| 1 | %% Image replaced per Image Pickin' Thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1405771525044162600 |
| 2 | %% Please do not remove or replace without starting a new thread. |
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| 4 | [[quoteright:297:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tqkr4ac_2798.jpg]] |
| 5 | [[caption-width-right:297: Judge Dee at work.]] |
| 6 | %% |
| 7 | ->''A judge must be as father and mother to the people,\ |
| 8 | Cherishing the good and loyal, helping the sick and old.\ |
| 9 | Though meting out stern punishment to every criminal,\ |
| 10 | Prevention, not correction, should be his primary aim.\ |
| 11 | A judge must brave the foaming billows of hate, deceit and doubt,\ |
| 12 | The only bridge across is straight and narrow as a rapier's edge.\ |
| 13 | He may not lose his foothold once, once pause to listen to his heart,\ |
| 14 | Heed Justice only, lodestar unfailing, though always remote and cold.'' |
| 15 | |
| 16 | ''Judge Dee'' is a series of PoliceProcedural novels and short stories set in ImperialChina and written by the Dutch diplomat and sinologist Robert van Gulik. The series was InspiredBy the 18th century Chinese novel 狄公案 (''Dí Gōng'àn'') or ''Cases of Judge Dee'', which van Gulik had translated during his war service, and had published in 1949 as ''Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee''. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | It is the 7th century AD, and UsefulNotes/TangDynasty China is the greatest power in Asia, if not the world. Peace and good order are maintained throughout the empire by a large, efficient bureaucracy of highly-educated gentleman-scholars. Dee Jen-Djieh begins his career as a District Magistrate, the lowest rung of the provincial government. Over the years, he confronts and solves mysteries ranging from conspiracies against the throne to domestic disputes, with the help of his small staff of assistants: |
| 19 | * ''Hoong Liang'' -- An old family retainer who the Judge appoints his sergeant of the tribunal. Most often referred to as "Sergeant Hoong." |
| 20 | * ''Ma Joong'' -- A former highwayman turned investigator. The uneducated son of a poor fisherman, in addition to his great size and strength he is a master martial artist, holding the "highest rank in boxing" (kung-fu, in modern terms). Admires strong-minded young women of common rank. |
| 21 | * ''Chiao Tai'' -- Ma Joong's best friend. Another ex-highwayman and fellow investigator, he is a rather mysterious fellow, obviously of gentle if not noble birth, with peculiarly [[FatalAttractor fatal luck]] in love. He is an ex-soldier who [[{{Wuxia}} turned outlaw to pursue revenge]] on a superior officer who [[BestServedCold betrayed]] him and his men. However, when he finally catches up with his man, as a recent murder victim, he decides he wasn't worth the killing anyway. |
| 22 | * ''Tao Gan'' -- con-man, swindler and gambler who, like his colleagues, turns over a new leaf as a member of Dee's staff. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | The Judge's private life is a peaceful haven from his stressful public duties, shared with his three wives: |
| 25 | * The ''First Lady'' is the daughter of Dee's father's best friend, and their marriage was arranged between the two families. The Judge values her for her sophistication, intelligence, and the tact with which she runs his household. |
| 26 | * The ''Second Lady'' is not as highborn or well-educated as the First, but she is a handsome woman, at least in her husband's eyes, and possesses the kind of staunch, sensible character he admires. |
| 27 | * The ''Third Lady'' is the highly-educated daughter of Dr. Tsao Ho-Hsien, an ambitious scholar, whom Dee met in the course of the investigation described in ''The Chinese Gold Murders''. She was abducted and raped, and subsequently her husband and father disowned her because [[DrivenToSuicide she refused to kill herself as dictated by custom]]. The Judge first hired her as a companion for his ladies, and later married her at the urging of the First Lady. |
| 28 | |
| 29 | The four of them get along famously and while away their evenings with endless, hard-fought games of dominos. Dee's wives are minor characters in Van Gulik's novels and short stories, but the "sequel" novels by Frédéric Lenormand (see the FanFiction section below) change this by having his wives appear far more often, to the point of the First Lady being a main character. |
| 30 | |
| 31 | The Judge himself is an unusually tall, powerfully built man with a long black beard, piercing eyes and considerable presence. Men, especially wrongdoers, find him intimidating, but women, sensing the sensitivity and empathy under the formidable surface, tend to trust and confide in him. Particularly attractive young women in trouble. |
| 32 | |
| 33 | [[ToBeLawfulOrGood Judge Dee believes in the spirit of justice, rather than the letter of the law.]] His aim is not just to punish the wrongdoer but to reward those who do right, and ameliorate the sufferings of the victims as far as is possible. He often goes out of his way to help somebody only tangentially connected with his cases. |
| 34 | |
| 35 | '''Titles (in recommended reading order):''' |
| 36 | * ''The Chinese Gold Murders'' (1959): Judge Dee sets out to take up his first post, and finds a couple of juicy murders and a missing person case waiting for him. |
| 37 | * ''Judge Dee at Work'' (1967): a collection of short stories including a chronology of the series. Features unrelated cases from various points of Dee's career. |
| 38 | * ''The Lacquer Screen'' (1964): The Judge tries to take a few days' vacation incognito, and finds himself solving a couple of cases of murder and embezzlement. |
| 39 | * ''The Chinese Lake Murders'' (1960): The mysterious death of a courtesan leads Judge Dee to a conspiracy against the Imperial throne. |
| 40 | * ''The Haunted Monastery'' (1961): Bad weather forces Dee and his wives to take shelter at an ominous Taoist monastery and the Judge spends a sleepless night dealing with murder, the occult and thwarted young love. [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071703/?ref_=ttpl_pl_tt This novel was adapted for television in 1974]] |
| 41 | * ''The Chinese Bell Murders'' (1958): The Judge brings an end to a [[FeudingFamilies generations-long vendetta between two wealthy merchant families]], solves a rape-murder and ends the corrupt practices of a famous Buddhist temple. |
| 42 | * ''Necklace and Calabash'' (1967): In Rivertown, an Imperial Enclave, the Judge is of service to the Emperor's favorite daughter, the beautiful Third Princess. |
| 43 | * ''The Red Pavilion'' (1964): On his way home from the Capital, the Judge reluctantly spends a night at the pleasure resort of Paradise Island and finds himself drafted into a temporary appointment requiring him to solve three murders, one having taken place thirty years before! |
| 44 | * ''The Emperor's Pearl'' (1963): Two murders, and the River Goddess, lead the Judge to a long lost Imperial treasure. |
| 45 | * ''Poets and Murder'' (1968): A poetic gathering in a fellow magistrate's mansion leads to murder and the whiff of scandal in high places. |
| 46 | * ''The Chinese Maze Murders'' (1957): An overgrown maze at an abandoned country manor provides the key to several mysterious murders. |
| 47 | * ''The Phantom of the Temple'' (1966): A long abandoned Buddhist temple is the site of all sorts of strange goings on, all somehow connected with a gold robbery years before. |
| 48 | * ''The Chinese Nail Murders'' (1961): A particularly cunning murderess almost foils the Judge and he comes close to ending his career in disgrace. |
| 49 | * ''The Monkey and the Tiger'' (1965): Two separate cases at far different times in the Judge's career. The first involving a murdered tramp who isn't just a tramp. The second the murder of a young girl - but which girl? - at a lonely manor under siege by bandits. |
| 50 | * ''The Willow Pattern'' (1965): Judge Dee, now Lord Chief Justice of the Empire, deals with the mysterious deaths of two great nobles in a Capital racked by plague. |
| 51 | * ''Murder in Canton'' (1966): Judge Dee's last case takes him to the city of Canton to discover what became of a high Imperial official who vanished there without a trace. |
| 52 | |
| 53 | There was a TV adaptation of ''The Haunted Monastery'' in 1974, as well as [[Film/DetectiveDee three movies]][[note]]featuring the HistoricalDomainCharacter but not based on the novels[[/note]] in 2010, 2013, and 2018. Netflix began releasing a new mystery series inspired by the character, titled "Judge Dee's Mystery", in 2024. |
| 54 | |
| 55 | ---- |
| 56 | !!These stories provide examples of: |
| 57 | |
| 58 | * ActionGirl: Despite the fact that this is ImperialChina, where Confucian ideals confine women to the home, the Judge and his lieutenants encounter Violet Liang, a Mongolian wrestler with her own dojo in ''The Emperor's Pearl'' and Bluewhite, a skilled street-fighter in ''The Willow Pattern''. [[spoiler:Ma Joong marries the latter.]] |
| 59 | * AdaptationalAngstUpgrade: The original ''Dee Goong An'' story that the titular ''Chinese Nail Murders'' is based on is resolved when [[spoiler:the Judge fakes an afterlife trial with his assistants, leading to the murderess' confession]]. In the latter story, [[spoiler:not only is the judge given the solution by a woman who used that very method to get rid of her abusive husband, she does it knowing he'll have to arrest and try her and commits suicide to spare him that fate.]] And [[spoiler:Sergeant Hoong is murdered]], although in connection to a different case, and the judge ends up sort of KickedUpstairs by the end, putting an end to the everyday comradeship he had with his lieutenants. Small wonder that the judge looks to have aged about a decade by the end of the story. |
| 60 | * AffablyEvil: The BigBad [[spoiler:Sun Ming]] of ''The Haunted Monastery'', privately confesses his crimes (abduction, multiple rape and murder) to Dee, while pointing out, in the nicest possible way, that his eminence, prestige and connections at the imperial court put him beyond the reach of the law, while expressing belief that he is AboveGoodAndEvil. Judge Dee, however, proves he is [[JudgeJuryAndExecutioner not beyond the reach of justice]]. |
| 61 | * AfterlifeOfService: |
| 62 | ** ''Necklace and Calabash'': After acknowledging his plot's failure, [[spoiler:the grand eunuch]] takes poison and gives the judge a list of all the conspirators, saying they'll be his slaves in the afterlife once they're executed. |
