Customer Reviews

Chinese Gold Murders

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This is the first of a series of Judge Dee novels set in seventh-century China. Judge Dee is an Imperial Magistrate who in the course of his job, is posted all over the Imperial Chinese Empire. He has a keen interest in solving crimes and is interested in interacting actively with the people around him. The novel opens with Dee leaving the imperial capital for the district of Peng-lai, near the Korean border. This is his first posting as District Magistrate. He leaves accompanied by his adviser Sergeant Hoong and on the way, meets two highwaymen, Ma Joong and Chiao Tai. Impressed by his forceful personality, the two men decide to give up their life of crime and become officers of the tribunal under Judge Dee. Upon arrival in Peng-lai, Judge Dee has to deal with multiple crimes; his predecessor was murdered, the wife of a prominent businessman has disappeared, a tiger is terrorizing the locals, the judge's chief clerk has gone missing and there are suspicions that Peng-lai is a center for gold smuggling into Korea! Into this hotbed of crime, comes Judge Dee who is able to pull all the threads together and solve the crimes. I loved the wealth of historical detail in the book as well as the actual mysteries, and Judge Dee himself is refreshingly human and is amused by the antics of his underlings! Would highly recommend the book to all those interested in historical mysteries - it's great fun!

I have all of Van Gulik's Chinese murder mysteries and this is the one to start out with. Not only is the book entertaining on its own merits as a mystery but you learn about a historical Chinese culture. The plot twists and villains are clever and Judge Dee is the bomb.

Long before Brother Cadfael, there was Judge Dee. The series started in the 1950s but they are modelled after Judge Dee mysteries written in early China. In this adventure, Judge Dee arrives at a new post and must solve the murder of his predecessor. As with all of his adventures, there are several side mysteries to unravel. Well written and skillfully plotted, the Judge Dee mysteries are must reads.

Rebeccasreads highly recommends THE CHINESE GOLD MURDERS in which Judge Dee Dee investigates the murder of his predecessor -- a Magistrate who now stalks the neighborhood as a ghost.

Judge Dee-Jen Dijeh (630-700 A.D.) was a Magistrate known for his wisdom & wit in China, & his stories were a part of the local folklore. Robert Van Gulik, who had a historian's interest in China in the early 1950s, was fascinated by the tales of this judge, & finally collected & fictionalized them into four volumes.

The wit, ingenuity, & genius of Judge Dee is well reflected. Remember the old tales of King Solomon the Just -- well, give them an Asian flavor, a touch of Old China -- & you get Judge Dee.

All of Judge Dee's books are most pleasurable - - worthy of 10 stars!

I have read all the Judge Dee mysteries at least twice, and really love them. However, I have just read a number of books on China and discover that van Gulik has purposefully mislead readers to make ancient Chinese justice just like Western justice and rather appealing. The truth is almost the exact opposite.

If you are interested, a standard history of china by harvard professor John Fairbank and Merle Goldman, China A History, explains that the Chinese justice system was openly corrupt (corruption did not have to be secret - it was and is the accepted way), relied on torture of both plaintiff and defendent, had no consistent laws, no equal punishments for the same offence (everything was based on class and kinship status) and bascially was just like modern Communist law: it was a vehicle for the state to control behavior. The goal was not 'justice' in the Judeo-Christian sense but state control.

Also like Communist China under Mao, imperial law relied on collective punishment to terrorize the populace. The entire population was divided into groups of ten and one hundred families, and if anyone in the whole group was condemned, the entire group could be executed. For serious offenses, thousands of families would all be executed.

Van Gulik is always showing citizens bringing disputes before the court. In reality, this was never done - as both sides could be tortured and both sides had to pay the court and both sides had to bribe the court. Instead, people relied on their village elders or clan heads to rule on disputes, as the court system was too dangerous.

Most of the ideals that Van Gulik gives to Judge Dee of fairness, protecting the weak against the strong etc. are Christian values that go back to the Jewish Bible (God creating all men equal, protect the weak and the stranger, equality before the law etc). They are antithetical to Chinese values from imperial to modern times. It is very important not to pretend that foreign cultures are the same as we are...or that our values are universal. They are very special treasures that we should be incredibly grateful for.

