (the trick with the beggars) from the Tangyin bishi, "Model Cases under the Pear Tree," a collection of 144 exemplary trials compiled around the year 1200 in Song Dynasty China, which he translated in 1956.
The Haunted Monastery (novel, 1961) *****
In the fall of 667, the Judge and his retinue - wife, children, and servants - are returning to Hanyuan from a vacation in the capital. Just before nightfall, they are caught in a violent storm and are forced to seek refuge at the Daoist Morning Cloud Monastery, on a lonely peak high in the mountains. Judge Dee is greeted with respect, but this also means that he must perform duties he would rather avoid: paying his respects to the former Imperial Tutor, who has retired to the monastery, and attending the Feast of Mysteries, which takes place on that very day. Immediately upon his arrival, as a storm blows open a window, Dee catches a glimpse of a fascinating scene (a warrior embracing a naked and mutilated woman) through a window that apparently does not exist, showing that terrible mysteries may be hidden behind the facade of piety of the Daoist temple. Add to this the rumor that three young women who visited the temple have died in mysterious accidents, and it is clear that the judge has his work cut out for him.
The novel gives Van Gulik the opportunity to present the mysteries and customs of the Daoist faith: the architecture of the monastery and its symbolism, the opposing forces of Yin and Yang (each containing a germ of the antagonistic force), the gallery of horrors supposed to represent hell and demons, the very important place of theater in Daoism (like the medieval mysteries of the European Middle Ages). But far from succumbing to the sirens of the irrational, the prosaic Dee keeps Confucian philosophy as his strong compass.
This is the second novel in the new Judge Dee series, which lacks the traditional Chinese form and features only one of Judge Dee's assistants in each book. Here it is the cunning Tao Gan (who was originally a trickster and con man). Van Gulik wrote the book in less than two months while stationed in Beirut. The main plot was suggested to him by the famous Daoist White Clouds (Baiyunguan) Monastery in Beijing, where it was discovered that the abbot had illicit relations with young girls, so his own indignant monks buried him alive.
This novel has a lot of atmosphere and is, in my opinion, one of the best in the series.
Third Posting: District of Poo-yang (a fictional, wealthy city on the Grand Canal in Jiangsu Province)
The Chinese Bell Murders (novel, 1958) *****
This
was the first original Judge Dee novel Van Gulik wrote, in early 1950,
for publication in Japan (he had it translated by a friend, and made a Chinese translation by himself). When that did not succeed, he had it published in English in 1958. It has all the freshness of a
first novel. In the fictional Judge Dee chronology, it belongs to Judge
Dee's third posting in the fictional district of Poo-yang (in autumn 668), a
thriving and wealthy city in mid-China located at the Grand Canal.
In the autumn of 668, Judge
Dee has just taken up his post at Poo-yang, his third post. Everything
leads him to believe that this position is easy: trade and agriculture are
prosperous, natural disasters unknown, crime low, not to mention that
his predecessor effectively administered his district, leaving Judge Dee
only one criminal case in progress: a sordid case of rape followed by
murder, for which only the main suspect remains to be convicted.
But
Judge Dee soon realizes that reality does not match this enchanting
picture. Quickly, doubts come to him about the guilt of the suspect in
the Half Moon Street affair. And this is only the beginning: the recent
soaring fortune of a large Buddhist temple in the region arouses his suspicions,
and an old woman comes to tell him about a gruesome story of nine-fold
murder, whose sponsor is said to be a wealthy Cantonese merchant. And
these two cases are delicate to say the least: the power of the Buddhist
clergy and the Cantonese merchants is such that they are able to evade
punishment, or have a magistrate who opposes them transferred to the borders of the Empire.
More than ever, Judge Dee will have to maneuver with infinite caution.
Towards
the end of the novel Judge Dee and his helpers are caught under a huge
temple bell. Note that bronze temple bells in China (as today in Japan) do not contain a clapper, they are
struck from the outside, using either a handheld mallet or (in the case of very large bells) a large beam
suspended on ropes. Their use was to summon the monks to prayer and to
demarcate periods of time. Such bells can be huge, providing space to
several persons below them (ref. the huge bell at Chionin Temple in
Kyoto, which is rung on New Year's Eve on TV: a whole team of monks is
needed to operate the wooden beam, and they always look dwarfed by the
towering bell).
