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Judge Dee

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Judge Dee is a series of Police Procedural novels and short stories set in Imperial China and written by the Dutch diplomat and sinologist Robert van Gulik. The series was Inspired by… the 18th century Chinese novel 狄公案 (Dí GÅ�ng'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.It is the 7th century AD, and Tang Dynasty 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: Hoong Liang — An old family retainer who the Judge appoints his sergeant of the tribunal. Most often referred to as "Sergeant Hoong." 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. 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 fatal luck in love. He is an ex-soldier who turned outlaw to pursue revenge on a superior officer who 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. Tao Gan — con-man, swindler and gambler who, like his colleagues, turns over a new leaf as a member of Dee's staff.The Judge's private life is a peaceful haven from his stressful public duties, shared with his three wives: 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. 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. 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 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.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 Fan Fiction section below) change this by having his wives appear far more often, to the point of the First Lady being a main character.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.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.Titles (in recommended reading order): 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. 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. 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. The Chinese Lake Murders (1960): The mysterious death of a courtesan leads Judge Dee to a conspiracy against the Imperial throne. 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. This novel was adapted for television in 1974 The Chinese Bell Murders (1958): The Judge brings an end to a generations-long vendetta between two wealthy merchant families, solves a rape-murder and ends the corrupt practices of a famous Buddhist temple. Necklace and Calabash (1967): In Rivertown, an Imperial Enclave, the Judge is of service to the Emperor's favorite daughter, the beautiful Third Princess. 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! The Emperor's Pearl (1963): Two murders, and the River Goddess, lead the Judge to a long lost Imperial treasure. Poets and Murder (1968): A poetic gathering in a fellow magistrate's mansion leads to murder and the whiff of scandal in high places. The Chinese Maze Murders (1957): An overgrown maze at an abandoned country manor provides the key to several mysterious murders. 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. The Chinese Nail Murders (1961): A particularly cunning murderess almost foils the Judge and he comes close to ending his career in disgrace. 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. 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. 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.There was a TV adaptation of The Haunted Monastery in 1974, as well as three moviesnote featuring the Historical Domain Character but not based on the novels in 2010, 2013, and 2018.
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The Wicked Stage
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The Wicked Stage: Mentioned in a story, where an actress tells the judge he probably thinks actresses are all prostitutes.
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Faked Gift Acceptance
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Faked Gift Acceptance: Justified 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 (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.
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Scam Religion
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Scam Religion: 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. 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 Defiled Forever. Fortunately, Judge Dee and his team dismantle it, and do so in a way that still helps protect the victims.
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No Celebrities Were Harmed
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No Celebrities Were Harmed: The poetess accused of murder in Poets and Murder is essentially Yu Xuanji, the famous historical Tang Dynasty poet.
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No Such Thing as Bad Publicity
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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. The man's suicide had nothing to do with the courtesan, she just assumed he'd killed himself out of despair 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.
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The Spymaster
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The Spymaster: Imperial Inquisitor Meng Kee.
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Must Let Them Get Away
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Must Let Them Get Away: 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, he finds ways to prove that they are not beyond the reach of justice.
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Boisterous Bruiser
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Boisterous Bruiser: Ma Joong is a spirited warrior.
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The Worf Effect
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The Worf Effect: 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.
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Dressing as the Enemy
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Dressing as the Enemy: 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. Tao Gan actually is a barely-reformed criminal and Master of Disguise.
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Single Woman Seeks Good Man
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Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Mrs. Kuo, the doctor's wife in The Chinese Nail Murders, is a remarried widow. Her first husband was a notorious Domestic Abuser, 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. (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. 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.
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The Cynic
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The Cynic: Tao Gan is, as the text puts it, "an adroit student of human nature" as a result of his 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.
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Poor Communication Kills
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Poor Communication Kills: 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. 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'. 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.
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Those Two Guys
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Those Two Guys: 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.
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Marry Them All
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Marry Them All: 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. 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. 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.
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Good Is Not Soft
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Good Is Not Soft: 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.
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Revenge via Storytelling
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Revenge via Storytelling: 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.
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It Never Gets Any Easier
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It Never Gets Any Easier: 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.
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Anachronism Stew
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Anachronism Stew: 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.
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Practically Different Generations
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Practically Different Generations: 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. 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.
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Hereditary Curse
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Hereditary Curse: Tang in The Chinese Gold Murders mentions his grandfather having the same weretiger curse as himself.
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Lampshade Hanging
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Lampshade Hanging: 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 Author Avatar 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.
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Bury Your Gays
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Bury Your Gays: Fan and Tang in The Chinese Gold Murders.
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Damsel out of Distress
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Damsel out of Distress: In The Chinese Lake Murders and The Willow Pattern the young ladies prove to be anything but helpless — even if they are distressed.
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Bondage Is Bad
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Bondage Is Bad: Particularly depraved characters are fond of whipping young women.
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Tomboy and Girly Girl
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Tomboy and Girly Girl: Blue-white and Coral from The Willow Pattern are a tough, outspoken fighter and a shy, discreet dancer and musician, respectively. Ma Joong ends up marrying both.
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Mistaken for Cheating
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Mistaken for Cheating: 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 Top Wife 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 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.
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Dragons Up the Yin Yang
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Dragons Up the Yin Yang: The correct orientation of the taijitu symbol is a plot point in The Haunted Monastery, as it lets the judge figure out it's hiding a secret passage.
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Depraved Bisexual
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Depraved Bisexual: 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.
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Watching the Reflection Undress
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Watching the Reflection Undress: The judge's lieutenant Ma Joong is sent to interrogate a girl, who tells him to turn around while she's changing. He complies, and she turns around, 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 Sexy Discretion Shot ensues.
