View source for Judge Dee

{{distinguish|Dee Benson}}
{{Infobox character
| name = Judge Dee
| series = 
| image = Di Renjie.jpg
| caption = 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]]<br>[[Khigh Dhiegh]]<br>[[Yiwei Zhou]]
| gender = Male
| occupation = Magistrate
| nationality = Chinese
}}
'''Judge Dee''', or '''Judge Di''', is a semi-fictional character<ref>{{cite web|last=Kuhn|first=Anthony|title=Before Sherlock: An Ancient Chinese Sleuth's Enduring Appeal|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2013/10/25/240685259/before-sherlock-an-ancient-chinese-sleuths-enduring-appeal|website=[[NPR]]|date=25 October 2013|access-date=2 March 2024}}</ref> based on the historical figure [[Di Renjie]], [[County magistrate (China)|county magistrate]] and statesman of the [[Tang dynasty|Tang]] court. The character appeared in the 18th-century Chinese [[detective novel|detective]] and ''[[Gong'an fiction|gong'an]]'' [[Chinese crime fiction|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|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 [[Examining magistrate|investigating magistrate]] and judge.

==Di Gong An==
{{main|Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee}}
The Judge Dee character is based on the historical figure [[Di Renjie]] (c. 630 – c. 700),<ref name="kidd">{{cite web|last=Kidd|first=James|title=Who was Detective Dee? Unravelling the mystery of a Tang-dynasty hero|url=https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2165769/who-was-detective-dee-unravelling-mystery-tang|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20191229110310/https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2165769/who-was-detective-dee-unravelling-mystery-tang|archivedate=29 December 2019|work=[[South China Morning Post]]|date=26 September 2018|access-date=2 March 2024}}</ref> magistrate and statesman of the [[Tang dynasty|Tang]] court.<ref name="zigmond">{{cite web|last=Zigmond|first=Dan|title=The Judge Dee Mysteries|url=https://tricycle.org/magazine/judge-dee-mysteries/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20210920145712/https://tricycle.org/magazine/judge-dee-mysteries/|archivedate=20 September 2021|work=[[Tricycle: The Buddhist Review]]|date=June 2009 |access-date=2 March 2024}}</ref> 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 ({{zh|c=狄公案|p=Dí Gōng Àn|links=no}}; 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 the story more accessible to Western readers.<ref name="Wright">{{cite journal|last=Wright|first=Daniel Franklin|date=2004|url=http://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/136/|title=Chinoiserie in the novels of Robert Hans van Gulik|website=[[Wilfrid Laurier University]]}}</ref>  He translated it into English and had it published in 1949 under the title ''Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee''.<ref name="zigmond"/>

==Van Gulik's stories==
Van Gulik began writing his own novels with the character, eventually authoring sixteen books.<ref>{{cite web|title=Robert van Gulik|url=https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/author/V/R/au5471828.html|work=[[University of Chicago Press]]|access-date=2 March 2024}}</ref> 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''.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Accardo|first=Pasquale|title=China's Sherlock Holmes|publisher=The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box|year=2011|pages=8}}</ref>

Dee is initially assisted only by his faithful clerk, Sergeant Hoong Liang, an old family retainer. 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 green woods", 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 [[Di_Renjie#In_fiction|translated into Chinese]].

==Other authors==
Several other authors have created stories based on Van Gulik's Judge Dee character:
* French author [[:fr:Frédéric Lenormand|Frédéric Lenormand]]  wrote 19 new Judge Dee mysteries from year 2004 at Editions Fayard, Paris (not yet translated into English). Some of them have been translated into Spanish (Ediciones Paidos Iberica), Portuguese (Europress), Bulgarian (Paradox), Czech (Garamond) and Polish.{{Citation needed|date=September 2010}}
* Sven Roussel, another French author, has written ''La dernière enquête du Juge Ti''.<ref>{{cite book|author=Roussel, Sven|title=La dernière enquête du Juge Ti|year=2008|language=fr|isbn= 978-2-9532206-0-5}}</ref>
* The Chinese-American author [[Zhu Xiao Di]] wrote ten original short stories about Judge Dee collected in ''Tales of Judge Dee'' (2006), set when the Judge was the magistrate of Poo-yang (the same time period as ''[[The Chinese Bell Murders]]'' and several other novels). Zhu Xiao Di has no relation to Robert van Gulik but tried to stay faithful to the fictionalized history of van Gulik's Judge Dee.{{citation needed|date=January 2014}}
* Judge Dee appears, along with a fictionalized [[Wu Zetian]], in books one (''Iron Empress: A Novel of Mystery and Madness in Ancient China'') and two (''Shore of Pearls: A Novel of Murder, Plague, and the Prison Island of Hainan'') of Eleanor Cooney & Daniel Alteri's historical T'ang Trilogy.
* [[Qiu Xiaolong]], best known for his Inspector Chen series, released a new Judge Dee novel ''The Shadow of the Empire'' in 2021.

==Bibliography==
===By van Gulik===
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.

