Angry Teti

It has been a while since I posted-but that is the nature of blogs. Among other things I detoured into a different genre and read The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson at the suggestion of my husband. It turned out not to be entirely off-genre, since it contains a character based on Judge Dee as well as some plot elements which could legitimately be linked to the mystery genre, but perhaps I’ll discuss that more later. Diamond Age was kind of an epic read for me, as it was about 3x as long as a typical mystery, and my 4.5 month old is still not sleeping through the night, so that my brain is not quite ready to deal with postmodernism at the moment.

Anyway, Judge Dee. I was so delighted when I discovered him. I’d heard of him before, but somehow never read any of the books until that fateful day my husband and his mom brought me home a stack of mysteries to read during the late-night feedings. The Chinese Bell Murders was among them. There are so many things to like about Judge Dee: the brilliant but unassuming character of the man himself (he acquired his third wife at her own insistence, and was pleased because this ensured there would always be four to play dominoes, his favorite game); the humorous antics of his assistants, two former highwaymen and one elderly parsimonious former con man; the window into not one but two, or really, three historical periods, the Ming Dynasty during which the original Judge Dee stories were compiled, the Tang Dynasty during which they were set, and mid-century Europe from which milieu the stories in their current form were written by the Dutch Sinophile Robert van Gulik. And finally, the education in Confucian values and competing religious/philosophical systems in ancient China.

Some buzzkill on some site wrote a review of the Judge Dee mysteries arguing that the sense of justice and even-handedness of Judge Dee was an anachronism, importing modern Western concepts into ancient China, where in reality the wotld ran on graft and favoritism. I’m sure the dude had a point, but-and I’m still under the influence of Diamond Age here-Ancient China would certainly not be the first society to preach one set of values and practice another. The earliest law codes in existence preach incessantly about the importance of justice for all and care for the helpless; whether such values were ever actually practiced is an open question.

When you read the Judge Dee mysteries, keep in mind that they are being adapted/written by a 20th century European. Also keep in mind that they are being read by a 21st century American, or whoever you happen to be. But you will still get a glimpse of a political and ethical system with profound similarities and significant differences from our own, and will find a reason to believe that no matter how unfriendly the environment, there are always a few people who will stand for justice-which of course is necessary for a mystery to exist.