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Chivalrous Pervert
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Chivalrous Pervert: 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.
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Shameful Source of Knowledge
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Shameful Source of Knowledge: Played for Drama 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 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, but she had every reason to). In one Fan Sequel (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. He's right.
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featureConfidence
1.0
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Judge Dee / int_3174384e
 Judge Dee / int_31da1e24
type
Shipper on Deck
 Judge Dee / int_31da1e24
comment
Shipper on Deck: The Judge's Third Lady was encouraged to join the family by the Judge's Top Wife.
 Judge Dee / int_31da1e24
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_31da1e24
featureConfidence
1.0
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Judge Dee / int_31da1e24
 Judge Dee / int_31f9cec9
type
Critical Staffing Shortage
 Judge Dee / int_31f9cec9
comment
Critical Staffing Shortage: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_31f9cec9
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_31f9cec9
featureConfidence
1.0
 Judge Dee
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Judge Dee / int_31f9cec9
 Judge Dee / int_33ba37ca
type
Out with a Bang
 Judge Dee / int_33ba37ca
comment
Out with a Bang: 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. Turns out that she had only fainted.
 Judge Dee / int_33ba37ca
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_33ba37ca
featureConfidence
1.0
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Judge Dee / int_33ba37ca
 Judge Dee / int_33d76f78
type
Heroic Ambidexterity
 Judge Dee / int_33d76f78
comment
Heroic Ambidexterity: Judge Dee is mentioned to be ambidextrous, as are all high-level swordsmen.
 Judge Dee / int_33d76f78
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_33d76f78
featureConfidence
1.0
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Judge Dee / int_33d76f78
 Judge Dee / int_355007c3
type
Brilliant, but Lazy
 Judge Dee / int_355007c3
comment
In The Chinese Gold Murders, a drunken, Brilliant, but Lazy poet is a lot more than he seems. By the middle of the story, Dee and his lieutenants think that he's a Diabolical Mastermind and behind all the criminal events of the book. He's not.
 Judge Dee / int_355007c3
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_355007c3
featureConfidence
1.0
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Judge Dee / int_355007c3
 Judge Dee / int_38d02d44
type
Batman Gambit
 Judge Dee / int_38d02d44
comment
Batman Gambit: 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 a small courtyard where a bear is waiting.
 Judge Dee / int_38d02d44
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_38d02d44
featureConfidence
1.0
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Judge Dee / int_38d02d44
 Judge Dee / int_39b7a7cd
type
Amazon Chaser
 Judge Dee / int_39b7a7cd
comment
Amazon Chaser: Bluewhite's toughness and fighting ability are a large part of why Ma Joong finds her so attractive. 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 Catch-22 Dilemma, 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).
 Judge Dee / int_39b7a7cd
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_39b7a7cd
featureConfidence
1.0
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Judge Dee / int_39b7a7cd
 Judge Dee / int_3ce9c9fa
type
Fortune Teller
 Judge Dee / int_3ce9c9fa
comment
The judge goes undercover as a Fortune Teller 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.
 Judge Dee / int_3ce9c9fa
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_3ce9c9fa
featureConfidence
1.0
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Judge Dee / int_3ce9c9fa
 Judge Dee / int_3e87fc1f
type
Psychological Projection
 Judge Dee / int_3e87fc1f
comment
Liu from The Chinese Lake Murders clearly has unnatural feelings for his daughter, to the point of accusing her husband's father of abducting her for his own perverse ends.
 Judge Dee / int_3e87fc1f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_3e87fc1f
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1.0
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Judge Dee / int_3e87fc1f
 Judge Dee / int_3ec18c6f
type
Sherlock Scan
 Judge Dee / int_3ec18c6f
comment
Sherlock Scan: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_3ec18c6f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_3ec18c6f
featureConfidence
1.0
 Judge Dee
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Judge Dee / int_3ec18c6f
 Judge Dee / int_3fca462c
type
Deus ex Machina
 Judge Dee / int_3fca462c
comment
Cases are almost always solved via the intervention of a Deus ex Machina in the form of a deity, spirit, or ghost that either reveals a key clue or compels a suspect to confess. Or at least 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.
 Judge Dee / int_3fca462c
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_3fca462c
featureConfidence
1.0
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Judge Dee / int_3fca462c
 Judge Dee / int_40cc0c7e
type
Bittersweet Ending
 Judge Dee / int_40cc0c7e
comment
Bittersweet Ending: Murder in Canton: Chiao Tai's Heroic Sacrifice, and Tao Gan's finding a wife.
 Judge Dee / int_40cc0c7e
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_40cc0c7e
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1.0
 Judge Dee
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Judge Dee / int_40cc0c7e
 Judge Dee / int_4160410d
type
Damsel in Distress
 Judge Dee / int_4160410d
comment
Damsel in Distress: Most cases involve at least one of these.
 Judge Dee / int_4160410d
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_4160410d
featureConfidence
1.0
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Judge Dee / int_4160410d
 Judge Dee / int_4215e705
type
Graceful Ladies Like Purple
 Judge Dee / int_4215e705
comment
Graceful Ladies Like Purple: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_4215e705
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_4215e705
featureConfidence
1.0
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Judge Dee / int_4215e705
 Judge Dee / int_424c9a9b
type
Cold-Blooded Torture
 Judge Dee / int_424c9a9b
comment
Cold-Blooded Torture: 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, he does not hesitate to do his duty.
 Judge Dee / int_424c9a9b
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_424c9a9b
featureConfidence
1.0
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Judge Dee / int_424c9a9b
 Judge Dee / int_43b6fb56
type
Vain Sorceress
 Judge Dee / int_43b6fb56
comment
Vain Sorceress: A villainous witch in The Chinese Nail Murders murdered her husband for failing to provide her with enough life force to absorb through coupling. She is able to sense the refined "vital essence" of a martial arts master, who has 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 murdering him when he threatened to reveal what she had done by poisoning his tea. Once the Judge (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 Empty Shell.
