Judge Dee (also, Judge Di) is a semi-fictional character based on the historical figure Di Renjie , magistrate and statesman of the Tang court. The character first appeared in the 18th century Chinese detective novel Di Gong An. After Robert van Gulik came across it in a second-hand book store in Tokyo, he translated the novel into English and then used the style and characters to write his original Judge Dee stories.
The series is set in Tang Dynasty China and deals with various criminal cases solved by the upright Judge Dee (judges often play the investigator role in ancient Chinese crime stories).
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The Judge Dee character is based on the historical figure Di Renjie (c. 630–c. 700), magistrate and statesman of the Tang court. During the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) in China, a "folk novel" was written set in former times, but filled with anachronisms. Van Gulik found in the 18th century Di Gong An (Chinese:狄公案 Pinyin: dí gōng àn , lit. "Cases of Judge Dee") an original tale dealing with three cases simultaneously, and, which was unusual among Chinese mystery tales, a plot that for the most part lacked an overbearing supernatural element which could alienate Western readers.[1] He translated it into English and had it published under the title Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee.
This gave van Gulik the idea of writing his own novels, set with the similar Ming anachronisms, but using the historical character. Van Gulik was careful in writing the main novels to deal with cases where Dee was newly appointed to a city, thereby isolating him from the existing lifestyle and enabling him to maintain an objective role in the books. Van Gulik's novels and stories made no direct reference to the original Chinese work and so Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee is not considered to be part of the Judge Dee series.
Initially Dee is assisted only by his faithful clerk, Sergeant Hoong, an old family retainer. However, in The Chinese Gold Murders, which describes Dee's initial appointment and first criminal cases, the judge encounters two highwaymen, euphemistically called "men of the greenwood," Ma Joong and Chiao Tai, who attempt to rob him but are so impressed with his character that they give up their criminal careers and join his retinue on the spot. A little later, in The Chinese Lake Murders, a third criminal, Tao Gan, an itinerant confidence trickster and swindler, similarly joins. Judge Dee ends his career being promoted to the position of senior Metropolitan Judge in the capital, and his assistants obtain official ranks in the Army and civil service.
Van Gulik also wrote series of newspaper comics about Judge Dee in 1964-1967, adding up to a total of 19 adventures. The first 4 were regular balloon strips, but the later 15 had the more typically Dutch textblock under the pictures.
Judge Dee, naturally, is responsible for deciding the sentence as well as assessing guilt or innocence, although van Gulik notes in the stories that all capital punishments must be referred to and decided by officials in the capital. One of the sentences he frequently has to deal with is slow slicing; if he is inclined to mercy, he orders the final, fatal, cut to be made first, thus rendering the ceremony anticlimactic.
Several other authors have created stories based on Van Gulik's Judge Dee character.
Following novels and short stories were published in English by van Gulik. The short story collection Judge Dee at Work (published in 1967) contains a "Judge Dee Chronology" detailing Dee's various posts in specific years and stories set in these times. Van Gulik's last two books, Poets and Murder and Necklace and Calabash, were not listed in the chronology, as they were written after Judge Dee at Work, but they are both set in the time when Judge Dee was the magistrate in Poo-yang.
| Year | Title | Setting | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1949 | Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee | An "early phase of Judge Dee's career." | Translated from Chinese (originally, Dee Goong An); not part of the later continuity. Three stories: "The Case of the Double Murder at Dawn," "The Case of the Strange Corpse", and "The Case of the Poisoned Bride". Dee is the newly appointed Magistrate of Chang-ping in the Province of Shantung. He has all four lieutenants on staff: Sgt. Hoong, Chiao Tai, Ma Joong, and Tao Gan.[2] |
| 1957 | The Chinese Maze Murders | 670, Lan-fang | Written in 1950, published in Japanese in 1951; Lan-fang is a fictional district at the western frontier of Tang China. |
| 1958 | The Chinese Bell Murders | 668, Poo-yang | Written between 1953 and 1956; Poo-yang is a fictional wealthy district on the shores of the Grand Canal of China (part of modern-day Jiangsu province). |
| 1959 | The Chinese Gold Murders | 663, Penglai | |
| 1960 | The Chinese Lake Murders | 666, Han-yuan | Han-yuan is a fictional district on a lakeshore near the capital of Chang-An. |
| 1961 | The Chinese Nail Murders | 676, Pei-chow | Pei-chow is a fictional district in the far north of Tang China. |
| 1961 | The Haunted Monastery | 667, Han-yuan | Judge Dee is traveling and forced to take shelter in a monastery. |
| 1963 | The Emperor's Pearl | 668, Poo-yang | |
| 1964 | The Lacquer Screen | 664, Penglai | |
| 1964 | The Red Pavilion | 668, Poo-yang | |
| 1965 | The Morning of the Monkey | 667, Han-yuan | A short novel from The Monkey and the Tiger |
| 1965 | The Night of the Tiger | 676, Pei-chow | A short novel from The Monkey and the Tiger |
| 1965 | The Willow Pattern | 677, Chang-An | Judge Dee is the Lord Chief Justice in the Imperial capital of Chang-An. |
| 1966 | Murder in Canton | 681, Guangzhou | Judge Dee is the Lord Chief Justice for all of China. |
| 1966 | The Phantom of the Temple | 670, Lan-fang | |
| 1967 | "Five Auspicious Clouds" | 664, Penglai | A short story from Judge Dee at Work |
| 1967 | "The Red Tape Murders" | 663, Penglai | A short story from Judge Dee at Work |
| 1967 | "He came with the Rain" | 663, Penglai | A short story from Judge Dee at Work |
| 1967 | "The Murder on the Lotus Pond" | 666, Han-yuan | A short story from Judge Dee at Work |
| 1967 | "The Two Beggers" | 668, Poo-yang | A short story from Judge Dee at Work |
| 1967 | "The Wrong Sword" | 668, Poo-yang | A short story from Judge Dee at Work |
| 1967 | "The Coffins of the Emperor" | 672, Lan-fang | A short story from Judge Dee at Work |
| 1967 | "Murder on New Year's Eve" | 674, Lan-fang | A short story from Judge Dee at Work |
| 1967 | Necklace and Calabash | 668, Poo-yang | |
| 1968 | Poets and Murder | 669, Poo-yang |
By the author Frédéric Lenormand (not yet translated into English)
By the author Zhu Xiao Di
By the author Sven Roussel
By authors Eleanor Cooney & Daniel Alteri
By Lin Qianyu (林千羽)
Judge Dee has been adapted for television twice.
2010 saw the release of Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame. The film was directed by Tsui Hark