| 63 | ** ''The Chinese Maze Murders'': A murdered general's son and the general's concubine commit suicide and are praised for showing such filial devotion to their father/husband. [[spoiler:The son and concubine were lovers, with the son plotting his father's death. He failed (the general was killed by an unrelated revenge plot), but the judge makes it very clear to him that a rotten branch must be cut off to preserve a family tree, resulting in their deaths.]] |
| 64 | * AloneWithThePsycho: The Judge's tendency to play a lone hand lands him in this situation more than once. In ''The Chinese Maze Murders'', a young girl detailed to question a witness finds herself in this position, but fortunately the Judge deduces her situation in time. |
| 65 | * AmazonChaser: |
| 66 | ** Bluewhite's toughness and fighting ability are a large part of why Ma Joong finds her so attractive. |
| 67 | ** Cheng Pa, the head of the Beggar's Guild, is infatuated with Miss Violet, a Mongolian wrestler. It's apparently mutual, but because of a Catch22Dilemma, it doesn't go anywhere (he won't go to a matchmaker until he knows for certain she'll say yes; she'll say nothing without an official proposal from a matchmaker). |
| 68 | * AnachronismStew: Although they are nominally set in the Tang era, the stories describe the China of the much later Ming dynasty (including the illustrations). This is partly to respect the convention of original Ming-era detective novels transposing Tang characters into the cultural world of the Ming, and partly because far more is known about everyday life in the later period. |
| 69 | * AngerBornOfWorry: When Tao Gan explodes in fury upon hearing that a blind girl connected with their case in ''Murder in Canton'' is missing, Chiao Tai knows that his 'brother' has finally met a woman he cares about. |
| 70 | * ArtisticLicenseHistory: Leaving aside the transplantation across time and the fictional nature of the cases, the biggest error the series commits is its depiction of Chinese polygyny.[[note]]Polygyny where wives are of equal status had always been illegal in China, and had been considered a crime in some dynasties. In family laws from the Tang to Qing dynasties, the status of a wife, concubines and maid-mistresses couldn't be altered.[[/note]] |
| 71 | * ArrangedMarriage: A normal feature of life in Dee's world. His own marriage to his senior wife was arranged by his father. |
| 72 | * AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: The Taoist abbot in ''Haunted Monastery'' is believed to have done this, calling all the monks to his chamber, delivering a long speech filled with obscure references, then liberating his soul from his body. His annotated speech is later used as an instructional text in other Taoist monasteries. [[spoiler:He had in fact been poisoned, and the speech was a delirious rambling.]] |
| 73 | * AsianFoxSpirit: |
| 74 | ** In ''Poets and Murder'' from the original series, a girl lives in the Shrine of the Black Fox, which is infested by foxes, and is believed to be possessed by a fox spirit. [[DownerEnding Unfortunately, she catches rabies from her foxes, goes mad, and dies horribly.]] |
| 75 | ** The sequels [[DiscussedTrope mention]] a ''húli jīng'': a priest explains that he was always sort of shunned because his father had been tricked into marrying a fox-woman, who turned back into a fox some time after he (the priest) was born. The judge (and everyone else) stare at him in silence for a while, because it's blindingly obvious that the wife ran off with another man, the father passing it off as the fox spirit going back to the wild. |
| 76 | * AsiansLoveTea: The titular character downs ''gallons'' of tea in the course of his cases. This being ImperialChina, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_tea_culture everybody else is equally addicted]] (except for his faithful Lieutenants Ma Joon and Chiao Tai who prefer 'the amber liquid', i.e. wine). A cup of tea is even offered to witnesses and criminals in court, to revive them after a round of beating or being overpowered by emotion. |
| 77 | * AsYouKnow: The characters are presumably familiar with incense clocks, the Imperial government, manners in the 'Flower and Willow' world etc., but they are kind enough to give, and listen to, explanations of things they already know, for the benefit of Western readers who do not. |
| 78 | %%* Authority Equals Asskicking: The judge is a swordsman, stick fighter, and pretty good at kung-fu. He can handle most villains without the assistance of his loyal lieutenants, but he is not the best fighter on his team. Chiao Tai is a superior swordsman and archer, and Ma Joong a better boxer and wrestler. |
| 79 | * BabiesEverAfter: Ma Joong marries Blue-White and her sister Coral at the end of ''The Willow Pattern'' and is reported to have a family of eight in ''Murder in Canton'' just four years later. |
| 80 | * BadassBoast: When trapped on a floating brothel, one of the {{Mooks}} tells another to get help from the other boat. Ma Jong's response? "[[BringIt Call all the bastards together!]]" |
| 81 | * BadassLongRobe: This being ImperialChina everyone, including the badasses, wear them. |
| 82 | * BadGuyBar: There is at least one of these in every city to which the Judge is assigned. |
| 83 | * BadHabits: Ruffians in the Judge's 'verse like to dress themselves up as Taoist or Buddhist monks. |
| 84 | * BandOfBrothels: The sex trade is legal and licensed in Táng China. It is the dominant trade on Paradise Island, the setting for the ''Red Pavilion''. Unusually, the guild head is portrayed sympathetically; normally, the Judge despises madams and pimps as much as he is sympathetic to the women themselves. |
| 85 | * BarBrawl: Subverted, bar fights are solely one-on-ones, with other patrons watching disinterestedly. |
| 86 | * BashBrothers: There are quite a few badass teams in the series: |
| 87 | ** At the top of the list are Ma Jong and Chiao Tai, of course, oath-brothers and comrades-in-arms from their days as outlaws. |
| 88 | ** Crab and Shrimp from ''The Red Pavillion'' are a classic big power fighter/small precision fighter team. |
| 89 | * BatmanGambit: In ''The Haunted Monastery'', the Judge asks the murderer about the other set of secret rooms. The man is quite surprised to learn about rooms even he didn't know about, and willingly follows Dee to [[spoiler:a small courtyard where a bear is waiting.]] |
| 90 | * BearsAreBadNews: ''The Haunted Monastery'' features a troupe of entertainers, one of whom has a pet bear. The bear apparently only likes his owners, as the judge [[spoiler:and the murderer]] find out. |
| 91 | * BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Shortly after their first meeting, Chiao Tai inspects the Judge's sword, the legendary ''Rain Dragon'', and exclaims in admiration, [[spoiler:"If it should be ordained that ever I should die by the sword, I pray that it may be this blade that is washed in my blood!"]] And in the last book ''Murder in Canton'', a villain steals ''Rain Dragon'', and [[spoiler:Chiao Tai is killed in preventing him from killing Judge Dee with it.]] |
| 92 | * BelligerentSexualTension: By ''The Red Pavilion'' Dee is experienced enough to realize that when a young woman declares passionately that she ''hates'' a particular man, she never wants to see him again and she's going to marry somebody else ''at once'' her actually feelings may be very much the contrary. |
| 93 | * BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:''Murder in Canton'': Chiao Tai's HeroicSacrifice, and Tao Gan's finding a wife.]] |
| 94 | * BlameTheParamour: "Night of the Tiger" has the consumptive daughter of a local landowner fall in love with the steward, who also sleeps with one of the serving girls. She ends up torturing the girl to death for having "seduced" her lover away, when it's clear the steward only slept with the daughter out of ambition and found the servant much more attractive. |
| 95 | * BlindIdiotTranslation: The French translation dutifully notes every time a character says something "[[DeadpanSnarker dryly]]." Unfortunately, in French the meaning is closer to "sharply," making the judge seem short-tempered instead of sarcastic. |
| 96 | * BlindfoldedTrip: In one story, the victim thinks he was taken somewhere in the mountains in a closed palanquin. Tao Gan, however, thinks it's a ruse -- he thinks it more likely that the carriers simply tilted the palanquin and walked around the inner courtyard of a large house, with the occasional "Watch the cliff!" for effect. |
| 97 | * BluffWorkedTooWell: On arriving at his new post in a border province, the judge discovers that Imperial authority has been usurped by a local crimelord. The judge fakes the arrival of an army regiment in order to scare the mooks away and arrest the crimelord, but this ends up working against him when the citizens really think he has a bunch of soldiers on call, whose existence must be strictly denied to the populace. |
| 98 | * BoisterousBruiser: Ma Joong is a spirited warrior. |
| 99 | * BondageIsBad: Particularly depraved characters are fond of whipping young women. |
| 100 | * BornUnlucky: Hwang San feels this to be the case. One can't help but feel he has a point when the executioner's sword gets ''stuck in his neck'' during his decapitation. |
| 101 | * BottleEpisode: ''The Haunted Monastery'', compared to the other novels, takes place over an extremely compressed period of time, with a very tight cast of characters, and concerns only a single series of crimes. Perhaps not coincidentally, it is highly-regarded as an excellent jumping-on point for the series. |
| 102 | * BoyMeetsGirl: happens ''all'' the time to Judge Dee's lieutenants, with comedic results if it's Ma Joong or tragic ones if it's Chiao Tai. |
| 103 | * BrawnHilda: Miss Violet of ''The Emperor's Pearl'' is as tall as the judge and possibly wider, which is saying something considering that Dee is not a small man. Downplayed as she's not described as ugly so much as startlingly large, and Cheng Pa is very attracted to her. |
| 104 | * BrotherSisterIncest: In ''Murder in Canton'', the BigBad [[VillainousIncest tried to force himself on his sister during his youth]], citing bygone rulers who did the same to keep bloodlines pure. When she refused, he [[spoiler:[[EyeScream poured boiling water in her eyes while she was asleep]], blinding her.]] |
| 105 | * BunnyEarsLawyer: Dee's colleague Lo appears to be overly fond of drinking and womanizing (a GoldDigger once almost manages to get her claws into him), but when Dee works with him on a case is pleasantly surprised by Lo's insight and experience. Also, late magistrate Wang in ''Chinese Gold Murders''. |
| 106 | * BuryYourGays: Fan and Tang in ''The Chinese Gold Murders''. |
| 107 | * BusmansHoliday: ''The Lacquer Screen'' and ''Necklace and Calabash'' as well. After that the Judge pretty much gives up on vacations. |