 Judge Dee / int_43b6fb56
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_43b6fb56
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1.0
 Judge Dee
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Judge Dee / int_43b6fb56
 Judge Dee / int_45332ff5
type
Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting
 Judge Dee / int_45332ff5
comment
Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting: As this is Imperial China, 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.
 Judge Dee / int_45332ff5
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_45332ff5
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1.0
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Judge Dee / int_45332ff5
 Judge Dee / int_45eae59e
type
Terminally-Ill Criminal
 Judge Dee / int_45eae59e
comment
Terminally-Ill Criminal: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_45eae59e
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_45eae59e
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1.0
 Judge Dee
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Judge Dee / int_45eae59e
 Judge Dee / int_477bc5c4
type
Go and Sin No More
 Judge Dee / int_477bc5c4
comment
Go and Sin No More: Candidate Wang in The Chinese Bell Murders is guilty of seducing an unmarried girl (yes, it's a crime 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 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.
 Judge Dee / int_477bc5c4
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_477bc5c4
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1.0
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Judge Dee / int_477bc5c4
 Judge Dee / int_49a2599d
type
Platonic Prostitution
 Judge Dee / int_49a2599d
comment
Platonic Prostitution: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_49a2599d
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_49a2599d
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1.0
 Judge Dee
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Judge Dee / int_49a2599d
 Judge Dee / int_4b39c18
type
Taking the Heat
 Judge Dee / int_4b39c18
comment
Taking the Heat: 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 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.
 Judge Dee / int_4b39c18
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_4b39c18
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1.0
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Judge Dee / int_4b39c18
 Judge Dee / int_4b9a8e96
type
"Scooby-Doo" Hoax
 Judge Dee / int_4b9a8e96
comment
"Scooby-Doo" Hoax: Ghost sightings in the novels are usually found to conclusively be this. 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. The very first translated stories show the judge using this, although he does also use disguises and his intellect to solve the case.
 Judge Dee / int_4b9a8e96
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_4b9a8e96
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1.0
 Judge Dee
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Judge Dee / int_4b9a8e96
 Judge Dee / int_4d044580
type
Motive Rant
 Judge Dee / int_4d044580
comment
Motive Rant: The Judge hears a lot of these. Sometimes with disgust, other times with sympathy.
 Judge Dee / int_4d044580
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_4d044580
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1.0
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Judge Dee / int_4d044580
 Judge Dee / int_4dd46feb
type
Polar Opposite Twins
 Judge Dee / int_4dd46feb
comment
Polar Opposite Twins: Twin sisters Blue-white and Coral in The Willow Pattern. Blue-white is a tough, strong-minded, outspoken Action Girl. Coral is quieter, more subtle, and excels at music and dancing rather than fighting. They play vital, but very different, roles in the book.
 Judge Dee / int_4dd46feb
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_4dd46feb
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1.0
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Judge Dee / int_4dd46feb
 Judge Dee / int_4e3d253b
type
Downer Ending
 Judge Dee / int_4e3d253b
comment
Downer Ending: The Chinese Nail Murders, which sees 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 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 Lonely at the Top. No surprise that he starts going grey and looking his age after this one.
 Judge Dee / int_4e3d253b
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_4e3d253b
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1.0
 Judge Dee
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Judge Dee / int_4e3d253b
 Judge Dee / int_4f8b159a
type
Passed-Over Promotion
 Judge Dee / int_4f8b159a
comment
Passed-Over Promotion: The reason one of the generals in Coffins of the Emperor accuses one of his younger colleagues of treason. 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.
 Judge Dee / int_4f8b159a
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_4f8b159a
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1.0
 Judge Dee
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Judge Dee / int_4f8b159a
 Judge Dee / int_50c58a13
type
Exit, Pursued by a Bear
 Judge Dee / int_50c58a13
comment
Exit, Pursued by a Bear: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_50c58a13
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_50c58a13
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1.0
 Judge Dee
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Judge Dee / int_50c58a13
 Judge Dee / int_5148024
type
Locked into Strangeness
 Judge Dee / int_5148024
comment
Locked into Strangeness: Dee himself after particularly trying events in The Chinese Nail Murders. He ends up with graying hair and prematurely aged.
 Judge Dee / int_5148024
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_5148024
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1.0
 Judge Dee
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Judge Dee / int_5148024
 Judge Dee / int_537dd8fe
type
Affably Evil
 Judge Dee / int_537dd8fe
comment
One Affably Evil criminal (who views the judge as a Worthy Opponent) asks the judge if he plays chess and is disappointed to learn that he prefers playing dominoes with his wives.
 Judge Dee / int_537dd8fe
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_537dd8fe
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1.0
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Judge Dee / int_537dd8fe
 Judge Dee / int_53ad7e6a
type
Asians Love Tea
 Judge Dee / int_53ad7e6a
comment
Asians Love Tea: The titular character downs gallons of tea in the course of his cases. This being Imperial China, 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.
 Judge Dee / int_53ad7e6a
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_53ad7e6a
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1.0
 Judge Dee
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Judge Dee / int_53ad7e6a
 Judge Dee / int_5539b84f
type
Corrupt Church
 Judge Dee / int_5539b84f
comment
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 Corrupt Church. They also approve of his Justice by Other Legal Means 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.
 Judge Dee / int_5539b84f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_5539b84f
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1.0
 Judge Dee
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Judge Dee / int_5539b84f
 Judge Dee / int_558f5da6
type
Cryptic Conversation
 Judge Dee / int_558f5da6
comment
Cryptic Conversation: A speciality of Taoist recluses like Master Gourd (Necklace and Calabash) and Master Crane Robe (The Chinese Maze Murders). The Judge is pretty darn good at it himself; his conversations with the Big Bad of The Chinese Bell Murders are a fine example of politely indirect threats.