Van Gulik drafted this novel when he was Counselor of the Netherlands Embassy in Tokyo, between November 1948 and December 1951. His English translation of the 18th c. Chinese novel about Judge Dee, Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee, had been published in 1949 in Tokyo, and this was his first attempt at writing a Chinese-style detective novel himself, borrowing Judge Dee and his four lieutenants Hoong, Ma Joong, Chiao Tai and Tao Gan, with their main characteristics. The English text was meant only as basis for a printed Chinese and/or Japanese version, as Van Gulik's aim was to show modern Chinese and Japanese writers that their own ancient crime-literature had plenty of source material for detective and mystery stories.
However, Japanese publishers thought this book unsuitable, because they feared the anti-Buddhist tendency would offend Buddhist readers. In 1951, on his way from Tokyo to a new post in New Delhi, Van Gulik rewrote the opening of the novel and succeeded in having it published in 1955 in the well-known Japanese magazine of detective fiction, Tantei-kurabu ("Detective Club"). Later Van Gulik made other changes before the novel finally saw the light in English (and Dutch) in 1958.
The Emperor’s Pearl (novel, 1963) ***
Set on the 5th day of the 5th month 669, the day of the annual Dragon Boat Festival (Double Fifth festival).
The second Judge Dee novel which takes place while Dee is magistrate of Poo-yang, in Jiangsu Province on the Grand Canal, which had been built in the Sui Dynasty (590-618). Written in 1963, it is the fourth volume in the second series of Judge Dee novels in which the characteristics of Chinese novels had been toned down and also the cast of characters - Judge Dee is in each of these novels only assisted by one of his helpers instead of all four; in this novel it is his trusted Sergeant and old retainer Hoong Liang.
Judge Dee is attending the Dragon Boat races accompanied by his three ladies aboard his own official barge, a celebration marking the fifth day of the fifth moon. As the final sprint begins, the timpanist of one of the boats collapses. The verdict of the coroner is "death by poisoning." In addition, Judge Dee will have to solve the murder of the young second lady of a prominent local merchant and art collector which is witnessed by the Judge himself. And on top of that odd things seem to be going on in a deserted villa at the edge of the River Goddess's overgrown mandrake grove. There are also rumors about the discovery of an Imperial Treasure so that the judge has his hands full.
Van
Gulik wrote this novel in a month's time in 1960, when he was
ambassador in Kuala Lumpur. However, as he was back in East Asia after
eight years absence and once again in daily contact with Chinese people
and old and new Chinese novels as well as the Chinese theater (Malaysia
is of course not Chinese, but has a large population with a Chinese
background), he lost confidence. So in the summer of 1960 he rewrote the
book, also changing the culprit.
Despite the rewrite, I feel
it is one of the lesser Judge Dee novels: except for the description of
the dragon boat race, the novel doesn't come to life
atmospherically, and unfortunately Van Gulik uses here a tired formula
of (Western) detective fiction, to describe ad nauseam the possible
motives of the various suspects.
Necklace and Calabash (novel, 1967) *****
This is the final type of Judge Dee novel, in which we find the judge alone; it also was the last Judge Dee novel published during van Gulik's lifetime (one more book, Poets and Murder was published after his death). In the fictional Judge Dee chronology, it is set in the summer of 669.
Judge Dee is on his way back to Poo-yang, but stops for a few days in River City to do some relaxed fishing. This city falls under a special administration run by a military commander as it contains the residence of the Third Imperial Princess, a huge fortress.
On his arrival, Judge Dee meets with a strange Daoist hermit; he also witnesses the discovery of the body of a murdered man in the river. Then the Emperor's daughter appeals to Judge Dee for aid, involving him in her harem intrigues, which could even threaten the throne of the Tang.
As in many of Judge Dee's investigations, the sexual element is very present: we have for example a very sly young boat woman who makes frank and very direct advances to Judge Dee, while proving to be a valuable aid to his investigation; we also have on a much darker note the Emperor's incestuous attraction to the most beautiful of his daughters.
As in Poets and Murder, Judge Dee acts alone in this novel, a third type of the Judge Dee stories after five books in which Dee is shown at his post and works with all his assistants (a form that has many traditional Chinese characteristics) and five books in which Judge Dee is shown away from his post and only accompanied by one of his assistants (these novels have no typical Chinese characteristics). It is one of the best books in the whole series - I like the figure of the Daoist hermit, and also the immense secrecy in the palace of the imperial princess.
P.S. In this novel Van Gulik introduces the Chinese abacus (suanpan), a very sophisticated device on which advanced calculations are possible. It usually has seven or more rods, with two beads on each rod
in the upper deck and five beads on each rod in the bottom deck.
