Judge Dee should not be confused with Dee Benson.
| Judge Dee | |
| First: | Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee |
| Last: | Poets and Murder |
| Creator: | Anonymous author credited as "Buti zhuanren"/novel translated and subsequent novels continued by Robert van Gulik (character based on Di Renjie) |
| Portrayer: | Michael Goodliffe Khigh Dhiegh Yiwei Zhou |
| Gender: | Male |
| Occupation: | Magistrate |
| Nationality: | Chinese |
Judge Dee, or Judge Di, is a semi-fictional character[1] based on the historical figure Di Renjie, county magistrate and statesman of the Tang court. The character appeared in the 18th-century Chinese detective and gong'an crime novel Di Gong An. After Robert van Gulik came across it in an antiquarian book store in Tokyo, he translated the novel into English and then used the style and characters to write his own original Judge Dee historical mystery stories.
The series is set in Tang dynasty China and deals with criminal cases solved by the upright and shrewd Judge Dee, who as county magistrate in the Chinese imperial legal system was both the investigating magistrate and judge.
See main article: Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee. The Judge Dee character is based on the historical figure Di Renjie (c. 630 – c. 700),[2] magistrate and statesman of the Tang court.[3] During the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) in China, a "folk novel" was written set in former times, but filled with anachronisms.
Van Gulik found a copy of the 18th-century Di Gong An novel (; lit. "Cases of Judge Dee") in a Tokyo book store. It's an original tale dealing with three cases simultaneously. For the most part the overbearing supernatural plot elements, common among Chinese mystery tales of that period, were lacking in this case, making story more accessible to Western readers.[4] He translated it into English and had it published in 1949 under the title Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee.[3]
van Gulik began writing his own novels with the character, eventually authoring sixteen books.[5] Van Gulik was careful in writing the main novels to deal with cases wherein 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 are often referred to as the Shih Ti.[6]
Initially Dee is assisted only by his faithful clerk, Sergeant Hoong Liang, 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. This encounter is recounted in a short flashback passage in the original Di Gong An, taking place when the two are already long-serving loyal members of his retinue. 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 in Murder in Canton 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 a series of newspaper comics about Judge Dee in 1964–1967, which totalled 19 adventures. The first four were regular balloon strips, but the later 15 had the more typically Dutch textblock under the pictures.
Judge Dee, naturally, is responsible for deciding sentences 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.
Van Gulik's Judge Dee novels have been translated into Chinese.
Several other authors have created stories based on Van Gulik's Judge Dee character:
The 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.[8] | |
| 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. Given its name, general location and supposed role in the trade route to Khotan, it has a real historical eponymous counterpart in Lanzhou. | |
| 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 | Dee's initial appointment and first criminal cases, the judge encounters two highwaymen, euphemistically called "men of the greenwood", Ma Joong and Chiao Tai. | ||
| 1960 | The Chinese Lake Murders | 666, Han-yuan | Han-yuan is a fictional district on a lakeshore near the capital of Chang-An. Huan-Yuan (韩原) is an ancient name for the modern day Hancheng city in Shaanxi province. | |
| 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. | |
| 1961 | The Red Pavilion | 668, Poo-yang | Judge Dee is drawn into a web of lies and sad stories in the world of the prostitutes of Imperial China. | |
| 1962 | The Lacquer Screen | 664, Penglai | Judge Dee and Chiao Tai disguise themselves to go undercover and join a gang of robbers to solve the case. | |
| 1963 | The Emperor's Pearl | 669, Poo-yang | Odd things going on at the deserted villa, an apparently cursed Imperial Treasure and a perverted madman. | |
| 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 | Judge Dee is the Lord Chief Justice in the Imperial capital of Chang-An. | ||
| 1966 | Murder in Canton | Judge Dee is the Lord Chief Justice for all of China. | ||
| 1966 | The Phantom of the Temple | 670, Lan-fang | Mysterious phantom haunting a Buddhist temple. 20 bars of gold missing, and the merchant's beautiful daughter. | |
| 1967 | "Five Auspicious Clouds" | 663, Penglai | A short story from Judge Dee at Work. | |
| 1967 | "The Red Tape Murders" | 663, Penglai | A short story from Judge Dee at Work. Military murder at the army fortress. | |
| 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 Beggars" | 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" | 670, Lan-fang | A short story from Judge Dee at Work. | |
| 1967 | "Murder on New Year's Eve" | 670, Lan-fang | A short story from Judge Dee at Work. | |
| 1967 | Necklace and Calabash | 668, Poo-yang | Judge Dee is a magistrate in the fictional Poo-yang district. Last Judge Dee novel published during van Gulik's lifetime. | |
| 1968 | Poets and Murder | 669, Poo-yang | During a festival in Chin-hwa, Judge Dee is a guest of a group of distinguished scholars. A young girl has been murdered and the accused is a beautiful poetess. |
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):
By the author Hock G. Tjoa:
By Qiu Xiaolong:
The stories have been adapted into comic strips by Dutch artists Fritz Kloezeman[10] between 1964 and 1969 and Dick Matena in 2000.[11]
Judge Dee has been adapted for television twice in English:
Some of Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee stories have been adapted for Chinese TV by CCTV, under the title of Detective Di Renjie, most of which star Liang Guanhua as Detective Di. As of 2012, four different DVD series are available with one series so far with English subtitles. CCTV produced series in 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010. The series from 2010, entitled "Detective Di Renjie" has been produced on DVD by Tai Seng entertainment with English subtitles.
The list of series:
In 2024, Youku released a series called Judge Dee's Mystery, which was also sold to Netflix.[12]
Tsui Hark has made a trilogy of films based on the character. Andy Lau portrayed the character in the first film with Mark Chao continuing in the next two.[2]