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Review

This person is very impressed with the erudition of Master van Gulik. This person reads his stories in one big gulp, and this one was no exception. This person humbly pleads that you, honourable reader who have strayed onto this page, read as much of van Gulik as you can lay your hands on.

And please do this soon, or else the wrath of Judge Dee may be upon you!

_____________________________________________________

Excerpts

[from Preamble. In this drinking session, which the first-person protagonist doesn't remember too well, a man, apparently descendant of Judge Dee, told him this tale.]

it is quite inconceivable that one, or even two gentlemen of refined taste ever should consume eight pots of wine at one single sitting. p.7

The Hermit Clad in Crane Feathers‎:
Approach your problems from the right end and begin with the answers. Then one day, perhaps you will find the final question.

The judge was going to lean back in his armchair but remembered in time
that the back was broken. He hastily placed his elbows on the desk again.

Indian Buddhist monks at remote outposts

Vendors from over the border clad in quaint gaudy costumes praised their
wares in raucous voices, and here and there an Indian monk lifted up his
almsbowl. p.33

--

Until a few years ago the main route to Khotan and the other tributary
kingdoms of the west ran through Lan-fang and this town was quite an
important emporium. Then three oases along the desert route dried up and it
shifted a hundred miles to the north. 36

Sergeant Hoong:
"In all these years I have learned but one thing about understanding our
judge. That is, to give up trying to!" 44

--

[ex-blacksmith and wannabe highway robber Fang protests after they are let
off by the Judge - they will soon by killed by Chieng Now!]

The institution of magistrates in China

The judge hit his gavel on the table. He called out in a thunderous voice:

    Look up at your magistrate! Observe carefully these insignia of the
    power that has been vested in me. Know that on this very day, this very
    hour all over the Empire thousands of men wearing these same insignia
    are dispensing justice in the name of the state and the people. Since
    time immemorial they stand as a symbol of the social order decided upon
    in the wise counsels of your ancestors, and perpetuated by the mandate
    of Heaven and the free will of the uncounted millions of our
    black-haired people.

    Have you not seen sometimes people trying to plant a stick in a gushing
    mountain stream? It will stand for a moment or so, then it is carried
    away by the mighty stream that flows on for ever. Thus occasionally
    wicked or ignorant men will rise and endeavour to disrupt the sacred
    pattern of our society.  Is it not crystal clear that such attempts can
    never end in anything but miserable failure?

    Let us never lose faith in these tokens, lest we lose faith in
    ourselves. p.46

Influence of Central Asia on Chinese Art

[This seems a rather remote topic for a murder mystery, but here is
how it finds its way into the narrative...]

JD: why did you, the son of a well known military commander in the Board of
Military Affairs, settle down all alone in this out-of-the-way place?"

    Woo looked round at his pictures on the wall.

    "Five years ago", he replied, "I passed the examination for Junior
Candidate. To the disappointment of my father I then resolved to break off
my studies and devote myself to painting. I worked under two famous masters
in the capital but was not satisfied with their style.

    Two years ago I happened to meet a monk who had come all the way from
Khotan, the tributary kingdom in the far west. That man showed me his style
of painting, full of life and exciting colours. I realized that our Chinese
artists ought to study that style in order to renew our national art. I
thought that I might become the pioneer and resolved to travel to Khotan
myself."

    "Personally", the judge remarked dryly, "I find our national art
perfectly satisfactory and I fail to see what a barbarian foreign nation
could ever teach us. But I don't pretend to be a connoisseur. Pray proceed!"

    "So I wangled travelling funds from my good father", Woo went on. "He
let me go in the hope that this was youthful extravagance, and that some day
I would return as a sedate young official. Until two years ago the route to
the western kingdoms led via Lan-fang, thus I came here. Then I found that
this route had been abandoned for the northern one. Now the plains to the
west of this town are inhabited only by roaming Uigur hordes, people without
art or culture." p.108

--

[Ma Joong has followed Woo to a deserted garden at night]
He did not dare to look at Woo too often for he knew that many people are
sensitive to a hidden stare. p.123

the General was lying in state in an enormous coffin of lacquered wood
before which twelve Buddhist priests were reading sutra's aloud.
Young Ding came rushing into the room clad in a mourning robe of white hemp
cloth. p.150

[incense comes from India]
"Go to the main hall, Tao Gan, and ask those priests for a few sticks of
Indian incense!"