The Wrong Sword (short story, collected in Judge Dee At Work, 1967) ***
Probably set in the autumn of 669. Judge Dee is traveling to the neighboring district, and Ma Joong and Chiao Tai, the magistrate's two
lieutenants, have been left back in Poo-yang. From a restaurant, they watch the performance of a traveling theater troupe. In one scene, the
killing of a young boy with a sword is simulated, but when he really falls dead, it is clear the fake sword has been exchanged with a real one...
The Red Pavilion (novel, 1961) *****
Set on the 28th day of the 7th month of 669, during the Festival of the Dead (also called Ghost festival, or Yulanpen in Buddhism - Obon in Japan - when the spirits of deceased ancestors come back to earth for a few days and people make offerings and burn paper money for them).
After a stay in the capital, Judge Dee is on his way to his district. He must pass through Paradise Isle, a famous entertainment center (gambling and courtesans) located in Chin-hwa, the district of his friend and colleague Judge Lo. In fact, Judge Dee meets Lo on the island, but Judge Lo says he is called away by an urgent matter, and asks his friend to resolve the case of the suicide (or murder?) of a young civil servant, in a locked room which happens to be precisely the room where Judge Dee is staying. It is just a routine matter, says Judge Lo, before he removes himself so fast from the scene that it seems he is fleeing for something. That evening, Judge Dee also has an unexpected meeting with the most powerful and famous courtesan on Paradise Island, Autumn Moon. Later, she will be found dead in the Judge's bedroom...
This novel belongs to the second series of Judge Dee novels, in which Van Gulik dropped the traditional Chinese form of the novel such as introductory frame story and chapter titles in parallel lines, and moved the action to somewhere outside Judge Dee's own district to enable him to confront new, unusual situations. On top of that, he reduced the number of characters, and in these new novels he only had Judge Dee accompanied by one of his assistants, a different one in each book. In The Red Pavilion that is Ma Joong. Two delicious characters in this novel are The Shrimp and The Crab and their art of chain fighting with deadly iron balls. They are among the best creations by Van Gulik.
Van Gulik wrote the novel in one month's time - in just half a year, he completed three novels of his new series, indicating how much pleasure it gave him. As his English publisher only wanted to publish one book a year, he first had the Chinese version of The Red Pavilion printed by a small printer in Kuala Lumpur, at his own cost and under his own supervision. The novel earned very positive reviews and sold so well, that he soon earned back his capital outlay with an unexpected profit. He later printed the first editions of The Haunted Monastery and The Lacquer Screen in the same way.
The Two Beggars (short story, collected in Judge Dee At Work, 1967) ***
Set on the 15th day of the 1st month 670, the Feast of Lanterns, when Judge Dee was magistrate of Poo-yang.
As
Judge Dee finishes his day and prepares to feast with his family, he
thinks he sees the specter of an old man pass in front of him. It is at
this moment that Sergeant Hoong, his faithful advisor, comes to warn him
that the body of a beggar has been transported to the morgue. The coroner has concluded it was an accident, but intrigued by
the apparition, Judge Dee decides to inspect the corpse. And some
details don't add up. What is the relationship between the deceased
beggar and the disappearance of an old tutor in love with orchids?
Through this affair Judge Dee will be late for his family dinner ...
Poets and Murder (novel, 1968 - appeared posthumously; also published in the US under the title of The Fox Magic Murders) *****
Set on the 14th and 15th day of the 8th month of 670, during the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Judge Dee is guest of his friend Lo, the magistrate of Chin-hwa, together with a small group of distinguished scholars. Dee is again confronted with 3 cases: the murder of a student, of a dancing girl, and the case of a beautiful poet, who is thought to have whipped her maidservant to death.
The Mid-Autumn or Moon Festival is celebrated in many East and Southeast Asian countries. It is the second-most important holiday after Chinese New Year and held in mid-September of our calendar, when the moon is at its brightest and fullest. Lanterns of all size and shapes are displayed and a traditional snack at the festival are moon cakes, a rich pastry filled with sweet bean paste. As happens in the novel, where Magistrate Lo invites his guests to a pavilion in the mountains, it was customary to view the moon from a high place.
