Robert van Gulik

Robert van Gulik (August 9, 1910 - September 24, 1967) was a highly educated orientalist, diplomat and writer, best known for the Judge Dee mysteries. Van Gulik grew up in Indonesia where he was tutored in Mandarin. He joined the Dutch Foreign Service in 1935 and was stationed in various countries: Japan, China, India and Lebanon during the 1958 Civil War there. From 1965 until his death of cancer in 1967 he was ambassador to Japan.

Best known for his Judge Dee stories, the protagonist of which he borrowed from the 18th century Chinese detective novel Dee Goong An, which itself was loosely based on the adventures of a historical figure, the Confucian magistrate Judge Ti, Di or Dee.

Contents

1 The Judge Dee mysteries 2 Other works 3 Bibliography 3.1 Judge Dee 3.1.1 The Judge Dee Mysteries in the the order in which they were published 3.1.2 The Judge Dee Stories in the order in which they were set 3.2 Selected scientific works 4 References

The Judge Dee mysteries

In 1949 Robert van Gulik had translated the 18th century detective novel Dee Goong An into English and published in Tokyo. The main character of this, Judge Dee, was supposedly based on a real statesman and detective Ti (Jen-chieh) who lived in the seventh century during the Tang Dynasty (600-900 CE), though in the novel itself, elements of Ming Dynasty China (1300-1600 CE) were mixed in.

Thanks to his translation of this largely forgotten work, van Gulik became interested in Chinese style detective fiction and decided to attempt one himself. His first attempt, The Chinese Bell Murders was written from 1948-1950 and "borrowed" Judge Dee and his assistants from the Dee Goong An.

His intent in writing this first Judge Dee novel was, as he wrote in the remarks on The Chinese Bell Murders, "to show modern Chinese and Japanese writers that their own ancient crime-literature has plenty of source material for detective and mystery-stories" [1] (http://www.rechtertie.nl/bibliografie/remarks/01_bell.html)

Van Gulik's Judge Dee mysteries follow the long tradition of Chinese Detective fiction, intentionally preserving a number of key elements of that writing culture. First there is the fact that many of the Judge Dee novels deals with three different and often unrelated cases, a traditional device in Chinese mysteries.

The whodunit element is also much less important in the Judge Dee stories than it is in the traditional detective story, though still more so than in traditional Chinese detective stories.

Other works

Robert van Gulik studied Indisch Recht (Dutch-Indies law) and Indologie (Indonesian culture) at Leiden University from 1929 until 1934. Though after his studies he made his career in the Netherlands diplomatic service, he kept up his studies. During his life he wrote a twenty-odd essays, private publications and books on various subjects, mainly but not exclusively on aspects of Chinese culture. Typically, much of his scientific work was first published outside of the Netherlands.

Bibliography

(All publication dates of the Judge Dee novels are based on the UK publication.)

Judge Dee

The Judge Dee Mysteries in the the order in which they were published

• Dee Goong An (1949 translated from Chinese)
• The Chinese Bell Murders (1958)
• The Chinese Gold Murders (1959)
• The Chinese Lake Murders (1960)
• The Chinese Maze Murders (1962)
• The Chinese Nail Murders (1961)
• The Haunted Monastery (1963)
• The Emperor's Pearl (1963)
• The Lacquer Screen (1964)
• The Red Pavilion (1964)
• The Monkey and the Tiger, short stories (1965)
• The Willow Pattern (1965)
• Murder in Canton (1966)
• The Phantom of the Temple (1966)
• Judge Dee at Work, short stories (1967)
• Necklace and Calabash (1967)
• Poets and Murder (1968)

The Judge Dee Stories in the order in which they were set

Judge Dee at Work contains a "Judge Dee Chronology" telling of Dee's various posts, stories -- either books or short stories -- set during that posting, and giving information about the stories. The chronology lists the works in this order:

• The Chinese Gold Murders
• Five Auspicious Clouds, a short story in Judge Dee at Work
• The Red Tape Murders, a short story in Judge Dee at Work
• He came with the Rain, a short story in Judge Dee at Work
• The Lacquer Screen
• The Chinese Lake Murders
• The Morning of the Monkey, a short story in the Monkey and the Tiger
• The Haunted Monestery
• The Murder on the Lotus Pond, a short story in Judge Dee at Work
• The Chinese Bell Murders
• The Two Beggers, a short story in Judge Dee at Work
• The Wrong Sword, a short story in Judge Dee at Work
• The Red Pavilion
• The Emperor's Pearl
• The Chinese Maze Murders
• Phantom of the Temple
• The Coffins of the Emperor, a short story in Judge Dee at Work
• Murder on New Year's Eve, a short story in Judge Dee at Work
• The Chinese Nail Murders
• The Night of the Tiger, a short story in The Monkey and the Tiger
• The Willow Pattern
• Murder in Canton

Poets and Murder and Necklace and Calabash, which are not listed in the chronology were both set when Dee was magistrate of the district of Poo-yang where the The Chinese Bell Murders was set.

Selected scientific works

• The Lore of the Chinese lute; an essay in ch'in ideology (1941)
• Hsi K'ang and his Poetical Essay on the Lute (1941)
• Siddham; An Essay on the History of Sanskrit Studies in China and Japan (1956)
• Sexual Life in Ancient China. A preliminary survey of Chinese sex and society from ca. 1500 B.C. till 1644 A.D. (1961)
• The gibbon in China. An essay in Chinese animal lore (1967)

References

• Janwillem van de Wetering; Robert van Gulik: Zijn Leven Zijn Werk; Loeb, Amsterdam, ISBN 90-6213-899-3 (Hardback, First edition 1989)
• Janwillem van de Wetering; Robert van Gulik: His Life His Work; Soho Press, Inc.; ISBN 156947124X
• C.D. Barkman, H. de Vries-van der Hoeven; Een man van drie levens (A man of three lives); Forum, Amsterdam, ISBN 90-225-1650-4 (1993)
• The "Judge Dee" website (http://www.judgedee.info/)
• The Dutch language Rechter Tie website (http://www.rechtertie.nl/)de: Robert van Gulik

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