Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee

Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee is an 18th century detective novel. It is loosely based on the adventures of Judge Dee , a magistrate and statesman of the court, who lived roughly 630–700.

The ''Dee Goong An'' was translated by Robert van Gulik into English and used as the basis for his own series of detective novels about Judge Dee after he came across it in a secondhand bookshop in Tokyo. The author wrote that


In the preface, van Gulik describes some of the problems with traditional Chinese murder mysteries. First, the criminal is introduced at the very start of the story and his crime and reasons are carefully explained, so removing any mystery from the story at the start. Second, the stories always have a supernatural element with ghosts telling people about their death and even accusing the criminal. Third, the stories were filled with digressions into philosophy, the complete text of official documents, and much more, making for very long books. Fourth, Chinese novels tended to have a huge cast of characters and these characters are all described by their relation to the various main actors in the story. Lastly, the Chinese writers spent little time on the details of how the crime was committed and great deal of time on describing the torture of the criminals, even going on into their further torments in one of the various ''hells'' for the damned.

Van Gulik then goes on to say
This is exactly what Robert van Gulik did over the next 20 years, as he created his Judge Dee series. For the books based on the semi-fictional detective Judge Dee see: Judge Dee.

The original Chinese novel contains cultural elements from the Ming Dynasty rather than Tang Dynasty China, which may have been done deliberately or from ignorance about Tang-era China.

The book features nine drawings, three copies from old Chinese art, and six illustrations by the author.

Plot introduction

There are three cases in this book. The first might be called "The Double Murder at Dawn". The case describes the hazardous life of the traveling silk merchant and the murder which is committed to gain wealth.

The second is ''The Strange Corpse'' which takes place in a small village, a crime of passion which proves hard to solve. The criminal is a very determined woman.

The third case ''The Poisoned Bride'' contains the murder of the daughter of a local scholar who marries the son of the former administrator of the district. This case contains a surprising twist in its solution.

All three cases are solved by Judge Dee, the district magistrate - Detective, prosecutor, judge, and jury all wrapped up into one person.

Literary significance and criticism

"''Dee Goong An'' is the genuine article, dating from the 18th century and barely modified by the translator to make it intelligible today. Like his modern fictions, it adroitly intertwines three plots and shows the judge and his aides in their now familiar guise. The introduction and notes are as entertaining as the tale, once the reader has become a Dee-votee."