The woman poet is based on the biography of courtesan and poet Yu Xuanji (c. 840-868), who was (probably falsely, as she was a very independent woman which was not condoned in those patriarchal times) accused of living a promiscuous life and having strangled her maidservant - for which she was decapitated. Yu Xuanji first was the concubine of an official; when she left him, she set up as a courtesan with her own boat on the river; and finally she became a Daoist nun. Daoist nuns were at the time known for their sexual freedom and Yu was openly bisexual. She also seems to have had an affair with the poet Wen Tingyun, one of the most important lyricists of the Late Tang period. 50 of her poems survive and are indeed of high quality. (See about Yu Xuanji: The Red Brush: Writing Women of Imperial China, by Wilt L. Idema and Beata Grant (editors), Harvard U.P. 2004)
Another interesting point of this novel is the introduction of the folklore belief in foxes and "fox magic." The fox is a beast who in Chinese folklore is highly tinged with supernatural qualities, such as the power of transformation. It often appears after dark, in the shape of a beautiful girl who may tempt a man to ruin. Also demons may appear in the shape of foxes. (Many fox tales have been gathered in the Liaozhai Zhiyi (Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio) by Pu Songling).
An interesting member of the dinner given by magistrate Lo is Sexton Lu, who is a Zen Buddhist and properly unconventional, much to the chagrin of Confucian Judge Dee.
This was the last Judge Dee novel Van Gulik wrote, according to the new formula (featuring Judge Dee alone) he had started in Necklace and Calabash. His publisher told him there was still a large demand for Judge Dee novels, and he enjoyed writing the books so he decided to continue. He felt that there was little new he could say about the Judge's assistants, but that the character of Dee himself still had many dramatic possibilities (as he realized when writing "The Night of the Tiger," a novella where Judge Dee appears alone for the first time). That is certainly true for Poets and Murder, which in my view is one of the best books in the whole series.
Fourth Posting: District of Lan-fang (a fictional district at the western frontier of Tang China)
The Chinese Maze Murders (novel, 1951-1957) *****
Set in the early summer of 670. After a long journey, Judge Dee arrives at his new base of Lan-fang, a city located on the northwestern borders of the Empire, where many problems are waiting for him. Immediately after his arrival, he has to deal with a local warlord who has seized all administrative power and wants to found his own principality with the help of the Uighur neighbors in Lan-fang.
The magistrate must therefore begin by reestablishing the authority of the imperial government. Then, while being careful that the conspirators do not attempt another coup, he must find out how a retired general could have been assassinated in his closed library and find a missing young girl. But perhaps the most difficult enigma to solve is that of the legacy of the late Governor, who was Judge Dee's idol while he was still a student. The Governor has divided his property between his two sons in a rather strange way: he has bequeathed only a single painting to the second son, while the eldest son has inherited everything else. What is the hidden meaning of the painting? One more mystery has been left by the governor: the labyrinth he had built in the outskirts of the city...
Van Gulik wrote the first draft in 1950 in Tokyo, and had it translated into Japanese by a Japanese friend, who also was a Sinologue, as "Meiro no satsujin." The Japanese publisher, Kodansha, asked him for a drawing of a female nude for the cover, which led Van Gulik to a study of erotic prints of the Ming dynasty (the existence of such prints had been unknown until that time) - and also led him to scholarly publications as "Erotic Colour Prints of the Ming Period" (privately published in 50 copies, Tokyo 1951), and "Sexual Life in Ancient China" (Leiden, 1961 - Van Gulik translated salacious passages in this book in Latin, as had been the custom in Europe for many centuries, so that only scholars could read them). The female nude that ultimately appeared on the cover of the Japanese edition of "The Chinese Maze Murders" (and all other nudes in the drawings Van Gulik made for his novels) were based on these Ming albums. They are all very tasteful and never titillating.
In New Delhi (1952) Van Gulik translated the book into Chinese, and when he was back in Holland the following year, his Dutch publisher W. van Hoeve published the English original - which in its turn attracted the attention of the London publisher Michael Joseph Ltd. who brought out the next volumes of the First Judge Dee series.
The Phantom of the Temple (novel, 1966) ***
Set in the late summer of 670. Judge Dee is asked to investigate beyond the East Gate of Lan-Fang, where a mysterious ghost haunts a Buddhist temple sitting on a wooded hill - of which the surrounding area has experienced a series of gruesome murders. In the meantime, the judge must search for the thieves of the treasure of some 20 gold bars carried by the imperial treasurer, as well as solve the disappearance of Jade, the daughter of a wealthy banker and gold and silver trader, who left an enigmatic message behind.