The Judge Dee books also mention women's tiny feet at times, but he never tells the reader that until 1900, all upper class and middle class women in China had their feet broken and maimed leading to their being crippled for life, unable to walk normally (euphemism - binding their feet). From the 19th century, this custom of torturing and crippling women spread among the peasants also. 10% of girls probably died from this treatment.

Van Gulik prominently features 'courtesans' and 'prostitutes.' A more accurate term might be slaves or sex slaves.

We are often told that China was 'more advanced' than the west until modern times. In truth, they were most comparable to ancient Rome, a cruel and despotic slave-owning culture with admirable roads and art. But Rome at least had rule of law, something China never had.

So, enjoy Judge Dee - but take it for what it is, bascially a fun Western mystery story set in a lovingly recreated period piece, kind of like most Hollywood movies - great costumes, great settings, fun plots, endearing characters - all basically unrealistic.

Imagine a Sherlock Holmes from the 6th century China, complete with flowy beards and costumes to match. Folklores. Long horse rides. Noodles and ricewine in roadside restaurants. Mysterious drunks and poets in clandestine wenches. Warriors turned highway men. Weretigers (I had to look it up), the feline equivalents of werewolves.

And cast amidst this historically vivid milieu, a gory murder of a district magistrate, whose ghost has scared many since his sudden demise.

For its twisted and edge-of-the-seat plot alone, this hidden little gem bags my higest recommendation. Most mystery thrillers have the reader thinking of prospective culprits as they read along, but I had a tough time establishing some sort of motive or identifying targets until nearly the end of the Gold Murders.

And that's only half the fun. Gulik's measured prose has a cultured elegance that brings China's simple yet layered world of nearly two centuries ago springing back to life. It's witty. It's ribald, with a tight economy of description, which makes it twice as juicy. And it's chockfull of deceit and honour in the noblest of ways.

An engaging but human good old fashioned tale of intrigue. Easily one of the best detective novels I've ever had the luxury of devouring.

The Chinese Gold Murders tell the story of Judge Dee's appointment as magistrate of Peng-lai, a fictional Chinese district. His first task as magistrate is to find the killer of his predecessor. This is complicated by a series of mysterious events and dodgy suspects but Judge Dee triumphs through reason and perseverance.

While this was the fifth book that Robert van Gulik wrote in the series it is chronologically the first adventure according to van Gulik's accounting of Dee's career. And in my opinion it's a perfect first book to pick up in the series.

Van Gulik was by all accounts both a gifted writer and oriental researcher. As part of his studies of Chinese literature, he published a translation of "Dee Goong An" as "The Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee" and in a epilogue to the translation he expressed an interest in taking Chinese case histories and rewriting them as detective stories with modern literary aesthetics.

The result is by van Gulik's own words not always historically accurate but still it exudes a kind of period authenticity. Van Gulik's writing is clever and Judge Dee would be on equal footing with sleuths like Holmes or Poirot.

Judge Dee is now among my favorite characters. The historical depiction is clear and accurate and the mistery plots are fascinating.

Yet another gripping Judge Dee mystery! Judge Dee is better than Sherlock Holmes by far - more complicated and intricate mysteries, plus a fascinating look at daily life in China centuries ago. Also, as a protagoist Judge Dee is a much more "relatable" character. I have owned this for years, and have read and reread it a number of times - and each time I find further nuances I didn't notice before - and my enjoyment of it only increases!

Not your average mystery.
Includes great introduction. From the back cover:
"Imperial China, T'ang dynasty, seventh century A.D.--home of Judge Dee, Imperial magistrate and detective. A near mythic figure in the pre-Communist Chinese consciousness, Judge Dee distinguished himself as tribunal magistrate, inquisitor, and public avenger. Long after his death, accounts of his exploits were celebrated in Chinese folklore.

The Chinese Gold Murders is one of a series of Judge Dee detective novels written in the 1950s and early 1960s by van Gulik (1910-67), a Dutch diplomat and an authority on Chinese history and culture. Van Gulik drew his plots from the whole body of Chinese literature, especially the popular detective novels that first appeared in the seventeeth century. His Judge Dee stories convey a more vivid insight into traditional China than can be gained from textbooks, momgraphs and documents. They provide an atmospheric introduction to life in imperial China at the local level before it was disrupted by external modern forces. This edition includes van Gulik's maps, his illustrations and an introduction by Donald F. Lach of the Department of History at the University of Chicago".