Dee Goong An

In the 18th century there was published in China a detective story whose acting person was ´magistrate´ Dee, investigating and solving three different criminal cases. Actually this writing had already been in print since hundreds of years - its author unknown yet as it was common in old China especially in regard to trivial literature.

But the person of ´Dee Goong An´ infact was historical, although little is known about him and his life:

His name was Ti Jen-chieh (Di Renjie), living during the time of the T´ang-Dynasty: Born in 630, he died in 700 a. Chr.. He started his splendid career as a district court´s judge, finally quitting the imperial service as a minister of state. He left two sons (Ti Kuang-se and Ti Ching-hui), also running honorable careers as imperial mandarins, but lacking the outstanding personality and the great abilities of their father. This was to show up again with his grandson Ti Chien-mo, who died as a governor in the emperor´s capital of Ch´ang An (Xi´an).

---

It was the dutch diplomatist Robert van Gulik (1910-1967), a very rare species of a western ´Mandarin´ - speaking a good dozen of languages and (hand-)writing books in chinese, japanese etc. -, who ran into the chinese criminal story, translating and publishing it 1949 in a small english edition, covered with his own colored woodcut.

Later on (1950), Robert van Gulik - his honorable chinese pen name was Kao Lo-p´ei - published the first of his ´Judge Dee´ detective stories with the (later) title of "The Maze Murder" (german title : "Mord im Labyrint"), written by himself and - in japanese language! There were still 15 other booklets to follow, each one illustrated with many appealing woodcut graphics all designed by van Gulik himself in Ming-style. (I regret, for copyright reasons, not being able to show you at least some of them.)

Robert van Gulik´s criminal cases of Judge Dee are at the same time as well thrilling as highly informative, teaching you e.g. law, policies and, first of all, everyday´s life in ancient China. I for myself had lots of pleasure...
(To get more information about Robert van Gulik - who also wrote publications e.g. on
"Sexual Life in Ancient China" , "Chinese Pictorial Art as viewed by the connoisseur", "Hsi K´ang and his Poetical Essay on the Lute" or "The Gibbon in China" - , read Janwillem van de Wetering´s " Robert van Gulik. His Life, His Work.", Dennis McMillan Publikations, Miami Florida, or - in german - "Robert van Gulik. Ein Leben mit Richter Di." , Diogenes Verlag AG Zürich.)
 
 
 

---

 

Washi ga shinotote When I die

When I die Who will then mourn for me? Only the black crows from the hills will then mourn for me. But also the crows coming from the hills, they do not mourn for me: They are mourning for the offerings unreached on my funereal shrine.   (tr. by A.W.T.)

 

 

 

and even have a still deeper dive into distracting sceneries...