Van Gulik completed this novel, the sixth of his New Series, after he arrived in February 1965 in Tokyo as ambassador. He introduced two of Judge Dee's lieutenants (Sergeant Hoong and Ma Joong), paid extra attention to the judge's family life, and also used the Tartar element from the Maze Murders again.
"The Coffins of the Emperor" (short story, collected in Judge Dee At Work, 1967) ***
Set in the early winter of 672. Judge Dee is visiting a colleague whose district is close to the border. There is a war with the Tatars going on and the atmosphere around dinner is gloomy. Then the Marshal asks the judge to solve a riddle: weapons could be hidden in the coffin of the late crown prince. How to verify it knowing that the tomb is sacred and no one can touch it?
"Murder on New Year's Eve" (short story, collected in Judge Dee At Work) **
Set in the winter (the eve of the Chinese New Year) in early 674. A boy has found blood in their room and thinks that a quarrel between his parents has led to murder. Judge Dee investigates and happily, reality is different...
This was in fact the first short story Van Gulik wrote. When he was posted in Beirut, he had 200 copies printed and sent these to friends and acquaintances on Jan. 1 1959, as a New Year's greeting.
Fifth Posting: District of Pei-chow (a fictional district in the far north of Tang China)
The Chinese Nail Murders (novel, 1961) *****
Set in the winter of early 676. In wintry Pei-chow, a remote district in the north of the Chinese empire, Judge Dee is confronted with three mysterious crimes: that of an honored merchant, a master of
martial arts, and the wife of a merchant, whose corpse has no head.
After a botched inquest, a woman with Tatar blood stirs up the local population. Judge Dee soon comes under pressure from higher-ranking officials to end
his investigation (the district magistrate was checked on by agents of the Metropolitan Court in the capital, who mingled incognito with the people, and reported on how the magistrate carried out his duties). When Judge Dee does not seem to have a grip on the local disturbances in Pei-chow, he is told that troops will be dispatched to garrison his district. Naturally, Judge Dee refuses to give up until he has
learned the whole truth. He is helped by the wife of the local apothecary / coroner, who feels love for Judge Dee (which seems to be mutual).
The case of the headless corpse was based on an actual 13th-century Chinese murder casebook, the Tangyin bishi,
"Model cases from under the pear tree." The novel develops a common theme in Chinese detective fiction, murder
by a nail wound to the head. The difficulty in detection of this mode of
violence posed a particular problem for the examining magistrate
because postmortem examination was mostly limited to external
observations. There are many passages on medicine and pharmacy in this book.
Van Gulik wrote this fifth novel in Beirut in the summer of 1958, while a civil war was raging outside his residence. Most of his windows were broken by continuous gun-fire. He had sent his family to a safe place in the mountains and spent the long curfew-nights writing the novel in the basement, the only place outside the range of the firing. The book was meant as Van Gulik's last Judge Dee novel and he paid extra attention to the characterization, also of minor characters. Sadly, Dee's loyal helper Sergeant Hoong is murdered in this book, which belongs to the First Series.
Judge Dee himself is promoted by imperial decree to President of the Metropolitan Court in the capital, a highly esteemed position. Van Gulik intended to end the Judge Dee series with this novel, his fifth one, so this would have been a good ending - it is certainly one of the most poignant Judge Dee novels. Happily, history was different, and Van Gulik soon started on his Second series in a new format.
"The Night of the Tiger" (novella, included in The Monkey and the Tiger, 1965) *****
Set in the winter of early 677. Judge Dee has just been promoted to Lord Chief Justice (President of the Metropolitan Court) in the imperial capital of Changan and is on his way there. A swollen river is causing heavy flooding and Judge Dee finds himself trapped in a fortified country house that is under siege from a band of robbers. Misfortune never comes alone: Dee discovers that murder has taken place among the family living in that country house...
In this story we encounter the guqin, the seven-stringed Chinese zither (Van Gulik calls it a "lute"), one of the oldest known stringed instruments which is still played today - in fact Van Gulik himself seems to have been a masterful player and he also wrote a study about the instrument ("The Lore of the Chinese Lute"). In ancient China, playing the guqin was one of the pastimes of literati, together with playing weiqi (Go), making ink paintings and practicing calligraphy.
"The Night of the Tiger" is one of the best stories by Van Gulik, and the first one in which we meet the judge alone, as would also be the case in the last two novels Van Gulik wrote. The story was originally written in Dutch, in 1963.