 Judge Dee / int_558f5da6
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_558f5da6
featureConfidence
1.0
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Judge Dee / int_558f5da6
 Judge Dee / int_560fd3cb
type
Fan Sequel
 Judge Dee / int_560fd3cb
comment
In one Fan Sequel (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. He's right.
 Judge Dee / int_560fd3cb
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_560fd3cb
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1.0
 Judge Dee
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Judge Dee / int_560fd3cb
 Judge Dee / int_56515a39
type
Artistic License – History
 Judge Dee / int_56515a39
comment
Artistic License – History: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_56515a39
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_56515a39
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1.0
 Judge Dee
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Judge Dee / int_56515a39
 Judge Dee / int_567e7c4d
type
Wounded Gazelle Gambit
 Judge Dee / int_567e7c4d
comment
Wounded Gazelle Gambit: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_567e7c4d
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_567e7c4d
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 Judge Dee
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Judge Dee / int_567e7c4d
 Judge Dee / int_56dd38a0
type
Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone
 Judge Dee / int_56dd38a0
comment
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, and leaves.
 Judge Dee / int_56dd38a0
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_56dd38a0
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1.0
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Judge Dee / int_56dd38a0
 Judge Dee / int_581f6468
type
Hero of Another Story
 Judge Dee / int_581f6468
comment
Hero of Another Story: 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 Pawns.
 Judge Dee / int_581f6468
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_581f6468
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1.0
 Judge Dee
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Judge Dee / int_581f6468
 Judge Dee / int_59ddd555
type
Psycho Lesbian
 Judge Dee / int_59ddd555
comment
Psycho Lesbian: The Judge is normally sympathetic to lovers, even unconventional ones, but not when their passions lead to murder.
 Judge Dee / int_59ddd555
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_59ddd555
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1.0
 Judge Dee
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Judge Dee / int_59ddd555
 Judge Dee / int_5ac8f358
type
Hordes from the East
 Judge Dee / int_5ac8f358
comment
Hordes from the East: Well, from the West. Several stories set on the north/western border involve the local Tartar tribes uprising (or threatening to).
 Judge Dee / int_5ac8f358
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_5ac8f358
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1.0
 Judge Dee
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Judge Dee / int_5ac8f358
 Judge Dee / int_5b95535a
type
Love Forgives All but Lust
 Judge Dee / int_5b95535a
comment
Love Forgives All but Lust: 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 Woman Scorned 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 murder her son (the son he didn't know about with her).
 Judge Dee / int_5b95535a
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_5b95535a
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1.0
 Judge Dee
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Judge Dee / int_5b95535a
 Judge Dee / int_5c5d0032
type
Eyepatch of Power
 Judge Dee / int_5c5d0032
comment
Eyepatch of Power: The Imperial Marshal in Coffins of the Emperor lost an eye to an arrow in a previous battle.
 Judge Dee / int_5c5d0032
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_5c5d0032
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1.0
 Judge Dee
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Judge Dee / int_5c5d0032
 Judge Dee / int_5dd191ec
type
Wife Husbandry
 Judge Dee / int_5dd191ec
comment
Wife Husbandry: An unintentional case with Captain Ni, who raised the orphaned daughters of the woman he'd loved, but they fall in love with him. The judge later confirms he's not their father.
 Judge Dee / int_5dd191ec
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_5dd191ec
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1.0
 Judge Dee
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Judge Dee / int_5dd191ec
 Judge Dee / int_606244c2
type
Parental Incest
 Judge Dee / int_606244c2
comment
Parental Incest: 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. Especially since she isn't his daughter. Liu from The Chinese Lake Murders clearly has unnatural feelings for his daughter, to the point of accusing her husband's father of abducting her for his own perverse ends.
 Judge Dee / int_606244c2
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_606244c2
featureConfidence
1.0
 Judge Dee
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Judge Dee / int_606244c2
 Judge Dee / int_60b166be
type
Reformed Criminal
 Judge Dee / int_60b166be
comment
Reformed Criminal: Ma Joong, Chiao Tai (ex-highwayman) and Tao Gan (an "ex"-Con Man), to varying degrees (Tao Gan doesn't seem to mind making a little extra cash during the course of his investigations).
 Judge Dee / int_60b166be
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_60b166be
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1.0
 Judge Dee
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Judge Dee / int_60b166be
 Judge Dee / int_61b8f9e2
type
Bunny-Ears Lawyer
 Judge Dee / int_61b8f9e2
comment
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Dee's colleague Lo appears to be overly fond of drinking and womanizing (a Gold Digger 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.
 Judge Dee / int_61b8f9e2
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_61b8f9e2
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1.0
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Judge Dee / int_61b8f9e2
 Judge Dee / int_62907b90
type
Bottle Episode
 Judge Dee / int_62907b90
comment
Bottle Episode: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_62907b90
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_62907b90
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1.0
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Judge Dee / int_62907b90
 Judge Dee / int_63d861f8
type
Even Evil Has Loved Ones
 Judge Dee / int_63d861f8
comment
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: 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. 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. Ma Joong is able to pass as a murdered criminal's cousin in town to avenge him without anyone questioning his motives.
 Judge Dee / int_63d861f8
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_63d861f8
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1.0
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Judge Dee / int_63d861f8
 Judge Dee / int_648c3646
type
Enlightened Self-Interest
 Judge Dee / int_648c3646
comment
Enlightened Self-Interest: 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 or a concubine, if he wins big, he'll want to exchange it for something easier to carry around or a more visible status symbol) than get rich quick via dishonest dealings.