| 108 | * CardSharp: Tao Gan. He is also a ConMan and general {{T|heTrickster}}rickster. |
| 109 | * CassandraTruth: After bluffing a local gangster lord with an imaginary regiment of regular soldiers, the Judge reassures concerned civic leaders that there is no army unit, just the deserters and former highwaymen he's recruited. They don't believe him. What is more, he predicted that this is exactly what would happen. |
| 110 | * ChemicallyInducedInsanity: In ''The Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee'', a woman who murdered her husband to have an affair with a neighbor gave her daughter a drug that rendered her unable to speak comprehensibly to keep her from exposing her. During the trial Judge Dee cures the daughter so she can testify. |
| 111 | * TheChessmaster: Mostly averted as far as the Judge goes, but many of his opponents ''are'' chessmasters, usually defeated by their inability to foresee ''all'' possibilities. |
| 112 | ** In a handful of notable cases, ''The Chinese Bell Murders'' especially, the Judge does, in fact, play chessmaster, with a politico-legal [[ThePlan plan]] or two. |
| 113 | ** The BigBad of ''Murder in Canton'' is even called out on it, the judged telling him that human beings aren't chess pieces but have their own desires, which screwed up his plans. |
| 114 | * ChivalrousPervert: Even Ma Joong is a little bewildered by his own motives for buying out a prostitute, then handing her over to the man she prefers, along with twenty silver pieces to give them a start on married life. |
| 115 | * ColdBloodedTorture: In Judge Dee's world of Confucian justice, great importance is placed on obtaining confession of guilt from the accused. Even where Dee has a "water-tight case" (and remember he is investigator, prosecutor, judge and jury, all in one), he must obtain a confession in order to convict and pass sentence. Torture is applied as necessary to this end, and while Dee dislikes it, [[IDidWhatIHadToDo he does not hesitate to do his duty]]. |
| 116 | * ConfucianConfusion: Subverted. Being a Confucian magistrate in Tang Dynasty China, Judge Dee only quotes Confucius in the proper context and certainly never as a joke. |
| 117 | * ConnectTheDeaths: Judge Dee does this ''all'' the time. Most of his cases turn out to be linked. |
| 118 | * ConspicuousGloves: In one story, a character keeps his gloves on to hide the fact that [[spoiler:he badly injured it by touching a freshly-lacquered table after murdering a woman]]. |
| 119 | * ConsummationCounterfeit: Discussed when it's mentioned that Mongol women ''never'' have to do this because all the horseback-riding they do would tear their maidenhead. |
| 120 | * ConvenientlyPreciseTranslation: On at least two occasions Judge Dee is able to identify the BigBad by realizing that the last utterances of one of the mooks and TheDragon, respectively, were not after all common ''English'' words (how and you) but in fact their corresponding homonymic ''English'' transliterations of Chinese names (hao and yoo). Naturally, some ArtisticLicenseLinguistics and the MST3KMantra are needed to make this work, as Van Gulik himself acknowledges in his postscripts. Then again, the books have been successfully translated into several languages, and the real-life translators were able to handle these problems (occasionally by changing the characters' names); why should the TranslationConvention be any dumber? |
| 121 | * CriticalStaffingShortage: In one story, the judge is trapped by a flood in a country estate under siege by bandits. The inhabitants bitterly note that there used to be dozens of men hired just to guard it, now they'll be lucky if they have enough rusty lances and bows to equip all the old men and women that took refuge there. |
| 122 | * CrypticConversation: |
| 123 | ** A speciality of Taoist recluses like Master Gourd (''Necklace and Calabash'') and Master Crane Robe (''The Chinese Maze Murders''). |
| 124 | ** The Judge is pretty darn good at it himself; his conversations with the BigBad of ''The Chinese Bell Murders'' are a fine example of politely indirect threats. |
| 125 | * TheCynic: Tao Gan is, as the text puts it, "an adroit student of human nature" as a result of his [[ConMan former profession]]. Whenever discussing possible actions by suspects, Tao Gan always presents the most cynical possible interpretation of events. He's often wrong, but not always. |
| 126 | * DamselInDistress: Most cases involve at least one of these. |
| 127 | * DamselOutOfDistress: In ''The Chinese Lake Murders'' and ''The Willow Pattern'' the young ladies prove to be anything but helpless -- even if they ''are'' distressed. |
| 128 | * DefiledForever: Present in Judge Dee's world, but much more nuanced than you might expect. On the one hand, women are expected to remain virgins until marriage, and to commit suicide if raped, especially if they're married. On the other, Dee's own Third Lady is a rape survivor, and he fully accepts her as his wife. After leaving their "unfortunate profession," even "common prostitutes" are depicted as able to find happy marriages with "honest farmers," and high-class courtesans are seen as suitable wives even for gentleman-scholars. |
| 129 | * DeliberateValuesDissonance: The original Dutch writer [[ShownTheirWork went to great lengths]] accurately to depict Chinese social values and attitudes in the period: |
| 130 | ** The routine use of torture in the judicial system, and gruesome public executions of the guilty. |
| 131 | ** The distressing practice of selling young girls into prostitution is treated as a matter of routine, even by the girls themselves. To be fair, in most cases, it's shown that it was that or starvation for the whole family; however, one girl, sold by her gentleman-official father to pay his drinking debts, is clearly embittered. |
| 132 | ** The judge telling the father of a PluckyGirl to marry her off quickly, despite her being against it. |
| 133 | ** The central place of filial piety is repeatedly displayed, especially in the crime that gets the judge the angriest we see in the series: [[spoiler:General Ting's son was having an affair with one of his father's concubines, and tried to poison him. The judge outright tells him to [[LeaveBehindAPistol commit suicide]].]] |
| 134 | ** In ''Murder in Canton'', every Chinese character is casually racist against the Arabs living in Canton. |
| 135 | *** The judge is horrified to see the BigBad has placed [[spoiler:the naked body of his paramour]] among his ancestor's funerary tablets. |
| 136 | * DepravedBisexual: Fang Choong in "The Chinese Gold Murders". He seduces several girls and women, rapes others, and has a relationship with his superior Tang so the latter will shield him from the consequences of those and other misdeeds. |
| 137 | * DisabilityAlibi: One story has Mr. Wang claim he killed Mr. Twan and carried his body up a hill before chopping off his fingers with an apothecary's knife. The judge sees through this right away (both men being old and frail) as well as identifying the real culprit ([[spoiler:Wang's huge but mentally-retarded son]]). He gives Wang a chance by stating that [[spoiler:with his father in jail, the son will have no one to protect him, causing Wang to confess his son killed Mr. Twan as a result of a misunderstanding]] (the mutilation was an entirely separate event, essentially a {{Yubitsume}} gone wrong). The judge assures him that he'll see to it that [[spoiler:his son is well taken care of]], and take the circumstances for Wang's attempted perjury into account at the trial. |
| 138 | * DismemberingTheBody: The letter of the law called for the criminal in ''The Chinese Maze Murders'' to be cut to pieces while still alive, but due to a posthumous plea by his father (a noted court official) the criminal was allowed a quick death with the dismemberment coming afterwards. |
| 139 | * DownerEnding: ''The Chinese Nail Murders'', which sees [[spoiler:Sergeant Hoong dead]] in a way that could have been avoided given a few more hours' time, the Judge worked to the brink by a combination of dealing with a crafty criminal who maneuvers him into mortal peril and unfulfilled and unfulfillable love with a married woman who [[spoiler:commits suicide after essentially admitting to a murder of her own to save him]]. Then he gets appointed to Chief Justice of the Empire, and quickly starts to learn that his father was right, and it's LonelyAtTheTop. No surprise that he starts going grey and looking his age after this one. |
| 140 | * DubNameChange: Han Yun-Hang from ''The Chinese Lake Murders'' is renamed Han Sei-Yu in the French translation to keep an important plot point ([[spoiler:the murderer thought the dancer was on a FirstNameBasis with Han when she was actually saying "Your Honor"/"Seigneur Juge"]]). |
| 141 | * DragonsUpTheYinYang: The correct orientation of the ''taijitu'' symbol is a plot point in ''The Haunted Monastery'', as it [[spoiler:lets the judge figure out it's hiding a secret passage]]. |
| 142 | * DressingAsTheEnemy: |
| 143 | ** The Judge is only moderately convincing as a low-class criminal (he's much better in more distinguished roles like fortune-tellers and traveling doctors), but his big ex-outlaw bruisers Ma Joong and Chiao Tai can easily pass. |
| 144 | ** Tao Gan actually ''is'' a barely-reformed criminal and MasterOfDisguise. |
| 145 | * EliteManCourtesanRomance: It was entirely expected for a HighClassCallGirl to snag a rich husband this way in ImperialChina. |
| 146 | ** The judge once had to deal with the fallout of a high-ranking official committing suicide after being spurned by a courtesan, who was found dead soon after. [[spoiler:The man's suicide had nothing to do with the courtesan, she just assumed he'd killed himself out of despair [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity and used his death as publicity]]. In fact, he thought he'd caught leprosy like his father and killed himself before he became too disfigured, the father thought the girl was responsible as she claimed and killed her out of grief]]. |
| 147 | ** In another, he comes across a scam where a courtesan is to be bought off her madam by a high-ranking official despite already being freed. He recognizes the likely victim as his friend and colleague Magistrate Lo, and intervenes to prevent Lo adding the GoldDigger to his extensive harem. |
| 148 | ** One short story has him accompany a young prostitute to her home, then listen to her problems, learning her fiancé is about to be executed for the murder of a fellow officer's wife. When she tried to visit him in prison, she ended up flogged by the guards, badly scarring her chest (which is not good for her job, in addition to being a single mother). The judge saves the man's life, though he's not exactly leaping for joy, telling the judge he has nothing to look forward to ever since his fiancée quite sensibly never visited him in prison. The judge drops him off in front of his house, tells him his wife and son are inside, [[LeaveTheTwoLovebirdsAlone and leaves]]. |