---

[JD - of an inscription at the Gov's home]
that man is a superb calligrapher! Seeing such writing, my friends, one
understands why the ancients praised great calligraphy by comparing it to
'the tension of a crouching panther, and the wild force of dragons sporting
among rain and thunder'

As he spoke the judge noticed that his teeth were even and of a pearly white.

Master Crane Robe:
    Confucius! Now that was a purposeful man for you! He spent his entire
    life rushing all over the Empire, always arranging things, always giving
    advice to whomsoever cared to listen to him. He buzzed about like a
    gadfly! He never paused long enough to realize that the more he did the
    less he achieved, and the more he acquired the less he possessed. Yes,
    Confucius was a man full of purpose. So was Governor Yoo..." 218

---

    "Well, Your Honour, I was deeply devoted to my master. He certainly was
one of the finest boxers of our time and I admired him greatly. But when I
boxed with him and he eluded my cleverest blows without the slightest
effort, playfully hitting me anywhere he liked despite my frantic defence, I
still admired him but at the same time I hated him because of his infinite
superiority!"
    Judge Dee smiled wanly.
    "Thank you, my friend!", he said. "This afternoon I went to the
mountains south of this city and there met a person who greatly disturbed
me. Now you have put into words exactly what I did not dare to formulate so
clearly for myself!" 221

a lot of fiddling with whiskers and beards

[a favourite device of van Gulik is to have his characters play with their
facial hair...]

Tugging at his moustache Judge Dee asked Candidate Ding...

Tao Gan pensively pulled at the three long hairs that sprouted from a mole
on his left cheek.

Tao Gan had been tugging at the three hairs on his left cheek.

The judge tugged angrily at his beard.

Judge Dee pensively tugged at his whiskers.

He leaned back in his chair and angrily tugged at his whiskers.

As he straightened himself he slowly tugged at his whiskers.

His host [Master Crane Robe] slowly tugged one of his long eyebrows.

---
[But Woo] undoubtedly is a great artist. Such persons are usually rather
vague and casual about the routine of daily life, but they show a
tremendous capacity for concentration as soon as it regards things they
are really interested in. 256

the fourth wife of the late General had swallowed poison.  [Her] suicide
was favourably commented upon by some old-fashioned people who thought it a
proof of supreme devotion if a wife followed her deceased husband into the
grave. They opened a subscription for the erection of a commemorative stone
tablet. 297

gagging screams with oilpaper

"The criminal Lee shall be scourged and then executed by
decapitation. ... The criminal's head shall be exposed on the city gate for
three days, as a warning example."

Mrs. Lee started to scream. A constable gagged her with a strip of oilpaper
while two others bound her hands behind her back.

---
As the judge gave the sign the sword swung down and severed the head from
the body in one fearful blow.
Judge Dee marked the head with his vermilion brush.

Gulik's Postscript

POSTSCRIPT

A feature all old Chinese detective stories have in common is that the role
of detective is always played by the magistrate of the district where the
crime occurred. 312

This official is in charge of the entire administration of the district
under his jurisdiction, usually comprising one walled city and the
countryside around it for fifty miles or so. The magistrate's duties are
manifold. He is fully responsible for the collection of taxes, the
registration of births, deaths and marriages, keeping up to date the land
registration, the maintenance of the peace etc., while as presiding judge of
the local tribunal he is charged with the apprehension and punishing of
criminals and the hearing of all civil and criminal cases. Since the
magistrate thus supervises practically every phase of the daily life of the
people, he is commonly referred to in Chinese as the 'Father-and-mother
Official'.

The district magistrate is at the bottom of the colossal pyramidal structure
of ancient Chinese government organization. He must report to the prefect,
who supervises ten or more districts. The prefect reports to the provincial
governor, who is responsible for several prefectures. The governor in his
turn reports to the central authorities in the capital, with the Emperor at
the top.