Sixth Posting: Lord Chief Justice,
in the Imperial Capital
The Willow Pattern (novel, 1965) ****
Set in summer 677. Judge Dee is now a senior member of the Chinese government and has been appointed the Chief Judge in the Tang capital of Chang-An (although Van Gulik doesn't mention this name). The capital is in the grip of a fatal epidemic of the plague, and the emperor and his court have taken refuge in the mountains. Judge Dee has remained behind to act as governor of the beleaguered city. Three of the city's oldest, and most important aristocratic families become the subject of investigation. Three murders are committed and Judge Dee must find the connection between these despicable crimes in the plague-stricken, half-deserted city. It is interesting to read this book in the present time of the corona pandemic.
Van Gulik wrote The Willow Pattern in The Hague in 1963,
after his appointment in Kuala Lumpur where he had been
Dutch ambassador to Malaysia from 1959 to 1962. As is still usual at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, one or two overseas postings (usually lasting three years, like the term of a Chinese magistrate) were followed by a
period of a few years in one of the departments of
the Ministry in The Hague (not very popular among diplomats, who usually prefer to serve at posts in foreign countries).
In his postscript to the novel, Van Gulik explains that the popular decorative motif of the willow pattern used on ceramic kitchen ware in Europe did not originate in China, but was invented in England in the eighteenth century by adapting motifs found on hand-painted blue-and-white ware imported from China. Its creation occurred at a time when English mass-production of decorative tableware was already making use of engraved and printed glaze transfers, rather than hand-painting. Among several motives used, the Willow Pattern became the most popular and has in fact remained in production onto the present day. It shows a country villa on a riverside planted with willows; figures of a young man and woman are running away from the house over a bridge and persecuted by a man brandishing a stick. These are supposedly a daughter from a wealthy home and a poor student who worked there as secretary. They fell in love and the daughter refused to marry the wealthy elderly man selected by her father as her husband. When they fled from the house, they were persecuted by the angry father. This is of course pure chinoiserie, but Van Gulik employed it deliberately.
Van Gulik planned to stop his Judge Dee series with Murder in Canton, but several things happened to keep him interested in the sleuthing judge.
- An English publisher (Heinemann) was interested in the three novels Van Gulik had published himself in Kuala Lumpur (The Haunted Monastery, The Red Pavilion and The Lacquer Screen; they also published The Emperor's Pearl and Murder in Canton) and told Van Gulik they saw a good market for more novels after this "Second Series."
- The marriage of Ma Joong with twin girls mentioned in Murder in Canton gave Van Gulik an idea for a new novel that would chronologically precede Murder in Canton - this was The Willow Pattern. To write the novel, he made a special study of blue and white porcelain.
- Van Gulik was approached by a cartoon publisher to create a Judge Dee serial cartoon story for Dutch and Scandinavian newspapers. Van Gulik had to write the plots and train a professional draughtsman to make the pictures. One of the stories he wrote for the cartoon was next written up in the full-length novel, The Phantom of the Temple. After that, Necklace and Calabash and Poets and Murder would follow. So Van Gulik kept on working on his Judge Dee novels until his untimely death in 1967, when he was only 57. At that time he was Ambassador in Japan, his dream job.
Murder in Canton (novel, 1966) ***
Set in summer 680, when Dee as Lord Chief Justice is on assignment in Canton. In this novel, the last in the chronology, Chiao Tai is killed (Ma Joong is also absent, as he has settled down to a rather hectic domestic life after marrying twin sisters and siring a bunch of kids). Judge Dee resides in Changan as China's highest magistrate. In Canton, the country's most important port, traders flock from all walks of life, from India to the Middle East. One day, Liu Tao-ming, one of the mighty imperial censors, goes missing here. In disguise, Judge Dee proceeds to Canton to investigate. At the same time, the judge must unravel a sordid history in the Arab community of Canton and the mystery of two young lovers, which involves a beautiful blind girl who collects crickets (crickets were kept in small cages to enjoy their song).
Van Gulik wrote this fifth novel of the "New Series" in Kuala Lumpur, winter 1961-spring 1962. This tenth novel was really meant as the end of his Judge Dee endeavors, so he tried something new, using for the first time a real city as the setting. He selected Canton (Guangdong) as it had an Arab colony which would enable him to use the knowledge he had acquired about Arab civilization during his postings in the Middle East, and give a double intercultural twist to the tale. The novel was written more laboriously than the previous ones, perhaps because Van Gulik tried to incorporate too much historic research. He felt himself that it cluttered up the story and he was not wholly satisfied with the result.