| 149 | * EnlightenedSelfInterest: There's a scene in ''The Red Pavilion'' where Ma Joong is talking with two casino guards, one of them explaining that the place remains stable and prosperous thanks to the three major merchants (the casino owner, an antiques dealer, and a whorehouse owner) recognizing that it's better to make less money in the short term by working with the other two (if a player loses big, he can always sell off an antique [[ValuesDissonance or a concubine]], if he wins big, he'll want to exchange it for something easier to carry around or [[TrophyWife a more visible status symbol]]) than get rich quick via dishonest dealings. |
| 150 | * EunuchsAreEvil: A given in the Judge's world; "The necessary but horribly dangerous source of evil in every palace!" |
| 151 | ** And yet he clearly feels a certain respect for the Chief Eunuch in ''Necklace and Calabash''. It's mutual. |
| 152 | ** One biological "eunuch" is also driven mad by unfulfilled sexual lust [[spoiler:in ''The Chinese Nail Murders'', and he even murders Sergeant Hoong]]. |
| 153 | * EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: |
| 154 | ** Mo Mo-te in ''The Haunted Monastery'' presents himself as an itinerant Taoist friar, which means, of course, that he is actually a petty crook. [[spoiler:However, he is ''not'' the criminal behind the murders, and actually came to the monastery to hunt down the one responsible for murdering his sister]]. |
| 155 | ** Ma Joong is able to pass as a murdered criminal's cousin in town to avenge him without anyone questioning his motives. |
| 156 | * EverybodyWasKungFuFighting: As this is ImperialChina, not only the Judge and his lieutenants Ma Joong and Chiao Tai know kung-fu (or "Chinese boxing" as Van Gulik calls it), but so do a number of supporting characters, both friend and foe. |
| 157 | * EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The names of Dee's First and Second Ladies are never revealed. Only Third Lady, whom he met in the course of his work, is ever named, and even then we only learn her family name, not her personal name. Once married to the judge, all his wives are known simply as "[ordinal number] Lady." |
| 158 | * EveryoneHasStandards: The peasant providing the water buffalo for an execution by quartering refuses his compensation (a piece of silver) despite the fortune it represents, regarding it as unlucky. |
| 159 | * ExactWords: Dee is able to solve some problems by applying the letter of the law. |
| 160 | ** The only real crime he can accuse the BigBad of ''The Chinese Bell Murders'' is smuggling salt, which is a state monopoly but hardly an instant death sentence, giving him the time to bring his connections and influence to get acquitted. [[ConfessToALesserCrime So he gets the man to confess]] to having trapped the judge [[spoiler:and his lieutenants under a huge bronze bell (where they nearly suffocated)]] as a "prank" before letting other (corrupt) officials decide the man's punishment for smuggling, then reveals that an attack on an Imperial functionary is legally considered a crime against the state, meaning an instant death sentence and a first-priority treatment for the examination of his case by the higher courts, meaning all his friends in high places won't be able to help him. |
| 161 | ** At the end of ''The Willow Pattern'', the judge asks Coral if she was ever paid for her dancing for an old pervert, then reassures her by saying that there's no law against dancing for free and thus it didn't count as illegal prostitution. |
| 162 | * ExitPursuedByABear: [[BearsAreBadNews Literally]] in ''The Haunted Monastery''. The judge knows perfectly well the charges of murder will never stick, so he tricks the murderer into a room containing a bear, leaving it up to the gods if the bear puts him in the "friend" or "food" category. |
| 163 | * {{Expy}}: Dee is pretty much universally considered by the Chinese as their answer to ''Literature/SherlockHolmes''. |
| 164 | * EyepatchOfPower: The Imperial Marshal in ''Coffins of the Emperor'' lost an eye to an arrow in a previous battle. |
| 165 | * FaintInShock: A suspect infuriated by the accusations against him gets up to refute them... and collapses in a faint. His subordinates note that he suffers such crises on occasion. |
| 166 | * FakedGiftAcceptance: {{Justified|Trope}} in ''The Chinese Bell Murders''. The abbot of a Buddhist monastery suspected of scamming the women who come to pray for fertility presents the judge with several ingots of precious metal which he accepts, to Sergeant Hong's chagrin. At the end, the judge reveals the money was used solely to trap the villain by buying a pair of young prostitutes and having them spend a night in the temple to find out what was going on ([[spoiler:the monks rape the women who spend the night in the temple, counting on the social stigma of knowingly bearing a bastard to silence them]]). The reason he couldn't reassure the sergeant earlier was because of the increasing influence of Buddhism in Chinese society, who would have accused the judge of slander. |
| 167 | * AFamilyAffair: One case involved a young man having an affair with one of his father's young concubines, even planning to murder his father and frame a local artist [[spoiler:who claimed the father was a traitor to his country]]. Unfortunately, in Confucian China the issue of disrespecting one's father is so important that the son might as well have been screwing his biological mother, and the judge [[spoiler:indirectly orders him to commit suicide (the father was murdered, [[RewardedAsATraitorDeserves but for]] [[AssholeVictim entirely different reasons]] by someone else)]]. |
| 168 | * FamilialFoe: The BigBad of ''The Chinese Bell Murders'' has spent decades framing, killing, and otherwise persecuting three generations of a family that he briefly married into and feels envious of. Ironically, the person begging the local judges to make him pay for his crimes is [[spoiler:his wife and not his mother-in-law as everyone assumed]]. |
| 169 | * FanFiction: In a sense, all of van Gulik's Judge Dee stories are fan-fiction based on the original Chinese novel, but in turn they have inspired quite a lot: |
| 170 | ** French author Frédéric Lenormand wrote ''eighteen'' more Judge Dee books (2004-2011), but these have not yet been translated into English. |
| 171 | *** 25 as of 2021, but still no word on that translation. |
| 172 | ** The Chinese/American author Zhu Xiaodi wrote ''Tales of Judge Dee'' (2006), set in the same time period as ''The Chinese Bell Murders''. |
| 173 | * {{Fanservice}}: Robert van Gulik was a collector of Ming-era erotic art, wrote a book on sexuality throughout Chinese history and illustrated his own work with line-drawings that usually include a naked lady or two. This might have been [[ExecutiveMeddling at the insistence of his publisher]]. |
| 174 | ** FanDisservice: The illustrations of topless women typically show them in the process of being attacked by rapists or recounting their story to Judge Dee soon afterward. |
| 175 | * FatalAttractor: Chiao Tai can't fall in love with a woman without her getting killed. |
| 176 | * {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler:Chiao Tai's death by the judge's sword]] is repeatedly, but subtly, alluded to. |
| 177 | * GargleBlaster: If 'the amber liquid' isn't strong enough there's always 'rosedew', a white liquor (probably ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baijiu baijiu]]'') capable of reducing even Ma Joong to incoherence followed by unconsciousness. |
| 178 | ** There is mention of a Mongol wedding feast where he was invited; whatever it was he drank left him with the worst hangover of his life. |
| 179 | * GoAndSinNoMore: Candidate Wang in ''The Chinese Bell Murders'' is guilty of seducing an unmarried girl (yes, it's a crime [[ValuesDissonance despite her consent]]; the punishment for rape is ''much'' worse), an act that brings disgrace upon the girl's family, Wang himself, and the scholarly class as a whole. However, Judge Dee judges that Candidate Wang truly loved the girl, intended to propose and marry her once he'd pass his examinations and was heartbroken by her murder, and as such has been sufficiently punished by his grief (and the [[PoliceBrutality rough treatment]] he'd already received during his interrogation). Instead of inflicting further punishment, Judge Dee proposes a plan that restores everyone's honor and allows Wang to return to his studies. |
| 180 | * GoodIsNotSoft: Dee is deeply committed to his moral code, while leavening it with considerable compassion, but he does not hesitate to act ruthlessly in the pursuit of law and his duty to the state. At times, he goes ''beyond'' the law in the interests of justice, particularly with villains who would otherwise use corrupt connections at the imperial court to escape. |
| 181 | * GracefulLadiesLikePurple: Gentlewomen and courtesans alike seem to favor shades of purple or violet for 'best'. And then there's Miss Violet Liang, a Mongolian wrestler who singlehandedly curbstomps three ruffians trying to kidnap a girl. |
| 182 | * GunStruggle: Knife variant. A suspect claims to have stabbed the victim in a struggle. The judge finds the angle of the wound questionable and asks Ma Joong for his expert opinion. Ma Joong agrees the angle is odd but "strange things happen" in a fight and in his judgement the claim of self-defense is possible. [[spoiler:The victim was already dead when he was stabbed.]] |
| 183 | * HappilyMarried: A possibly unique polygamous example. The harmony of the Judge's marriage is based on his genuine love and respect for each woman and their equally genuine liking for each other (the Third Lady only came in because the First convinced the Judge to marry her to spare her from being DefiledForever). Given the Judge's tendency to get wrapped up in a case the First Lady would probably lead a very lonely life if not for the Second and Third Ladies. |
| 184 | * HeadgearOfAuthority: Hats denoted status in ImperialChina, so there are many, especially Judge Dee's winged cap of office. |
| 185 | * HereditaryCurse: Tang in ''The Chinese Gold Murders'' mentions his grandfather having the same [[spoiler:weretiger]] curse as himself. |
| 186 | * HeroicAmbidexterity: Judge Dee is mentioned to be ambidextrous, as are all high-level swordsmen. |