{| class="sortable wikitable"
|-
! width="30px" | Year !! width="185px" | Title !! width="110px" | 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 (fiction)|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.<ref>''Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee (Dee Goong An): An Authentic Eighteenth-Century Chinese Detective Novel''. Dover Publications, 1976. Copyright notes, "an unabridged, slightly corrected version of the work first published privately in Tokyo in 1949 under the title ''Dee Goong An: Three Murder Cases Solved by Judge Dee''".</ref>
|-
| 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]]'' || 663, [[Penglai City|Penglai]] || 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 (book)|The Willow Pattern]]'' || 677, [[Chang-An]] || Judge Dee is the Lord Chief Justice in the Imperial capital of [[Chang'an|Chang-An]].
|-
| 1966 || ''[[Murder in Canton]]'' || 681, [[Guangzhou]] || 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 other authors===
By the author [[:fr:Frédéric Lenormand|Frédéric Lenormand]] (not yet translated into English):
* ''Le Château du lac Tchou-an'' (2004) - ''The Zhou-an lake castle''
* ''La Nuit des juges'' (2004) - ''The Night of the judges''
* ''Petits meurtres entre moines'' (2004) - ''Little murders among monks''
* ''Le Palais des courtisanes'' (2004) - ''The courtesans' palace''
* ''Madame Ti mène l'enquête'' (2005) - ''Mrs. Dee investigates''
* ''Mort d'un cuisinier chinois'' (2005) - ''Death of a Chinese cook''
* ''L'Art délicat du deuil'' (2006) - ''The Delicate art of mourning''
* ''Mort d'un maître de go'' (2006) - ''Death of a Go master''
* ''Dix petits démons chinois'' (2007) - ''Ten little Chinese devils''
* ''Médecine chinoise à l'usage des assassins'' (2007) - ''Chinese Medicine for murderers''
* ''Guide de survie d'un juge en Chine'' (2008) - ''Survival guide for the Chinese judge''
* ''Panique sur la Grande Muraille'' (2008) - ''Panic on the Great Wall''
* ''Le Mystère du jardin chinois'' (2009) - ''The Chinese Garden Mystery''
* ''Diplomatie en kimono'' (2009) - ''Diplomacy in a Kimono''
* ''Thé vert et arsenic'' (2010) - ''Arsenic and green tea''
* ''Un Chinois ne ment jamais'' (2010) - ''A Chinese never lies''
* ''Divorce à la chinoise'' (2011) - ''Chinese-style Divorce''
* ''Meurtres sur le fleuve Jaune'' (2011) - ''The Yellow River Murders''

By the author [[Zhu Xiao Di]]:
* ''Tales of Judge Dee'' (2006), ten short stories set in the time when Judge Dee is magistrate of Poo-yang (AD 669–670), {{ISBN|0-595-38438-2}}

By the author Sven Roussel:
* ''La Dernière Enquète du Juge Ti'' (2008) set at the end Judge Dee's term of service in Lan Fang (AD 675)

By authors Eleanor Cooney & Daniel Alteri:
* ''Iron Empress: A Novel of Mystery and Madness in Ancient China'' (formerly titled ''Deception: A Novel of Mystery and Madness in Ancient China'', {{ISBN|0-380-70872-8}}), Book One of the T'ang Trilogy, {{ISBN|9781475604450}} 
* ''Shore of Pearls: A Novel of Murder, Plague, and the Prison Island of Hainan'', Book Two of the T'ang Trilogy, {{ISBN|9781475604474}}

By Lin Qianyu (林千羽):
* 狄仁杰 通天帝国 (2010), [[tie-in]] [[novel]] of [[Tsui Hark]] 2010 film: ''[[Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame]]'', {{ISBN|978-7-5385-4859-4}}

By the author Hock G. Tjoa:
* ''The Ingenious Judge Dee'' (2013), a theatrical play based on ''Dee Goong An'',<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Ingenious Judge Dee|url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19401318-the-ingenious-judge-dee|access-date=November 5, 2021}}</ref> {{ISBN|1-493-57691-7}}

By [[Qiu Xiaolong]]:
* ''In the Shadow of the Empire'' (2021), {{ISBN|978-07-2785-081-2}}

==Adaptations==
===Comics===
The stories have been adapted into comic strips by Dutch artists Frits Kloezeman<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/k/kloezeman_frits.htm|title=Frits Kloezeman|website=lambiek.net}}</ref> between 1964 and 1969 and [[Dick Matena]] in 2000.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/m/matena.htm|title=Dick Matena|website=lambiek.net}}</ref>

===Television===
====English-language====
Judge Dee has been adapted for [[television]] twice in English:
* In 1969, Howard Baker produced six Judge Dee stories for [[Granada Television]]. These episodes were in black and white and were not a ratings success. White English actor [[Michael Goodliffe]] portrayed the Judge in [[yellowface]].
* In 1974, [[Nicholas Meyer]] adapted the novel ''[[The Haunted Monastery]]'' into a television movie for [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] titled ''Judge Dee and the Monastery Murders'', directed by [[Jeremy Kagan]] and starring [[Khigh Dhiegh]] as Judge Dee. With the exception of the star (who generally played East Asian roles but was of English and North African descent), the movie had an all-Asian cast, including [[Mako (actor)|Mako]], [[Soon-Tek Oh]], [[Keye Luke]], [[Irene Tsu]], [[Yuki Shimoda]] and [[James Hong]]. It was nominated for an [[Edgar Award]] for ''Best Television Feature or Miniseries'' in 1975.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://edgarawards.com/search-the-database |title=Edgars Database, 1975 Winners and Nominees |website=EdgarAwards.com |access-date=13 January 2025}}</ref>

