''Judge Dee at Work'' is a collection of ''

gong'an Gong'an County () is a county in southern Hubei province, People's Republic of China, bordering Hunan to the south. It is under the administration of Jingzhou City. History During the Han dynasty and the Three Kingdoms The Three King ...

detective A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads th ...

short stories written by

Robert van Gulik Robert Hans van Gulik (, 9 August 1910 – 24 September 1967) was a Dutch orientalist, diplomat, musician (of the guqin), and writer, best known for the Judge Dee historical mysteries, the protagonist of which he borrowed from the 18th-century ...

and set in

Imperial China The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC), during the reign of king Wu Ding. Ancient historical texts such as the '' Book of Documents'' (early chapte ...

(roughly speaking the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...

). It is a fiction based on the real character of

Judge Dee Judge Dee, or Judge Di, is a semi-fictional character based on the historical figure Di Renjie, county magistrate and statesman of the Tang court. The character appeared in the 18th-century Chinese detective and ''gong'an'' crime novel '' Di Gong ...

(

Ti Jen-chieh Di Renjie (630 – November 11, 700), courtesy name Huaiying (懷英), formally Duke Wenhui of Liang (梁文惠公), was a Chinese politician of Tang and Wu Zhou dynasties, twice serving as chancellor during the reign of Wu Zetian. He was one of ...

or Di Renjie), a

county magistrate County magistrate ( or ) sometimes called local magistrate, in imperial China was the official in charge of the ''xian'', or county, the lowest level of central government. The magistrate was the official who had face-to-face relations with the ...

and

statesman A statesman or stateswoman typically is a politician who has had a long and respected political career at the national or international level. Statesman or Statesmen may also refer to: Newspapers United States * ''The Statesman'' (Oregon), a n ...

of the

Tang Tang or TANG most often refers to: * Tang dynasty * Tang (drink mix) Tang or TANG may also refer to: Chinese states and dynasties * Jin (Chinese state) (11th century – 376 BC), a state during the Spring and Autumn period, called Tang (唐) b ...

court, who lived roughly 630–700. The book features eight illustrations by the author. The book also has a postscript where the author places all the novels and stories into a coherent timeline for his semi-fictional character.

Overview

Judge Dee, a magistrate in Imperial China is a crime solver, a detective. In these stories Judge Dee solves a series of un-related crimes from different times in his career. There is no over-all narrative to these stories.

List of stories

* "Five Auspicious Clouds" - set in the year 663 when Judge Dee was a magistrate of Peng-lai. * "The Red Tape Murder" - set in the year 663 when Judge Dee was a magistrate of Peng-lai. * "He Came With the Rain" - set in the year 663 was a magistrate of Peng-lai. * "The Murder on the Lotus Pond" - set in the year 666 when Judge Dee was a magistrate of Han-yuan. * "The Two Beggars" - set in the year 668 when Judge Dee was a magistrate of Poo-yang. * "The Wrong Sword" - set in the year 668 when Judge Dee was a magistrate of Poo-yang. * "The Coffins of the Emperor" - set in the year 670 when Judge Dee was a magistrate of Lan-fang. * "Murder on New Year's Eve" - set in the year 670 when Judge Dee was a magistrate of Lan-fang. 1967 short story collections Judge Dee Gong'an novels Heinemann (publisher) books {{1960s-mystery-novel-stub