| 187 | * HeroOfAnotherStory: Several other stories feature secondary or minor characters who have been working heroically against the villains outside of Dee’s investigation. One minor but notable example is a pair of monks in ''The Chinese Bell Murder'', who have been taken prisoner by false monks who took over their abbey. One of the monks pretended to go along with the criminals but has been spying on them to gather evidence and help the authorities tell which ones are corrupt and which ones are {{Unwitting Pawn}}s. |
| 188 | * HiredHelpAsFamily: Sergeant Hoong was the Dee family's steward and took good care of their son Jen-Tchieh, even following him as his manservant for more than thirty years (being named tribunal sergeant in the various cities his master was sent to) and eventually [[spoiler:dying in the judge's service]]. He's mentioned to have had a son, but it's not mentioned if Hoong's family travels along with him. |
| 189 | * HistoricalDomainCharacter: The judge himself was a Tang dynasty official noted for his morals, although most of his crime-solving feats appear to have been ascribed to him later on. |
| 190 | * HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Pretty much every prostitute except the high-class courtesans, who will gleefully make it known young men killed themselves after being spurned as it does wonders for their reputation. Brothel owners, on the other hand, are vicious harpies only too glad to ignore an abducted woman's story if it gets them another "employee." |
| 191 | * HordesFromTheEast: Well, from the West. Several stories set on the north/western border involve the local Tartar tribes uprising (or threatening to). |
| 192 | * IncestStandardsAreRelative: In "The Chinese Maze Murders", [[spoiler:General Ting's son]] turns out to be having an affair with a married woman his age. Unfortunately, said woman is [[spoiler:his father's concubine]], which is considered as bad as incest even without the (attempted) MurderTheHypotenuse (Ancient China did not like [[spoiler:patricides]], even against an AssholeVictim). The judge orders the man to commit suicide to prevent the family's corruption spreading any further. |
| 193 | * InspiredBy: Although the novels read like authentic Chinese detective novels, they mainly follow the Western mystery canons with Chinese flair. Van Gulik outlined the difference between these literary traditions in detail in the preface to his translation of ''Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee'' (which itself was rather unusual for Chinese mystery stories): |
| 194 | ** Ancient Chinese detective novels would often reveal the culprit at the beginning (as in Series/{{Columbo}}), with the interest lying in following the development of the motive. Here the criminals are shown but not named. |
| 195 | ** Cases are almost always solved via the intervention of a DeusExMachina in the form of a deity, spirit, or ghost that either reveals a key clue or compels a suspect to confess. Or at least [[ScoobyDooHoax a simulation thereof]] proffered by the Judge. Van Gulik often replaced this element with a more earthly one in adapting some classic Chinese detective plots. |
| 196 | ** There would be practically no characterization other than describing people as they fit the contemporary stereotypes of their class and profession. |
| 197 | ** Midway through the novels (as well as many works in other Chinese literary genres) a poem or short play having nothing to do with the story is presented as an "intermission." |
| 198 | * ItNeverGetsAnyEasier: To the end of his career as a detective, Judge Dee is moved by the suffering of the victims, and hates witnessing the often brutal punishments of the guilty. |
| 199 | * JobMindsetInertia: In one story, the judge infiltrates a gang of criminals under pretense of being a former court guard who applied a little too much PoliceBrutality. When he discovers a freshly-committed crime, he forgets himself and starts giving out orders not to touch the crime scene, leading to the other crooks pointing out he no longer works for the law. |
| 200 | * JurisdictionFriction: The Judge must frequently deal with this when he's got a large military command in his district. |
| 201 | * JusticeByOtherLegalMeans: The Judge resorts to this in ''The Chinese Bell Murders'', arranging for the guilty party to ConfessToALesserCrime and then reveal that "lesser" crime is far worse than he thought. |
| 202 | * JustOneLittleMistake: On the part of the perp solves many of Judge Dee's cases for him. He's also very good at BluffingTheMurderer. Both are common to Chinese crime fiction, where a confession on the part of the witness is required before conviction of a crime, and torturing someone into a false confession can have dire consequences. |
| 203 | * KneelBeforeFrodo: Apricot, a common prostitute that Judge Dee has bought out of her "unfortunate profession," gives him crucial assistance in solving an extremely difficult case in ''The Chinese Bell Murders'' at significant personal cost. When the Judge greets her, ''he bows to her'', and the other high-ranking officials with him follow his lead. |
| 204 | * LampshadeHanging: Arguably a meta-example on the part of Van Gulik himself in the framing introductions to some of the books. These introductions are told from the point of view of a Ming dynasty gentleman - an AuthorAvatar for Van Gulik - who devotes his gentlemanly leisure time to studying the history of crime detection and jurisprudence. Invariably he has an encounter with a mysterious person or circumstance through which he learns of three cases solved by the famous Judge Dee "in antiquity" during the Tang era. The strangeness of the encounter compel him to record the cases and present them to the reader as the present work. This allows Van Gulik to lampshade the facts that a) the Ming-era novels upon which his series is based always transposed the historical characters (whether Judge Dee or some other famous magistrate) they described into the conventions and culture of the Ming era and b) that the situations into which he inserts Judge Dee are based on real or fictional cases from other sources but are largely embellished and invented. |
| 205 | * LargeAndInCharge: The Judge is somewhere around six feet tall. In the short story "The Coffins of the Emperor," he meets the Marshal of the Imperial Army, who is taller still and towers over his officers. |
| 206 | * LeaveBehindAPistol: Suicide is an acceptable, face-saving alternative to execution: |
| 207 | ** In "The Coffins of the Emperor" the confessed murderer is permitted to "die as an officer" by cutting his own throat. |
| 208 | ** The Judge allows a parricide and his partner in technically-incestuous adultery ([[spoiler:one of his father's concubines]]) a chance to save the family reputation from further damage ([[spoiler:the father having sold out many of his men early in his career]]) by committing suicide. |
| 209 | ** In exchange for a list of those engaged in a conspiracy against the throne, Dee also permits the BigBad to take "medicine" knowing perfectly well it is poison. |
| 210 | * LightningBruiser: |
| 211 | ** Ma Joong is not only one of the largest and strongest men in China, he's also a master martial artist, holding the second-highest rank (ninth degree) in "boxing" (kung-fu) and quick on his feet. |
| 212 | ** Violet Liang from ''The Emperor's Pearl'' single-handedly cripples three armed male thugs, and drags them to Dee's tribunal, where they can't wait to confess and be locked up safely in jail. She runs a school for martial arts and specializes in Mongolian wrestling. |
| 213 | * LockedIntoStrangeness: Dee himself after particularly trying events in ''The Chinese Nail Murders''. He ends up with graying hair and prematurely aged. |
| 214 | * LockedRoomMystery: The Judge is faced with one of these in ''The Chinese Maze Murders'' and ''The Willow Pattern''. |
| 215 | * LoopholeAbuse: In ''The Chinese Nail Murders'', a man confesses to the Judge that before he married his recently-deceased wife, she confessed to him that she had murdered her late husband, but he didn't care and neither reported this crime or spurned her. As this makes him an accessory to the late husband's murder, the man is expecting to be arrested, but the Judge tells him that A, he won't arrest someone for a crime if the only proof is hearsay and there's no solid evidence or testimony from the actual murderer, and B, since the man did not confess in court or before any witnesses, there's nobody to demand that the case be taken any further. |
| 216 | * TheLostLenore: It's clear that Pure Jade will be this to Candidate Wang in ''The Chinese Bell Murders''. |
| 217 | * LoveForgivesAllButLust: Started a massive chain of crime in ''The Chinese Bell Murders'': The ruthless businessman Lin Fan had murdered his business rivals, who happened to be his wife's brother and father, but she did nothing against him. But when Lin Fan raped his sister-in-law, his wife went into full WomanScorned mode (especially tragic as she finally gotten pregnant, and she had been a calming influence on him, and the judge believes Lin Fan's actions were just a passing whim rather than actual attraction), culminating in arranging for Lin Fan to [[spoiler:murder her son (the son he didn't know about with her).]] |
| 218 | * MagneticHero: The Judge, definitely. Ma Joong, Chiao Tai and Tao Gan all decide to go straight as his assistants after their first encounter with him. He also has had some difficulty getting shut of attractive young females he's recruited as temporary assistants. Three wives are quite enough thank you! |
| 219 | * MamasBabyPapasMaybe: [[spoiler:The beautiful Third Princess is actually the daughter of Master Gourd; the Emperor almost ''has'' to know she isn't his but she's his favorite daughter anyway. Although this affection is interpreted [[ParentalIncest rather differently]] by some in-universe.]] |
| 220 | * MamaBear: The Judge and his lieutenants rather easily subdue a band of rather incompetent bandits who've ambushed them on their way to the Judge's new assignment in ''The Chinese Maze Murders''. Going to check on his family the Judge finds his First Lady crouched by the window of their tilt-cart with a dagger in her hand and the other women and children hiding under quilts on the floor behind her. Luckily for the bandits none of them got that far. |
| 221 | * ManlyFacialHair: The Judge is very proud of his full black beard, which combined with his bristling brows and piercing eyes causes more than one guilty soul to confuse him with the Judge of the Underworld. |
| 222 | * MarryThemAll: |
| 223 | ** The Judge's First Lady urges him to take her lady companion, the rape victim from ''The Chinese Gold Murders'', as his Third wife. The Judge is not adverse to the idea but he fears he would be taking advantage of the girl's gratitude. Eventually he decides in her favor and she becomes his Third Lady. |
