Robert van Gulik - The Chinese Maze Murders

AFTER the appearance of my translation of the old Chinese detective novel Dee Goong An I was asked to search for other Chinese novels of that kind. However, such books are now rather scarce and moreover it proved difficult to find one that appeals equally to modern Chinese and Western taste. As a matter of fact, Dee Goong An is an exception. As a rule style and contents of ancient Chinese crime and mystery stories differ so much from modern ones that they are of slight interest to the present-day Oriental reader, and even less to the Westerner.

On the other hand old Chinese crime stories contain many clever plots and much material relating to the detection of crime. I thought, therefore, that it would be an interesting experiment to write a Chinese-style detective story myself, utilizing plots found in Chinese stories from bygone times.

I engaged upon this experiment mainly in order to prove to present-day Chinese and Japanese authors that it is possible to write a detective-novel in traditional Chinese style that yet appeals to the modern Oriental reader. I thought this all the more worth while since at present the book-market in China and Japan is flooded with bad translations of third-rate foreign thrillers, while their own ancient crime novels are practically forgotten. When I had completed my English manuscript of The Chinese Maze Murders, it was translated into Japanese by Professor Ogaeri Yukio, and published in 1951 by the Kodan-sha in Tokyo, under the title Meiro-no-satsujin, with a preface by the well known Japanese mystery writer Edogawa Rampo. Then I myself prepared a Chinese version, which was published in 1953 by the Nanyang Press in Singapore, under the title Ti-jen-chieh-chi-an. Both editions were favourably received in the Chinese and Japanese press. Encouraged by this success I wrote two more Judge Dee novels, The Chinese Bell Murders and The Chinese Lake Murders, of which a Chinese and Japanese version is now in preparation.

Having thus attained my main object, it occurred to me that also Western readers might perhaps be interested in this new type of crime novel. Therefore I decided to publish my English text of The Chinese Maze Murders, an additional motive being that the Chinese element has been introduced so often by Western writers of detective stories that I thought that the reader might be interested in seeing how it looks in genuine Chinese garb.

For information on the background of the present novel and the Chinese sources utilized the reader is referred to my Postscript at the end of the book. Here it may suffice to say that I borrowed three plots from ancient Chinese sources, rewriting them as one continuous story centering round the famous ancient Chinese master-detective Judge Dee. I retained the typical features of old Chinese detective novels, such as the prologue which gives some idea of the main events of the story itself, the headings in two parallel lines, the peculiar Chinese device of letting the detective solve a number of cases simultaneously, etc., and in general tried to preserve as much as possible Chinese style and atmosphere.

The scene of my story is laid in Lan-fang, an imaginary border town of China during the seventh century A.D. The reader will find a Chinese map of that city on page xiv of the present publication. The plates were drawn by me in the style of book-illustrations of the Ming Dynasty.

All the credit of what may be found satisfactory in this novel must go to the ancient Chinese writers who evolved the plots. All its shortcomings must be blamed on the present author.

The Hague, spring 1956

ROBERT VAN GULIK

Dee Goong An, three murder cases solved by Judge Dee. An old Chinese detective novel translated from the original Chinese with an introduction and notes, by R. H. van Gulik, Litt.D.; one illustrated vol. publ. Tokyo 1949.