Every citizen in the Empire, whether rich or poor and without regard for
social background, could enter official life and become a district
magistrate by passing the literary examinations instituted by the
Government.

---

The present novel gives a general idea of ancient Chinese court
procedure. When the court is in session, the judge sits behind the bench,
with his lieutenants and the scribes standing by his side. The bench is a
high table covered with a piece of red cloth that hangs down in front from
the top of the table till the floor of the raised dais.  312

the gavel: is not shaped like a hammer as in the West. It is an oblong,
square piece of hardwood of about one foot long. In Chinese it is
significantly called ching-t'ang-mu [3] 'Wood that frightens the hall'.

The constables stand in front of the dais, facing each other in two rows on
left and right. Both plaintiff and accused must kneel on the bare flagstones
between these two menacing rows, and remain so during the entire
session. They have no lawyers to assist them, they may call no witnesses, so
their position is generally not an enviable one. The entire court procedure
was in fact intended to act as a deterrent, impressing on the people the
awful consequences of getting involved with the law.

It is a fundamental principle of ancient Chinese law that no criminal can be
pronounced guilty unless he has confessed to his crime. To prevent hardened
criminals from escaping punishment by refusing to confess even when
confronted with irrefutable evidence, the law allows the application of
legal severities, such as beating with whip and bamboo, and placing hands
and ankles in screws. Next to these authorized means of torture magistrates
often apply more severe kinds. If, however, the accused should receive
permanent bodily harm or die under excessive torture, the magistrate and the
entire personnel of his tribunal are punished, often with the extreme
penalty. Most judges, therefore, depend more upon their shrewd psychological
insight and their knowledge of their fellow men than on the application of
torture.

the magistrate was not allowed to interrogate any accused or witness in
private, all his hearings of a case including the preliminary examination
had to
be conducted in the public sessions of the tribunal. A careful record was
kept of all proceedings and these reports had to be forwarded to the higher
authorities for their inspection.

All in all the old Chinese system worked reasonably well.

In this novel I have followed the Chinese time-honoured tradition of adding
at the end of the story a detailed description of the execution of the
criminals. Chinese sense of justice demands that the punishment meted out to
the criminal should be set forth in full detail. I also adopted the custom
of Chinese writers of the Ming Dynasty of describing in their novels men and
life as they were in their own time, although the scene of their plots is
often laid in former centuries. The same applies to the illustrations of
this novel, which reproduce customs and costumes of the Ming period
(A.D. 1368-1644) rather than those of the T'ang Dynasty.

Chinese Sources

http://www.e-reading.ws/chapter.php/89508/55/van_Gulik_-_The_Chinese_Maze_Murders.html

I borrowed three plots from three different 16th century Chinese collections
of crime and mystery stories.

The 'Case of the Sealed Room' was suggested by an anecdote concerning Yen
Shih-fan, a notoriously wicked statesman of the Ming period who died in 1565
A.D. It is said that he invented a special writing brush capable of ejecting
a deadly missile when heated near a candle (cf. A. Waley's introduction ot
the English translation of'Chin P'ing Mei', page VIII). The original story
states that Yen Shih-fan used this 'loaded writing brush' as a defensive
weapon, to be used should one of his many enemies surprise him writing in
his library and if no other weapon was at hand. I described such a 'loaded
brush' as a weapon of attack and wrote a new story around it dealing with
delayed vengeance, a motif not uncommon in Chinese novels. It should be
added that when a new writing brush is to be used, the writer must first
burn off the superfluous hairs around the point. To do this he holds it to a
flame keeping the shaft horizontal to his eye. There is thus a good chance
that a missile projected from the end of the brush will hit his face. Even
if the wax holding the coiled spring inside the shaft should not melt during
the actual trimming process, the writer will still have little chance of
survival once he begins to use his brush, since his head would usually be
bent over the paper and therefore be in the direct line of fire. ...

'Case of the Hidden Testament': [A] brief version is found in the famous
16th century collection of crime stories Lung-t'u-kung-an which describe
the exploits of the master-detective Pao-kung who lived during the Sung
Dynasty.


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