| 224 | ** Averted in ''The Chinese Bell Murders'': the Judge dismays his ladies by buying out two common prostitutes and installing them as concubines, but the girls prove good-natured and teachable and the wives warm to them. [[spoiler:It turns out the Judge bought them as part of a plan to trap the corrupt monks of the local Buddhist temple.]] When the girls indicate their desire to stay afterwards he firmly but kindly turns them down. Three wives are clearly enough. |
| 225 | * MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: The narratives remain creatively ambiguous about whether a rational explanation exists for every last strange phenomenon the Judge witnesses. See SkepticismFailure below. |
| 226 | * MistakenForCheating: In ''The Chinese Bell Murders'', the Judge brings two prostitutes into his own home and orders his wives to teach them the skills appropriate to their own rank, leading to the TopWife making acerbic comments that he could have given her a little notice before expanding their household. It later turns out he needed them to pass as the concubine of a rich man to root out [[spoiler:a fertility scam run by a depraved monk with spies inside the judge's household]]. When the girls do ask to marry him at the end, he lets them down as gently as he can. |
| 227 | * MotiveRant: The Judge hears a ''lot'' of these. Sometimes with disgust, other times with sympathy. |
| 228 | * MustLetThemGetAway: Judge Dee sometimes encounters criminals, as in ''The Haunted Monastery'' and ''The Chinese Bell Murders'', who are of such high rank, and so well connected at the imperial court, that Dee cannot touch them legally. However, [[IDidWhatIHadToDo he finds ways]] to prove that they are ''not'' beyond the reach of justice. |
| 229 | * NamedWeapons: The Judge's sword is the ancient and legendary ''jian'' "Rain Dragon." |
| 230 | * NeverMyFault: Hwang San from ''The Chinese Bell Murders'', who blames everything on his "bad luck." He loses a fight to Ma Joong because he makes a rookie mistake? Bad luck. His kung fu master had a beautiful daughter who had no interest in him? What bad luck! He really had no choice but to rape her, and then had to flee for his life. He mugs a wealthy-looking merchant, kills him, and finds nothing but "worthless receipts?" Bad luck. He rapes and murders a young maiden and steals her gold hair pins (the only thing of value she had), which turn out to be cursed (and which allow the crime to be traced to him)? Bad luck. |
| 231 | ** On the other hand, when he is executed it requires two blows to remove his head. Bad luck indeed. |
| 232 | * NiceToTheWaiter: The Judge often goes out of his way to do a kindness to poor people he comes across in his cases. |
| 233 | ** In ''Poets and Murder'' he arranges for the wife of a poor shopkeeper to get all the sewing from the Chinwa Residence which should give them a good income and improve their standard of living. [[spoiler:He would have given them custody of a poor girl living alone in an abandoned temple, but she died of rabies before this could be carried out]]. |
| 234 | ** In ''Murder in Canton'' the Judge arranges for a prostitute who gave him valuable information to be bought out of her unfortunate profession, gifted with a reward sufficient to reestablish herself in respectable society, and transport back to her native place. |
| 235 | * NobodyHereButUsStatues: The BigBad of ''The Haunted Monastery'' hides his victim by disguising her as one of the figures in a hall of horrors. |
| 236 | * NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The poetess accused of murder in ''Poets and Murder'' is essentially Yu Xuanji, the famous historical Tang Dynasty poet. |
| 237 | * NotMeThisTime: In ''The Chinese Maze Murders'', Judge Dee hears many horrid tales about [[SmallTownTyrant Chian]]: that he has been extorting merchants, kidnapping people for slave labor, burning down the homes of his enemies, filing false reports with the Imperial Court, and committing murders. After he arrests Chian, Dee learns that Chian is guilty of most of these offenses (and a few even worse acts of treason that don't initially come to light) but not murdering a previous magistrate or abducting a blacksmith’s daughter to be his concubine. |
| 238 | * ObfuscatingStupidity: |
| 239 | ** In ''The Chinese Gold Murders'', a drunken, BrilliantButLazy poet is a lot more than he seems. By the middle of the story, Dee and his lieutenants think that he's a DiabolicalMastermind and behind all the criminal events of the book. [[spoiler:He's not.]] |
| 240 | ** Dee's colleague Lo at first glance seems a carefree man who bought his position, and spends his time on wine, women and poetry. However, on the occasion he and Dee work together the latter is impressed by Lo's competence and intuition. |
| 241 | * OffendedByAnInferiorsSuccess: In "The Emperor's Coffins," the marshal presents the judge with a difficult case: one of his generals (Sang) accused another (Liou) of treason and colluding with the enemy. It turns out Sang was the traitor, disliking that Liou had been promoted to such a high rank at a much lower age than himself. |
| 242 | * OldRetainer: Hoong Liang, who was already old when Dee was a boy and has served him all his life. |
| 243 | * OneCaseAtATime: Played with, as in most full-length novels, Judge Dee tackles ''three'' concurrent cases at the same time. |
| 244 | * OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Judge Dee's behavior in setting up his scheme to take down [[spoiler:a gang-rape scam perpetuated by scoundrels posing as monks]] seemingly involves accepting a large bribe, buying two prostitutes and adding them to his household, and affecting sudden interest in military matters, not to mention brusquely shutting down anyone who questions him. From his First Lady to Sergeant Hoong, his household is very distressed, [[spoiler:though Tao Gan, at least, was certain it was all a clever plan from the beginning.]] |
| 245 | * OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: [[spoiler:Tang]] in ''The Chinese Gold Murders'' might be a weretiger. [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane Maybe.]] |
| 246 | ** Either that or he convinced himself he's one after reading his grandfather's diary who claimed to be one. |
| 247 | * OutWithABang: There is one case, where a bridegroom thinks he killed his bride when getting intimate on their wedding night, freaks out, goes into hiding, and is accused of murder. [[spoiler:Turns out that she had only fainted.]] |
| 248 | * ParentalIncest: |
| 249 | ** It's believed by the conspirators of ''Necklace and Calabash'' that the Emperor of all people is harboring unnatural feelings for the Third Princess, and could be blackmailed into obedience. [[spoiler:Especially since she ''isn't'' his daughter.]] |
| 250 | ** [[spoiler:Liu]] from ''The Chinese Lake Murders'' clearly has unnatural feelings for his daughter, to the point of [[PsychologicalProjection accusing her husband's father of abducting her for his own perverse ends]]. |
| 251 | * PassedOverPromotion: |
| 252 | ** The reason one of the generals in ''Coffins of the Emperor'' accuses one of his younger colleagues of treason. |
| 253 | ** Discussed in ''The Chinese Bell Murders'', where a group of high-ranking officials are trying to find an appropriate reward for Dee's work. They decide that a promotion would be premature, and that an official commendation would be better suited to the occasion. |
| 254 | * PlatonicProstitution: The Judge never accepts anything but information - and perhaps a cup of tea - from a prostitute, and he usually repays them by buying them out of their "unfortunate profession," or arranging for their regular lover to make honest women of them. Ma Joong, on the other hand, is more than happy to ignore the platonic side, and gets the information anyway. Chiao Tai too, though his tend to end in tragic romance instead. |
| 255 | * PleasePutSomeClothesOn: |
| 256 | ** Yu-soo, a young Korean prostitute in ''The Chinese Gold Murders'', is urged by a hot and bothered Chao Tai to not remain naked in his presence. Which she declines as she is in the mood to 'receive' him. |
| 257 | ** A similar event happens to the judge in ''Necklace and Calabash''. The girl later apologizes for her attempt at seduction. |
| 258 | * PluckyGirl: The Judge and his staff frequently encounter these. They usually serve as a love interest for Ma Joong. |
| 259 | * PoisonedChaliceSwitcheroo: At the climax of ''Murder in Canton'', the judge notices the murderer's cup has a slight crack in it, empties it into a box holding ''go'' stones, and switches cups before asking for a refill. [[spoiler:However, he tells the murderer he put the poisoned tea back in the cup before switching them, causing the murderer to think he was dying.]] |
| 260 | * PolarOppositeTwins: Twin sisters Blue-white and Coral in ''The Willow Pattern''. Blue-white is a tough, strong-minded, outspoken ActionGirl. Coral is quieter, more subtle, and excels at music and dancing rather than fighting. They play vital, but very different, roles in the book. |
| 261 | * PoliceBrutality: By our standards anyway, is the norm in Judge Dee's court where the accused ''and witnesses'' can be beaten and tortured to make them talk. The Judge uses such means (it is pretty much required by law), but with discretion. |
| 262 | * PoorCommunicationKills: |
| 263 | ** After the Judge frees a town from a crimelord, three monks enter the yamen asking him to find their precious statue which the crimelord has stolen or at least make him pay what the statue was worth. The Judge smells a rat, so he asks the monks if they spent a lot of time near the statue. When they say they spent hours in exalted prayer in front of it, the Judge has them sit far away from each other, gives them sheets of paper, and tells each man to draw the statue from memory. Naturally, every drawing is different, and the monks are given a good thrashing by the constables. |
| 264 | ** In ''The Chinese Lake Murders'', a young courtesan tells the Judge that she must speak to him in private about a conspiracy in the town, addressing him as 'Your Honor'. [[spoiler:The courtesan's lover, who was present in the same room, was reading her lips, but accidentally misread 'Your Honor' as 'Yung-han', the personal name of one of his rivals. Assuming that the courtesan was sleeping with his rival on the side, the lover became furious and later murdered the courtesan, though his assumption was entirely false.]] |