 Judge Dee / int_648c3646
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_648c3646
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Judge Dee / int_648c3646
 Judge Dee / int_6596a89
type
A Family Affair
 Judge Dee / int_6596a89
comment
A Family Affair: 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 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 indirectly orders him to commit suicide (the father was murdered, but for entirely different reasons by someone else).
 Judge Dee / int_6596a89
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_6596a89
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Judge Dee / int_6596a89
 Judge Dee / int_67edaf78
type
Gargle Blaster
 Judge Dee / int_67edaf78
comment
Gargle Blaster: If 'the amber liquid' isn't strong enough there's always 'rosedew', a white liquor (probably baijiu) capable of reducing even Ma Joong to incoherence followed by unconsciousness. 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.
 Judge Dee / int_67edaf78
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_67edaf78
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Judge Dee / int_67edaf78
 Judge Dee / int_69d46274
type
Justice by Other Legal Means
 Judge Dee / int_69d46274
comment
Justice by Other Legal Means: The Judge resorts to this in The Chinese Bell Murders, arranging for the guilty party to Confess to a Lesser Crime and then reveal that "lesser" crime is far worse than he thought.
 Judge Dee / int_69d46274
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_69d46274
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Judge Dee / int_69d46274
 Judge Dee / int_6d9bc945
type
Babies Ever After
 Judge Dee / int_6d9bc945
comment
Babies Ever After: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_6d9bc945
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Judge Dee / int_6d9bc945
 Judge Dee / int_710f3133
type
Just One Little Mistake
 Judge Dee / int_710f3133
comment
Just One Little Mistake: On the part of the perp solves many of Judge Dee's cases for him. He's also very good at Bluffing the Murderer. 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.
 Judge Dee / int_710f3133
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 Judge Dee / int_710f3133
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Judge Dee / int_710f3133
 Judge Dee / int_71329e49
type
Turn in Your Badge
 Judge Dee / int_71329e49
comment
Turn in Your Badge: 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. 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, someone who already used the exact same method to get rid of her abusive ex-husband tells him what to look for.
 Judge Dee / int_71329e49
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_71329e49
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Judge Dee / int_71329e49
 Judge Dee / int_716d9138
type
Bar Brawl
 Judge Dee / int_716d9138
comment
Bar Brawl: Subverted, bar fights are solely one-on-ones, with other patrons watching disinterestedly.
 Judge Dee / int_716d9138
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 Judge Dee / int_716d9138
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Judge Dee / int_716d9138
 Judge Dee / int_730d3664
type
Adaptational Angst Upgrade
 Judge Dee / int_730d3664
comment
Adaptational Angst Upgrade: The original Dee Goong An story that the titular Chinese Nail Murders is based on is resolved when the Judge fakes an afterlife trial with his assistants, leading to the murderess' confession. In the latter story, 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 Sergeant Hoong is murdered, although in connection to a different case, and the judge ends up sort of Kicked Upstairs 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.
 Judge Dee / int_730d3664
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_730d3664
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Judge Dee / int_730d3664
 Judge Dee / int_744e3311
type
Police Brutality
 Judge Dee / int_744e3311
comment
Police Brutality: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_744e3311
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_744e3311
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Judge Dee / int_744e3311
 Judge Dee / int_75d6bf40
type
Belligerent Sexual Tension
 Judge Dee / int_75d6bf40
comment
Belligerent Sexual Tension: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_75d6bf40
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_75d6bf40
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Judge Dee / int_75d6bf40
 Judge Dee / int_77063cd7
type
Hooker with a Heart of Gold
 Judge Dee / int_77063cd7
comment
Hooker with a Heart of Gold: 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."
 Judge Dee / int_77063cd7
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_77063cd7
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1.0
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Judge Dee / int_77063cd7
 Judge Dee / int_771f6307
type
Brother–Sister Incest
 Judge Dee / int_771f6307
comment
Brother–Sister Incest: In Murder in Canton, the Big Bad 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 poured boiling water in her eyes while she was asleep, blinding her.
 Judge Dee / int_771f6307
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 Judge Dee / int_771f6307
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Judge Dee / int_771f6307
 Judge Dee / int_77f3a070
type
Consummation Counterfeit
 Judge Dee / int_77f3a070
comment
Consummation Counterfeit: Discussed when it's mentioned that Mongol women never have to do this because all the horseback-riding they do would tear their maidenhead.
 Judge Dee / int_77f3a070
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_77f3a070
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Judge Dee / int_77f3a070
 Judge Dee / int_787fbbea
type
One Case at a Time
 Judge Dee / int_787fbbea
comment
One Case at a Time: Played with, as in most full-length novels, Judge Dee tackles three concurrent cases at the same time.
 Judge Dee / int_787fbbea
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_787fbbea
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1.0
 Judge Dee
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Judge Dee / int_787fbbea
 Judge Dee / int_79503ae9
type
Stout Strength
 Judge Dee / int_79503ae9
comment
Stout Strength: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_79503ae9
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_79503ae9
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1.0
 Judge Dee
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Judge Dee / int_79503ae9
 Judge Dee / int_797bcb25
type
Fatal Attractor
 Judge Dee / int_797bcb25
comment
Fatal Attractor: Chiao Tai can't fall in love with a woman without her getting killed.
 Judge Dee / int_797bcb25
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_797bcb25
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1.0
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Judge Dee / int_797bcb25
 Judge Dee / int_7aa989ea
type
Token Evil Teammate
 Judge Dee / int_7aa989ea
comment
Token Evil Teammate: 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."
