The Judge Dee Mysteries

I recently read the Judge Dee Mysteries again. I had last read them over 20 years ago but recently laid hands on some ebooks of these relatively rare books. They were interesting enough to hold my attention on a Galaxy Note phone screen ! The fact that I was traveling alone with nothing much else to do doesn't reduce the import of reading 9 of these books in a week - these books are seriously well written and unlike many other thrillers of the sixties and seventies, have not aged at all. Being set in 7th Century China in the Tang Dynasty makes it pretty old even when originally written - question of aging does not arise.

Most people in India are seriously under-informed about China and in such a lacuna I suppose even Robert Van Gulik's rather romancy version of ancient China is better than nothing. Having said that - I dont want to be dismissive of the writer at all - quite the contrary. He has spent a lot of time in China (and also some time in India although he never wrote about our country) and there is a lot of genuine observation of the Chinese character here. Unlike Sax Rohmer's rather sinister interpretation of the Chinese psyche, Gulik seems to be very openly admiring and impressed. Unfortunately, he seems to have made a conclusion about the Chinese character and then based on his conclusion, the character of Judge Dee is extolled with virtues which the European mind in Gulik would consider virtuous. Often this means that Judge Dee ends up not as a Chinese civil servant but instead, a 19th CenturyVictorian British Civil Servant, the kind who built the Indian Empire, since that is the standard which the author expects a "good" Chinese civil servant to have. 

Or perhaps it betrays my own bias? I am seeing Judge Dee as I imagine the Victorian Empire builders to be? And because I dont find in these books the more critical analysis of a Chinese mind which I myself am prone to - I am criticising the author for being biased? Difficult to separate bias and genuine analysis. Food for thought.

Still it must be said that the complexities of the Chinese mind are ignored in a more black and white European interpretation of Judge Dee. There is no element of ruthlessness, no hint of the tyranny of orthodoxy, no conflict of social class. The good are good and are supermen. The bad are bad and are evil. There is very little in between. 

Mah Joong's character is what gives away the European bent of the writer - he is an archetypal Archie Goodwin to Judge Dee as Nero Wolfe. The hard boiled American PI who drinks hard, wenches hard, fights hard and is a quintessential American detective whom you find in every detective TV serial. Tao Gan is another typical western character, the brainy/nerdy/jewish/bookish counterfoil. 

Perhaps that is why we enjoy the books so much - it is familiar territory and yet unfamiliar enough to make us read the plot through. The wealth of detail, a mish mash of Tang, Ming and Manchu eras but still rivetingly interesting, flowing smoothly in a typical "who dun it" - keeps us wanting more and more and more. The notes and guides littered liberally throughout point attention to these flourishes of past Chinese literature, bringing novelty to an otherwise typical murder mystery. 

Most of all these books generate an awe in the Indian mind about the glories of ancient China - and leave us asking for similar romances about our own past. Maybe I should take up the challenge and write a murder mystery set in Gupta Empire or Vijayanagara? Has anyone done so?

Anyway for those who havent read these books, the first story is not the first one written but makes sense to read first - is the Chinese Gold Murders. In it we meet the young Judge Dee and his servant Seargent Hoong, how he meets Mah Joong and Chiao Tai and in a later book he meets Tao Gan. Except for the first book, it doesnt really matter in which order the books are read. The books are well introduced and have abundant footnotes and after words - in a way each book carries its own detailed review.

Worth a read. Must read for mystery fans.

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