| 265 | * PracticallyDifferentGenerations: In ''The Chinese Maze Murders'', a dead governor left behind two sons from different marriages, one of whom is forty when the story begins, while the other is twelve. The older son accused his half-brother of being illegitimate, but this is a lie and they are in fact related. [[spoiler:The age gap between the sons is actually a plot point. The father realized that his older son had a criminal disposition and would likely be caught and executed or sent to prison one day, so he remarried a younger woman mainly to have another son to continue his line in case his dark predictions about his firstborn son came true. They do.]] |
| 266 | * PsychicPowers: |
| 267 | ** Various characters dabble in the occult, a practice of which the Judge strongly disapproves; however, there are indications that he himself is psychic. At least he is extraordinarily sensitive to atmosphere, often sensing evil even before he knows a crime has been committed. |
| 268 | ** He also explains a fortune-teller's SherlockScan as her having limited MindReading abilities, like most people in her profession. |
| 269 | * PsychoLesbian: The Judge is normally sympathetic to lovers, even unconventional ones, but not when their passions lead to murder. |
| 270 | * PublicExecution: The public execution of offenders is often described in detail, because this was an important feature of the original Chinese accounts that inspired van Gulik. One that stands out as particularly grim appears in ''The Chinese Bell Murders'', where the villain is quartered ''alive'' by having his limbs pulled apart by four water-buffalo. |
| 271 | * RealAfterAll: The ending of some stories imply that there was some supernatural influence at work (and in one case, the judge is about to investigate, but decides against it, citing that TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow). |
| 272 | * ReasonableAuthorityFigure: |
| 273 | ** Judge Dee as a general character trait. There are several times where he doesn't inflict the full punishment available to the law because he thinks the criminal can still redeem themselves in some way. |
| 274 | ** Some other Imperial officials (well, two retired officials and two guildmasters) get a chance to shine in ''The Chinese Bell Murders''. First, Judge Dee uncovers a [[spoiler:rape and blackmail scheme perpetrated by some fake Buddhist monks]], and asks those other officials to back him up in lying to the public so the women in question are protected from being DefiledForever. The officials gladly agree, with the stipulation that the higher authorities are told the true facts. |
| 275 | ** In the same book, a group of senior bureaucrats review the sentences Dee has given the various villains of the book, and comment favorably on his efforts against the CorruptChurch. They also approve of his JusticeByOtherLegalMeans strategy of defeating a man who previously bribed his way out of being executed for a series of murders and rapes and make it clear that they would be inclined to commute that man’s death sentence for his current (less serious) crime if not for his past misdeeds. |
| 276 | * RedOniBlueOni: Ma Jong and Chiao Tai are both [[TheBigGuy big men]], but Ma Jong is the more fight-happy one while Chiao Tai thinks more. |
| 277 | * ReformedCriminal: Ma Joong, Chiao Tai (ex-highwayman) and Tao Gan (an "ex"-ConMan), to varying degrees (Tao Gan doesn't seem to mind making a little extra cash during the course of his investigations). |
| 278 | * RevengeViaStorytelling: In ''The Willow Pattern'', Ma Joong is told to look through a crack in a wall by a puppeteer named Yuan and sees a naked and bound woman being whipped to death by a man. Furiously, he tries to go for help, but then Yuan shows him it was just done with paper cutouts. We later learn that this was based on Yuan's own life story (his wife was abducted, raped and whipped to death by a degenerate aristocrat) and this was the only form of revenge he had. The murder is avenged by the end, but the judge tells Yuan off for poisoning his and his daughters' lives by endlessly retelling the story. |
| 279 | * ScamReligion: A particularly nasty example in ''The Chinese Bell Murders''. A local Buddhist temple purports to invoke supernatural aid in curing infertility in exchange for donations. [[spoiler: It turns out the "monks" are actually criminals pretending to be monks, that they carefully vet the couples visiting the temple to identify cases where the problem probably lies with the man, and that when the women are sequestered inside inner cloisters to pray, the fake monks sneak in through secret passages and gang rape them, jeering about how they'll need to keep playing blackmail money or be DefiledForever.]] Fortunately, Judge Dee and his team dismantle it, and do so in a way that still helps protect the victims. |
| 280 | * ScoobyDooHoax: Ghost sightings in the novels are ''usually'' found to conclusively be this. |
| 281 | ** van Gulik notes in the Postscripts to many novels that Judges using this to trick criminals into confessing (making them think they are speaking to the Judge of the Underworld) is common in Chinese crime fiction, but that he prefers to have the Judge show off his deductive prowess. |
| 282 | ** The very first translated stories show the judge using this, although he does also use disguises and his intellect to solve the case. |
| 283 | * SelfImposedExile: In ''The Chinese Maze Murders'', the judge finds the reason for which a brilliant official voluntarily ended his own metropolitan career and buried himself in a town of the Tartar border, refusing even a request by the Emperor to resume his duties: Yoo Shou-chien discovered that where he had tried to practice exemplary virtue during his life, he had entirely failed to transmit any of those virtues to his eldest son. As said son later [[spoiler:commits several murders, including an official magistrate, and plots to create his own satellite kingdom, not to mention despoiling his father's second wife and son of any belongings,]] you kind of see his point. |
| 284 | * ShamefulSourceOfKnowledge: |
| 285 | ** PlayedForDrama in ''Chinese Nail Murders''. The judge is facing a crime that he cannot prove (examinations of the body show no poison and no wounds), so a young woman tells him offhandedly about wives married to abusive husbands, sitting in their rooms repairing their shoes with a hammer and tiny nails, and how easy it is to [[spoiler:[[TitleDrop drive the nail into the skull of a sleeping man]]]]... The judge has the body reexamined, finds the nail, and has the victim's wife arrested. The young woman who told him commits suicide to prevent the judge agonizing between his conscience and his duty (she admitted to murdering her husband in front of him, [[AssholeVictim but she had every reason to]]). |
| 286 | ** In one FanSequel (where the judge is looking for the head of a vast conspiracy to send troublemakers and criminals to an out-of-the-way town), a shopkeeper reports Tao Gan's shoplifting to the local judge. This turns out to be a mistake, since Dee deduces that if the shopkeeper caught Tao (a ''very good'' thief), he must be a professional himself. And if he can go and report it without caring that this automatically marks him as a criminal as well, then there is a very good chance the man he's looking for is in the town. [[MoleInCharge He's right.]] |
| 287 | * SherlockScan: One criminal tries this against the judge (as he's traveling incognito with Chiao Tai), explaining why the judge is not a peaceful merchant as he claims. He certainly gets a few points right, like the pair practicing stick-fighting (an activity favored by the lower class), but then he claims the judge's beard was grown to ape his local magistrate. Whoops. |
| 288 | * ShipperOnDeck: The Judge's Third Lady was encouraged to join the family by the Judge's TopWife. |
| 289 | * ShowSomeLeg: In ''The Chinese Lake Murders'', Moon Fairy, a young woman, distracts a rebel who was going to inspect the junk hold where Ma Joong and Chiao Tai were hiding by taking off her shirt and flashing her breasts at him. |
| 290 | * ShowWithinAShow: The theater play in ''The Chinese Gold Murders'' gives Dee a hint, along with letting him talk about how he first expected the job to go (him sitting on a chair and revealing the solution to the astonished crowd). |
| 291 | * SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: Mrs. Kuo, the doctor's wife in ''The Chinese Nail Murders'', is a remarried widow. Her first husband was a notorious {{Domestic Abuse}}r, before his sudden death. Her second husband, though a hunchback, is also a sweet, supremely loyal man who loves her dearly and has helped her become a literate and educated woman with a very progressive position as a female doctor. ([[DeliberateValuesDissonance Male doctors are only allowed to take a woman's pulse.]]) She and Judge Dee, who has been separated from his beloved family for some time, also form a kind of mutually unfulfilled romance. [[spoiler:After she ultimately kills herself to spare Dee the pain of having to arrest her for murdering the first husband, Doctor Kuo comes forward to confess, expecting to be executed so that he may loyally follow her in death. Deeply moved, Dee instead puts a recently-orphaned young girl into his care, so that he will have something to live for.]] |
| 292 | * SkepticismFailure: The Judge prides himself on not being an impious man, meaning he does not deny the existence of the supernatural, but ''always'' looks for a natural explanation first. Usually he finds one. Usually. |
| 293 | * SmartPeoplePlayChess: |
| 294 | ** One AffablyEvil criminal (who views the judge as a WorthyOpponent) asks the judge if he plays chess and is disappointed to learn that he prefers playing dominoes with his wives. |
| 295 | ** In the final story, the judge is familiar enough with it not just to realize his opponent has [[TheChessmaster the mind of a chess player]], but the ''kind'' of game chess: not ''{{TabletopGame/Weiqi}}'' (where all pieces have the same value) but ''TabletopGame/{{Xiangqi}}'' (closer to the Western version of chess with a queen). |
| 296 | ** The sergeant is mentioned as studying chess problems in his spare time. |
| 297 | * SocietyIsToBlame: While the Judge fully realizes that Tang China is no Utopia, he ''never'' accepts this as an excuse. |
| 298 | * TheSpymaster: Imperial Inquisitor Meng Kee. |
| 299 | * StoutStrength: A minor case with Judge Dee. He has a desk job and he eats very well (when he's not so busy that he just grabs a couple bowls of rice at his desk), so he does have a bit of excess fat on him, but when Ma Joong sees him getting ready for a fight, he decides that the boss would actually be a very unpleasant customer. A boxing master believes that where the judge's assistants would have difficulty adopting the strenuously ascetic lifestyle needed to become tenth-degree boxers, the judge presents the mental and physical fortitude to do so. |