 Judge Dee / int_7aa989ea
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_7aa989ea
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1.0
 Judge Dee
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Judge Dee / int_7aa989ea
 Judge Dee / int_7ae40f90
type
Manly Facial Hair
 Judge Dee / int_7ae40f90
comment
Manly Facial Hair: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_7ae40f90
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_7ae40f90
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1.0
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hasFeature
Judge Dee / int_7ae40f90
 Judge Dee / int_7bd44eb9
type
Smart People Play Chess
 Judge Dee / int_7bd44eb9
comment
Smart People Play Chess: One Affably Evil criminal (who views the judge as a Worthy Opponent) asks the judge if he plays chess and is disappointed to learn that he prefers playing dominoes with his wives. In the final story, the judge is familiar enough with it not just to realize his opponent has the mind of a chess player, but the kind of game chess: not Weiqi (where all pieces have the same value) but Xiangqi (closer to the Western version of chess with a queen). The sergeant is mentioned as studying chess problems in his spare time.
 Judge Dee / int_7bd44eb9
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_7bd44eb9
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1.0
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Judge Dee / int_7bd44eb9
 Judge Dee / int_80621707
type
Arranged Marriage
 Judge Dee / int_80621707
comment
Arranged Marriage: A normal feature of life in Dee's world. His own marriage to his senior wife was arranged by his father.
 Judge Dee / int_80621707
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_80621707
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Judge Dee / int_80621707
 Judge Dee / int_813afa05
type
Defiled Forever
 Judge Dee / int_813afa05
comment
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 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 Defiled Forever. The officials gladly agree, with the stipulation that the higher authorities are told the true facts.
 Judge Dee / int_813afa05
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 Judge Dee / int_813afa05
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1.0
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Judge Dee / int_813afa05
 Judge Dee / int_819b6384
type
Sympathetic Murderer
 Judge Dee / int_819b6384
comment
Sympathetic Murderer: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_819b6384
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_819b6384
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1.0
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Judge Dee / int_819b6384
 Judge Dee / int_83109d67
type
Sweet on Polly Oliver
 Judge Dee / int_83109d67
comment
Sweet on Polly Oliver: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_83109d67
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 Judge Dee / int_83109d67
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Judge Dee / int_83109d67
 Judge Dee / int_8411ab92
type
Red Oni, Blue Oni
 Judge Dee / int_8411ab92
comment
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Ma Jong and Chiao Tai are both big men, but Ma Jong is the more fight-happy one while Chiao Tai thinks more.
 Judge Dee / int_8411ab92
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_8411ab92
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1.0
 Judge Dee
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Judge Dee / int_8411ab92
 Judge Dee / int_85debad9
type
Plucky Girl
 Judge Dee / int_85debad9
comment
Plucky Girl: The Judge and his staff frequently encounter these. They usually serve as a love interest for Ma Joong.
 Judge Dee / int_85debad9
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_85debad9
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1.0
 Judge Dee
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Judge Dee / int_85debad9
 Judge Dee / int_86b21114
type
Badass Boast
 Judge Dee / int_86b21114
comment
Badass Boast: When trapped on a floating brothel, one of the Mooks tells another to get help from the other boat. Ma Jong's response? "Call all the bastards together!"
 Judge Dee / int_86b21114
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_86b21114
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Judge Dee / int_86b21114
 Judge Dee / int_874176be
type
Psychic Powers
 Judge Dee / int_874176be
comment
Psychic Powers: 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. He also explains a fortune-teller's Sherlock Scan as her having limited Mind Reading abilities, like most people in her profession.
 Judge Dee / int_874176be
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 Judge Dee / int_874176be
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Judge Dee / int_874176be
 Judge Dee / int_87602ba7
type
Conveniently Precise Translation
 Judge Dee / int_87602ba7
comment
Conveniently Precise Translation: On at least two occasions Judge Dee is able to identify the Big Bad by realizing that the last utterances of one of the mooks and The Dragon, 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 Artistic License – Linguistics and the MST3K Mantra 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 Translation Convention be any dumber?
 Judge Dee / int_87602ba7
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 Judge Dee / int_87602ba7
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Judge Dee / int_87602ba7
 Judge Dee / int_88ad05a5
type
Elite Man–Courtesan Romance
 Judge Dee / int_88ad05a5
comment
Elite Man–Courtesan Romance: It was entirely expected for a High-Class Call Girl to snag a rich husband this way in Imperial China. 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. The man's suicide had nothing to do with the courtesan, she just assumed he'd killed himself out of despair 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. 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 Gold Digger to his extensive harem. 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, and leaves.
 Judge Dee / int_88ad05a5
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 Judge Dee / int_88ad05a5
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Judge Dee / int_88ad05a5
 Judge Dee / int_88dbce75
type
Card Sharp
 Judge Dee / int_88dbce75
comment
Card Sharp: Tao Gan. He is also a Con Man and general Trickster.
 Judge Dee / int_88dbce75
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_88dbce75
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Judge Dee / int_88dbce75
 Judge Dee / int_8a8534fb
type
Chemically-Induced Insanity
 Judge Dee / int_8a8534fb
comment
Chemically-Induced Insanity: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_8a8534fb
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 Judge Dee / int_8a8534fb
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Judge Dee / int_8a8534fb
 Judge Dee / int_8c431f2a
type
Band of Brothels
 Judge Dee / int_8c431f2a
comment
Band of Brothels: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_8c431f2a
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 Judge Dee / int_8c431f2a
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Judge Dee / int_8c431f2a
 Judge Dee / int_8c681acc
type
Third-Person Person
 Judge Dee / int_8c681acc
comment
Third-Person Person: Chinese etiquette requires this in court or other formal occasions: "This person begs to report a crime." Lower Class Louts unaware of these distinctions usually get a bamboo stick to the face for their insolence.
