Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee
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 Dover Publications edition - Aug 1976 |
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| Author | unknown |
|---|---|
| Original title | Dee Goong An |
| Translator | Robert van Gulik |
| Cover artist | Robert van Gulik |
| Country | China |
| Language | Chinese |
| Series | Judge Dee |
| Genre(s) | Mystery, Detective Novel |
| Publisher | Dover Publications (Eng. trans.) |
| Released | unknown 18th cent (Eng. trans. 1949) |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 237 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-486-23337-5 |
Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee is an 18th century Chinese detective novel, Dee Goong An (狄公案, lit. "Cases of Judge Dee"). It is loosely based on the adventures of Judge Dee (Ti Jen-chieh or Di Renjie), a magistrate and statesman of the Tang court, who lived roughly 630–700.
The Dee Goong An was translated by Robert van Gulik into English and used as the basis for his own series of detective novels about Judge Dee after he came across it in a secondhand bookshop in Tokyo. The author wrote that
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This translation is chiefly a product of the Pacific War years, 1941-1945, when constant travel on various war duties made other more complicated Sinological research impossible. |
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In the preface, van Gulik describes some of the problems (as he saw it) with traditional Chinese murder mysteries. First, the criminal is introduced at the very start of the story and his crime and reasons are carefully explained, so removing any mystery from the story at the start. Second, the stories always have a supernatural element with ghosts telling people about their death and even accusing the criminal. Third, the stories were filled with digressions into philosophy, the complete text of official documents, and much more, making for very long books. Fourth, Chinese novels tended to have a huge cast of characters (200 or more) and these characters are all described as to their relation to the various main actors in the story. Lastly, the Chinese writers spent little time on the details of how the crime was committed and great deal of time on describing the torture of the criminals, even going on into their further torments in one of the various hells for the damned.
Van Gulik then goes on to say
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This novel Dee Goong An is offered here in a complete translation. Possibly it would have had a wider appeal if it had been entirely re-written in a form more familiar to our readers. |
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This is exactly what Robert van Gulik did over the next 20 years, as he created his Judge Dee series. For the books based on the semi-fictional detective Judge Dee see: Judge Dee.
The original Chinese novel contains cultural elements from the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) rather than Tang Dynasty China, which may have been done deliberately or from ignorance about Tang-era China.
The book features nine drawings, three copies from old Chinese art, and six illustrations by the author.
[edit] Plot introduction
There are three cases in this book. The first might be called "The Double Murder at Dawn". The case describes the hazardous life of the traveling silk merchant and the murder which is committed to gain wealth.
The second is The Strange Corpse which takes place in a small village, a crime of passion which proves hard to solve. The criminal is a very determined woman.
The third case The Poisoned Bride is the daughter of a local scholar who marries the son of the former administrator of the district and the killer is a man studying for the imperial exams.
All three cases are solved by Judge Dee, the district magistrate - Detective, prosecutor, judge, and jury all wrapped up into one person.