====Chinese-language====
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.{{citation needed|date=January 2014}}

The list:
* ''[[Amazing Detective Di Renjie]]'' (2004)
* ''[[Amazing Detective Di Renjie 2]]'' (2006)
* ''[[Amazing Detective Di Renjie 3]]'' (2008)
* ''[[Mad Detective Di Renjie]]'' (2010)

In 2013, Beijing-based producer Wang Donghui secured the rights to make a new 40-episode TV series adaptation of the novels. It was a UK-China co-production, overseen by Western showrunners [[Jim Keeble]] and [[Dudi Appleton]], with a British writing team. The scripts were then translated into Chinese.<ref>https://www.bafta.org/asia/features/british-screenwriters-adapt-chinese-novels-in-unique-uk-china-collaboration {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2025}}</ref> It stars Yiwei Zhou as Di Renjie. In 2024, [[Youku]] released the series, titled ''[[Judge Dee's Mystery]]'', which was also sold to [[Netflix]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202402/07/WS65c336c5a3104efcbdaea379.html|title=Judge Dee's Mystery set to reach global audiences|publisher=China Daily|accessdate=2024-04-01}}</ref>

===Film===
[[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.<ref name="kidd"/>
* ''[[Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame]]'' (2010)<ref name="kidd"/>
* ''[[Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon]]'' (2013)<ref name="kidd"/>
* ''[[Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings]]'' (2018)<ref name="kidd"/>
* The Mystery of Humanoid Puppet (2024)

===Video Games===
Judge Dee is the protagonist of the title ''Detective Di: The Silk Rose Murders'' (2019), {{Cite web |url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/792040/Detective_Di_The_Silk_Rose_Murders/ |title=Steam link}}

== See also ==
* [[Detective fiction#Early Chinese|Early Chinese detective fiction]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Sources===
* Accardo, Pasquale J. (2011).  ''China's Sherlock Holmes: The Life and Times of Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee''. Eugenia, ON: The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box.  {{ISBN|978-1-55246-960-6}}. The esteemed member of the [[The Baker Street Irregulars|Baker Street Irregulars]] and commentator on both [[Sherlock Holmes]] and [[Father Brown]] summarizes the career of Robert van Gulik's presentation of Judge Dee, with detailed plot outlines, character biographies, chronologies, and a discussion of the phenomenon of "doubling" throughout the series.
* Benedetti, Lavinia (2013). “The use of Chinese Supernatural Elements in Van Gulik’s Series Judge Dee Mysteries”, «Zhongguo Bijiao Wenxue» 《中国比较文学》(Comparative Literature in China), Vol. 92, no. 3, 119-133. 
* Benedetti, Lavinia (2014). “Killing Di Gong: Rethinking van Gulik’s Translation of Late Qing Dynasty Novel Wu Zetian Si Da Qi’an”, in Paolo Santangelo (ed.), Ming Qing Studies 2014, 11-42.
* Benedetti, Lavinia (2017).“Further Definition of Di Renjie’s identity(ies) in Chinese History, Literature and Media”, Frontiers of History in China 2017, 12(4), 599–620. 
* {{cite book |last = Van Dover |first = J. Kenneth |year = 2015 |title = The Judge Dee Novels of R. H. Van Gulik: The Case of the Chinese Detective and the American Reader |publisher = McFarland| location = Jefferson, NC|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7S6QBQAAQBAJ |isbn = 9780786496211}} A scholar of American detective fiction explores the historical Chinese figures, the tradition of the Chinese detective story, China and Chinese in American literature, and van Gulik's adaptations.

==External links==
* [http://www.friesian.com/ross/dee.htm Judge Dee: Character chronology and information about the author] {{in lang|en}}
* [http://www.judge-dee.com/?lng=en The ''Judge Dee'' website] by Sven Roussel
* [http://www.judge-dee.info/welcome/index.jsp Fansite containing detailed publishing history in various languages] {{in lang|en|nl}}

{{Judge Dee}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dee, Judge}}
[[Category:Judge Dee| ]]
[[Category:Dutch novels]]
[[Category:Dutch crime novels]]
[[Category:Fictional judges]]
[[Category:Gong'an fiction]]
[[Category:Novel series|Judge Dee]]
[[Category:Detective fiction]]
[[Category:Dutch novels adapted into television shows]]
[[Category:Novels adapted into comics]]
[[Category:Literary characters introduced in 1949]]
[[Category:Fictional Tang dynasty people]]
[[Category:Fictional Chinese detectives]]
[[Category:Fictional Chinese people]]