 Judge Dee / int_8c681acc
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 Judge Dee / int_8c681acc
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Judge Dee / int_8c681acc
 Judge Dee / int_8d522951
type
Self-Imposed Exile
 Judge Dee / int_8d522951
comment
Self-Imposed Exile: 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 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.
 Judge Dee / int_8d522951
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 Judge Dee / int_8d522951
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Judge Dee / int_8d522951
 Judge Dee / int_8d718b9e
type
Bears Are Bad News
 Judge Dee / int_8d718b9e
comment
Bears Are Bad News: 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 and the murderer find out.
 Judge Dee / int_8d718b9e
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 Judge Dee / int_8d718b9e
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Judge Dee / int_8d718b9e
 Judge Dee / int_8e9cf84e
type
 Judge Dee / int_8e9cf84e
comment
"Blind Idiot" Translation: The French translation dutifully notes every time a character says something "dryly." Unfortunately, in French the meaning is closer to "sharply," making the judge seem short-tempered instead of sarcastic.
 Judge Dee / int_8e9cf84e
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 Judge Dee / int_8e9cf84e
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Judge Dee / int_8e9cf84e
 Judge Dee / int_8ed5c6e4
type
Asshole Victim
 Judge Dee / int_8ed5c6e4
comment
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, someone who already used the exact same method to get rid of her abusive ex-husband tells him what to look for.
 Judge Dee / int_8ed5c6e4
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 Judge Dee / int_8ed5c6e4
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Judge Dee / int_8ed5c6e4
 Judge Dee / int_94332264
type
Busman's Holiday
 Judge Dee / int_94332264
comment
Busman's Holiday: The Lacquer Screen and Necklace and Calabash as well. After that the Judge pretty much gives up on vacations.
 Judge Dee / int_94332264
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 Judge Dee / int_94332264
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Judge Dee / int_94332264
 Judge Dee / int_95b875b1
type
Not Me This Time
 Judge Dee / int_95b875b1
comment
Not Me This Time: In The Chinese Maze Murders, Judge Dee hears many horrid tales about 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.
 Judge Dee / int_95b875b1
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 Judge Dee / int_95b875b1
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Judge Dee / int_95b875b1
 Judge Dee / int_970c790a
type
Big Bad
 Judge Dee / int_970c790a
comment
In exchange for a list of those engaged in a conspiracy against the throne, Dee also permits the Big Bad to take "medicine" knowing perfectly well it is poison.
 Judge Dee / int_970c790a
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_970c790a
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Judge Dee / int_970c790a
 Judge Dee / int_973d220f
type
Never My Fault
 Judge Dee / int_973d220f
comment
Never My Fault: 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. On the other hand, when he is executed it requires two blows to remove his head. Bad luck indeed.
 Judge Dee / int_973d220f
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_973d220f
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1.0
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Judge Dee / int_973d220f
 Judge Dee / int_978379ad
type
Token Enemy Minority
 Judge Dee / int_978379ad
comment
Token Enemy Minority: 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 Corrupt Church. 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.
 Judge Dee / int_978379ad
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_978379ad
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1.0
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Judge Dee / int_978379ad
 Judge Dee / int_9843be73
type
As You Know
 Judge Dee / int_9843be73
comment
As You Know: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_9843be73
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_9843be73
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1.0
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Judge Dee / int_9843be73
 Judge Dee / int_98d3f973
type
Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe
 Judge Dee / int_98d3f973
comment
Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: 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 rather differently by some in-universe.
 Judge Dee / int_98d3f973
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1.0
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1.0
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Judge Dee / int_98d3f973
 Judge Dee / int_9d12bbc1
type
Foreshadowing
 Judge Dee / int_9d12bbc1
comment
Foreshadowing: Chiao Tai's death by the judge's sword is repeatedly, but subtly, alluded to.
 Judge Dee / int_9d12bbc1
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1.0
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1.0
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Judge Dee / int_9d12bbc1
 Judge Dee / int_9e1548b4
type
Old Retainer
 Judge Dee / int_9e1548b4
comment
Old Retainer: Hoong Liang, who was already old when Dee was a boy and has served him all his life.
 Judge Dee / int_9e1548b4
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1.0
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Judge Dee / int_9e1548b4
 Judge Dee / int_9e56202
type
Wake-Up Call
 Judge Dee / int_9e56202
comment
Wake-Up Call: In The Chinese Maze Murders, a Brilliant, but Lazy 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 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.
 Judge Dee / int_9e56202
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_9e56202
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1.0
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Judge Dee / int_9e56202
 Judge Dee / int_9fda81a7
type
The Summation
 Judge Dee / int_9fda81a7
comment
The Summation: The Judge is prone to these, usually at the insistence of his bewildered lieutenants. One Big Bad even calls him out on it (before being Out-Gambitted by the judge), leading the judge to realize his days of criminal investigations are over (both because he's been Kicked Upstairs and now has to deal with political issues, and because his methods are by now known to criminals everywhere).
 Judge Dee / int_9fda81a7
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1.0
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1.0
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Judge Dee / int_9fda81a7
 Judge Dee / int_a39d6056
type
Nice to the Waiter
 Judge Dee / int_a39d6056
comment
Nice to the Waiter: The Judge often goes out of his way to do a kindness to poor people he comes across in his cases. 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. 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. 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.
 Judge Dee / int_a39d6056
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Judge Dee / int_a39d6056
 Judge Dee / int_a3b41aa7
type
Confucian Confusion
 Judge Dee / int_a3b41aa7
comment
Confucian Confusion: Subverted. Being a Confucian magistrate in Tang Dynasty China, Judge Dee only quotes Confucius in the proper context and certainly never as a joke.
