Clio's Gallery, Column by Karen Guest Whitehurst in Web Mystery Magazine, Summer 2005

Clio’s Gallery —
The Judge Dee Mysteries

This year, HarperCollins has reissued four of the early Judge Dee novels by Robert van Gulik: The Chinese Bell Murders, The Chinese Gold Murders, The Chinese Lake Murders, and The Chinese Nail Murders. These reissues are attractive trade paperbacks published under the Perennial imprint of HarperCollins and retailing for $12.95 each.

These four novels have several things in common. Each novel contains a short preface introducing the reader to the time period, the physical setting, and the three interrelated cases. The preface to The Chinese Nail Murders differs; it’s a biographical essay on Judge Dee. To further help the reader, van Gulik provides a list of characters, per each case within the novel, and his own illustrations. Additionally, there is at least one postscript per each book. Usually, this ending discusses the role of the magistrate in T’ang China (the highest civilian source of authority and representative of the imperial government), the sources of the stories, and Chinese crime literature in general. The reader ignores these materials at the risk of his or her reduced pleasure and understanding.

On the downside, readers shouldn’t expect full disclosure in these puzzle mysteries. Van Gulik doesn’t always play fair with readers because he doesn’t give enough clues to analyze the problem. Even though readers have enough information pointing in the right direction, they still have to guess. Judge Dee would call it a shocking habit.

Originally published between 1958 and 1961 by Harper & Brothers, later Harper & Row, these novels star the shrewd magistrate Dee Jen-djieh (d. 700 CE) who was a historical person of the T’ang Dynasty (7th thru 10th centuries CE) and who did serve in the court of the Empress Woo. Judge Dee of the novels has been greatly fictionalized. He comes across as the Sherlock Holmes of T’ang China, but where Holmes tends to be an unapproachable, intellectual with some frankly antisocial qualities, Judge Dee, just as rational and logical, has greater warmth and humanity than his 19th century British counterpart. It is Dee’s greater soul that gives him understanding, empathy, and wisdom when solving crimes and dispensing justice. It also allows him to make mistakes and to learn from them. Readers can ride in Dee’s palanquin and not feel the least bit overshadowed — even if Dee really is much wiser than the rest of us. Readers also learn how the upper ranks of medieval Chinese society live, work, and murder.

Dee doesn’t have a Dr. Watson. Rather, he has several sidekicks, not all of whom appear in all the novels. The sidekicks — Sergeant Hoong (an old family retainer), Ma Joong and Chiao Tai (bandits who bow to and join Dee because of his superior abilities and virtue) and Tao Gan (a con artist who finds that Dee cannot be tricked) reflect aspects of Dee’s character and enhance Dee’s virtue and prestige. While these characters tend to be two dimensional, they go where Dee cannot — except in disguise, and Judge Dee loves his unofficial outings. Dee’s lieutenants reveal the lower levels of Chinese urban society. Ma Joong and Chiao Tai tend to have more earthy adventures — brawling, eating, drinking, visiting the Willow Quarters — than Tao Gan who tends to reveal the machinations of the merchant class.

Necklace and Calabash, The Monkey and the Tiger, and Judge Dee at Work are three separate works published by Scribner Crime Classics. In varying degrees of availability, they are still obtainable for purchase, but the public library would be the best bet. In these mass market editions, Judge Dee mostly works alone or more rarely, with a selected sidekick. Necklace and Calabash is the only actual novel among these three. The Monkey and the Tiger comprises two novellas while Judge Dee at Work is a collection of eight short stories. All bear van Gulik’s signature illustrations, but these paperbacks also carry have the author’s artwork on the covers — all bear a voluptuous naked or semi-naked Chinese woman on the front. These cover illustrations have been criticized for an eroticism not found in the Chinese detective fiction sources he used.

Where does the characterization of Dee come from? In the first of the Dee books, van Gulik translated an 18th century novel, Dee Goong An, in 1949, and according to E. F. Bleiler, van Gulik drew his Dee’s characterization from this novel (Contemporary Authors Online). Janwillen van de Wetering has responded that van Gulik claimed that he himself was Dee, and this leads readers to wonder if van Gulik, who was a Dutch gentleman-scholar and diplomat, infused Dee with his own character or if van Gulik drew Dee as he wished to see himself (van de Wetering 77-83). Certain traits, like a love of gibbons and the seven-stringed lute, came from van Gulik.

Van Gulik wrote about a magistrate of the T’ang Dynasty (618-907 CE), but he used documents from the late Sung, Ming, and even Ch’ing (1644-1912 CE) Dynasties; therefore, there are anachronisms. The murder cases came from the 13th century source, Parallel Sources from under the Pear Tree. By the 13th century, the Sung Dynasty (Northern Sung 960-1126 CE) had fractured: the Sung (1126-1279 CE) ruled in the South, and Central Asians ruled in the North. The Mongols (Yuan) then conquered all of China by 1279 CE and ruled till 1368. The Sung Dynasty, particular the Southernly, saw the rise of Neoconfucianism (a term coined by the Jesuits) and the rule of gentlemen-scholars. Taoism tended to be downplayed while Buddhism was disparaged. This became particularly true during the Ming dynasty.

These Ming Confucian (or Neoconfucian) biases show up strongly in van Gulik’s The Chinese Bell Murders and The Chinese Gold Murders. Buddhist monks and temples are sources of disorder, impiety, extortion, adultery, and even murder. Judge Dee, a good Confucian, disapproves or scorns them, depending on circumstances. In Necklace and Calabash, however, Master Gourd, the Taoist monk, becomes something of Dee’s spiritual advisor and earns Dee’s respect. Van Gulik’s representation of women reflects both Confucian ideas of subservience and the fears Confucians had of the dark, disorderly power of women. Dee, though, appears less doctrinaire. His feelings for Mrs. Kuo in The Chinese Nail Murders, challenge his (thus our) perceptions of traditional Confucian views of women. (As a sidenote, van Gulik never mentions foot-binding, a practice that did begin during the T’ang, but reached its peak under the Ming and the Ch’ing.)

Are the Dee novels worth reading? Absolutely. Judge Dee is one of the great heroic characters of literature who exemplifies two universal truths: virtue is power, and one exercises authority or power only through virtue. In historical accuracy, however, readers shouldn’t expect more than a generalized view of early imperial China. (E.F. Bleiler, Contemporary Authors Online).

Other Works Cited

Fairbank, John King. China: A New History. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1994.

“Robert Hans van Gulik”. Contemporary Authors Online. Gale Group, 2003. Ruth Scarborough Library, Shepherd University, Shepherdstown, WV. 06/20/2005.

Van de Wetering, Janwillem. Robert van Gulik: His Life, His Work. New York: Soho Press, 1998.