| 300 | * TheSummation: The Judge is prone to these, usually at the insistence of his bewildered lieutenants. One BigBad even calls him out on it (before being OutGambitted by the judge), leading the judge to realize his days of criminal investigations are over (both because he's been KickedUpstairs and now has to deal with political issues, and because his methods are by now known to criminals everywhere). |
| 301 | * SweetOnPollyOliver: Miss Ting, a young actress, is disturbed by her strong attraction to fellow actress Miss Ou-Yang and asks the judge for advice. He tells her not to make any moves until she is quite sure of her own feelings and Miss Ou-Yang's intentions. He adds that as a free woman her love life is entirely her own business whatever she decides. And, as the trope name implies, Ou-Yang is actually a disguised man. |
| 302 | * SympatheticMurderer: The Judge occasionally encounters these, including one who means a great deal to him, but never lets them off. One killed herself to spare him from having to make that decision. |
| 303 | * TakingTheHeat: One murderer's father is ready to accept the responsibility of the crime so the son won't go to jail. Unfortunately, as the judge points out, because the son is [[spoiler:mentally retarded, he'll be taken away and declared irresponsible,]] and with the father's property sold off, he'll have no one to look after him. This leads the father to make a full confession, ensuring at least they won't be separated. |
| 304 | * TattooedCrook: One of the victims in ''The Phantom of the Temple''. According to the tattoo artist, ten coins extra would have gotten him the tiger's whiskers (and a different fate). |
| 305 | * TerminallyIllCriminal: In ''The Red Pavilion'', the murderer is a leper who killed the woman he mistakenly thought was the reason his son had killed himself. She claimed this was the case to boost her reputation, but the son thought he'd contracted leprosy like his father. |
| 306 | * ThoseTwoGuys: Ma Jong and Chiao Tai, though they get more screen-time than is usual, and one story even has them witness a crime and take immediate action while the judge is away. |
| 307 | * ThirdPersonPerson: Chinese etiquette ''requires'' this in court or other formal occasions: "This person begs to report a crime." {{Lower Class Lout}}s unaware of these distinctions usually get a bamboo stick to the face for their insolence. |
| 308 | * ThreeLinesSomeWaiting: Most novels concern a number of crimes that are all dealt with at once, in accordance with the Chinese traditions of crime fiction. Robert van Gulik comments in the postscript to ''The Chinese Bell Murders'' that he actually prefers this to "tighter" stories, as it corresponds closer to the toils of operating a court in real life. |
| 309 | * TokenEnemyMinority: As fits the Confucian POV of the original stories, Buddhists and Taoists are generally held in a certain amount of contempt by Dee, and a lot of stories will depict the local monastery as a CorruptChurch. However, there always seems to be at least one good monk who is disgusted by the corrupt behavior of his fellows, if not a broad base of genuinely devout monks unaware of the scoundrels in their midst. Itinerant priests, however, are generally crooks ''pretending'' to be actual friars ''at best''. |
| 310 | * TokenEvilTeammate: The tribunal's head constable is almost universally a greedy, lazy, easily-corruptible brute and the constables not much better before the judge's lieutenants whip them into shape. The French translation goes further by calling them "sbires," which has the same negative connotations as "henchmen" or even "{{mooks}}." |
| 311 | * TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Blue-white and Coral from ''The Willow Pattern'' are a tough, outspoken fighter and a shy, discreet dancer and musician, respectively. [[spoiler:Ma Joong ends up marrying both]]. |
| 312 | * TopWife: The titular character has three wives, the first of whom (aptly named "the First Lady" by the books) is the daughter of his father's BestFriend and generally runs the Judge's household though she delegates certain duties to Second and Third Ladies. The other two view her as their 'Elder Sister' and superior, even though Dee himself does his best not to play favorites. |
| 313 | * TourismDerailingEvent: In ''The Chinese Bell Murders'', the local Buddhist monastery holds a statue of Guan-Yin that women pray to in order to conceive a child, then spending the night at the temple in individual pavilions that are locked in the husband's presence. [[spoiler:In fact, the pavilions have a secret mechanism that allows the monks to enter undetected and rape the women, counting on the social stigma to keep them quiet and a sizable donation from the father if a child is born]]. The Judge brings an end to that lucrative arrangement, resulting in the Buddhist faction losing power at court due to the scandal, and the temple is mostly razed, with the surviving community forbidden from growing past four people. |
| 314 | * TurnInYourBadge: |
| 315 | ** In ''The Chinese Lake Murders'', the judge uncovers a conspiracy to overthrow the Emperor in a town not far from the capital. The Imperial Inquisitor arrives in response to Dee's report, only to reprimand and suspend him for taking so long to uncover the plot (which higher-ups were already aware of). Dee is only reinstated because he deduces the hiding-place where the key to an encrypted list of all participants in the plot is concealed. |
| 316 | ** In ''The Chinese Nail Murders'', the judge's failure to extract a confession from the murderess leads him to publicly declare he'll resign and accept the punishment given to the murderess. Fortunately, [[spoiler:someone who already used the exact same method to get rid of her [[AssholeVictim abusive ex-husband]] tells him what to look for]]. |
| 317 | * UnfulfilledPurposeMisery: The retired General Bao is requisitioned by the judge to serve as a witness during a raid on a Buddhist temple. On seeing the zeal deployed by the general, including outfitting his household servants with pikes and having them guard the temple goods, it's clear the general thoroughly enjoys being back in action. |
| 318 | * VainSorceress: A villainous witch in ''The Chinese Nail Murders'' [[spoiler:murdered her husband]] for failing to provide her with enough [[LifeDrain life force to absorb through coupling]]. She is able to sense the refined "[[KiManipulation vital essence]]" of a martial arts master, who has [[ChasteHero abstained from sex for many years]], and uses her powers and hypnotism to seduce him against his will, draining it out of him to keep herself young, then [[spoiler:murdering him]] when he threatened to reveal what she had done by [[spoiler:poisoning his tea]]. Once the Judge ([[MarathonBoss finally]]) manages to wring the truth out of her and break her spirit, the stolen life force leaves her and she ages twenty years in an instant in the sight of the whole court, leaving only a listless EmptyShell. |
| 319 | * VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: The character Judge Dee is based on the real Di Renjie (c. 630?-c. 700), and most of the plots are from actual Chinese sources, either fiction or real cases recorded for the edification of judges and coroners of the era. The forewords and afterwords of each book are as fascinating as the books, since van Gulik was a noted and respected scholar of Chinese culture. He did the illustrations, too. |
| 320 | * VirtuousVegetarianism: [[ZigzaggedTrope Zigzagged]]. The Taoist monks in ''The Haunted Monastery'' are enlightened vegetarians. However, the particularly [[EvilVegetarian depraved villain]] is ''also'' a vegetarian -- he's even noted as enjoying the food. |
| 321 | * WakeUpCall: In ''The Chinese Maze Murders'', a BrilliantButLazy painter has been happily sitting on his laurels by creating lurid imagery for Taoist monasteries rather than the elegant landscapes the Confucian administrators prefer, and having an extraordinarily high alcohol tolerance gives him a very good reason to enjoy renting an apartment above a wineshop. But after [[spoiler:the girl he fell in love with]] is murdered, he decides to make something of himself in memory of her, including moving house... which the wineshop owner takes as a personal insult. |
| 322 | -->The painter had become a changed man. He had foresworn drinking, a decision which involved him in a bitter quarrel with his landlord, the owner of the Eternal Spring wineshop. The latter took this decision as a reflection on the quality of his stock. All winebibbers of that quarter sadly called this breach the end of a beautiful friendship. |
| 323 | * WatchingTheReflectionUndress: The judge's lieutenant Ma Joong is sent to interrogate a girl, who [[NoPeekingRequest tells him to turn around while she's changing]]. He complies, and she turns around, [[DressHitsFloor clothes dropping to the floor]]. She then tells him he can turn around now, but he replies that the mirror in front of him does the job just fine. A SexyDiscretionShot ensues. |
| 324 | * TheWickedStage: Mentioned in a story, where an actress tells the judge he probably thinks actresses are all prostitutes. |
| 325 | * WifeHusbandry: An unintentional case with Captain Ni, who raised the orphaned daughters of the woman he'd loved, but they fall in love with him. [[spoiler:The judge later confirms he's not their father.]] |
| 326 | * WizardBeard: |
| 327 | ** The judge goes undercover as a FortuneTeller where his beard grants him considerable credibility. However, it also makes him recognizable, as a testifying Cheng Pa is horrified to see a soothsayer has been named Imperial judge before the situation is explained to him. |
| 328 | ** Doctor Tsao in the first story is a philosopher with a three-pointed beard, which gives the judge some insecurities. [[spoiler:It was actually a fake and the doctor a criminal.]] |
| 329 | * TheWorfEffect: In a non-combat situation, surprisingly enough. Investigating a monastery where women are granted children by a goddess (staffed by male monks), the judge tells Tao Gan to look for hidden passages, which he does disguised as a carpenter. Once he's satisfied there aren't any, the judge discards that theory... and it turns out there is a passage after all. |
| 330 | * WoundedGazelleGambit: Tao Gan pulls one off when followed by a suspect much larger than he is. Passing by a rack of clay jars, he upsets the whole thing onto his pursuer. When the employees come rushing out, the man claims he was attacked. They take one look at the shrimpy Tao Gan and the brawny accuser and decide for themselves what happened. Tao Gan ends his recollection saying that he left as they were breaking a jar on the man's head. |
| 331 |
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