 Judge Dee / int_a3b41aa7
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 Judge Dee / int_a3b41aa7
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Judge Dee / int_a3b41aa7
 Judge Dee / int_a6f23b2d
type
Skepticism Failure
 Judge Dee / int_a6f23b2d
comment
Skepticism Failure: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_a6f23b2d
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1.0
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Judge Dee / int_a6f23b2d
 Judge Dee / int_a7aef9ff
type
Obfuscating Stupidity
 Judge Dee / int_a7aef9ff
comment
Obfuscating Stupidity: In The Chinese Gold Murders, a drunken, Brilliant, but Lazy poet is a lot more than he seems. By the middle of the story, Dee and his lieutenants think that he's a Diabolical Mastermind and behind all the criminal events of the book. He's not. 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.
 Judge Dee / int_a7aef9ff
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1.0
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Judge Dee / int_a7aef9ff
 Judge Dee / int_aa55cd25
type
Brawn Hilda
 Judge Dee / int_aa55cd25
comment
Brawn Hilda: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_aa55cd25
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_aa55cd25
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1.0
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Judge Dee / int_aa55cd25
 Judge Dee / int_aabe2fb
type
Deliberate Values Dissonance
 Judge Dee / int_aabe2fb
comment
Deliberate Values Dissonance: The original Dutch writer went to great lengths accurately to depict Chinese social values and attitudes in the period: The routine use of torture in the judicial system, and gruesome public executions of the guilty. 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. The judge telling the father of a Plucky Girl to marry her off quickly, despite her being against it. The central place of filial piety is repeatedly displayed, especially in the crime that gets the judge the angriest we see in the series: 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 commit suicide. In Murder in Canton, every Chinese character is casually racist against the Arabs living in Canton. The judge is horrified to see the Big Bad has placed the naked body of his paramour among his ancestor's funerary tablets.
 Judge Dee / int_aabe2fb
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1.0
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Judge Dee / int_aabe2fb
 Judge Dee / int_ab5677c1
type
Boy Meets Girl
 Judge Dee / int_ab5677c1
comment
Boy Meets Girl: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_ab5677c1
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_ab5677c1
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Judge Dee / int_ab5677c1
 Judge Dee / int_b06bbf4b
type
Be Careful What You Wish For
 Judge Dee / int_b06bbf4b
comment
Be Careful What You Wish For: Shortly after their first meeting, Chiao Tai inspects the Judge's sword, the legendary Rain Dragon, and exclaims in admiration, "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 Chiao Tai is killed in preventing him from killing Judge Dee with it.
 Judge Dee / int_b06bbf4b
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Judge Dee / int_b06bbf4b
 Judge Dee / int_b1dde8fd
type
Loophole Abuse
 Judge Dee / int_b1dde8fd
comment
Loophole Abuse: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_b1dde8fd
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Judge Dee / int_b1dde8fd
 Judge Dee / int_b2e5a4f3
type
Virtuous Vegetarianism
 Judge Dee / int_b2e5a4f3
comment
Virtuous Vegetarianism: Zigzagged. The Taoist monks in The Haunted Monastery are enlightened vegetarians. However, the particularly depraved villain is also a vegetarian — he's even noted as enjoying the food.
 Judge Dee / int_b2e5a4f3
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Judge Dee / int_b2e5a4f3
 Judge Dee / int_b4a6ae4c
type
Everyone Has Standards
 Judge Dee / int_b4a6ae4c
comment
Everyone Has Standards: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_b4a6ae4c
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1.0
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Judge Dee / int_b4a6ae4c
 Judge Dee / int_b778066b
type
Connect the Deaths
 Judge Dee / int_b778066b
comment
Connect the Deaths: Judge Dee does this all the time. Most of his cases turn out to be linked.
 Judge Dee / int_b778066b
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 Judge Dee / int_b778066b
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Judge Dee / int_b778066b
 Judge Dee / int_b88eda46
type
Conspicuous Gloves
 Judge Dee / int_b88eda46
comment
Conspicuous Gloves: In one story, a character keeps his gloves on to hide the fact that he badly injured it by touching a freshly-lacquered table after murdering a woman.
 Judge Dee / int_b88eda46
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_b88eda46
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Judge Dee / int_b88eda46
 Judge Dee / int_b9918c48
type
Nobody Here but Us Statues
 Judge Dee / int_b9918c48
comment
Nobody Here but Us Statues: The Big Bad of The Haunted Monastery hides his victim by disguising her as one of the figures in a hall of horrors.
 Judge Dee / int_b9918c48
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_b9918c48
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Judge Dee / int_b9918c48
 Judge Dee / int_ba8b13ad
type
Catch-22 Dilemma
 Judge Dee / int_ba8b13ad
comment
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 Catch-22 Dilemma, 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).
 Judge Dee / int_ba8b13ad
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 Judge Dee / int_ba8b13ad
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Judge Dee / int_ba8b13ad
 Judge Dee / int_bb30961
type
Born Unlucky
 Judge Dee / int_bb30961
comment
Born Unlucky: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_bb30961
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_bb30961
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Judge Dee / int_bb30961
 Judge Dee / int_bbd25056
type
Eunuchs Are Evil
 Judge Dee / int_bbd25056
comment
Eunuchs Are Evil: A given in the Judge's world; "The necessary but horribly dangerous source of evil in every palace!" And yet he clearly feels a certain respect for the Chief Eunuch in Necklace and Calabash. It's mutual. One biological "eunuch" is also driven mad by unfulfilled sexual lust in The Chinese Nail Murders, and he even murders Sergeant Hoong.
 Judge Dee / int_bbd25056
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 Judge Dee / int_bbd25056
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Judge Dee / int_bbd25056
 Judge Dee / int_bd2812b5
type
Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence
 Judge Dee / int_bd2812b5
comment
Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: 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. He had in fact been poisoned, and the speech was a delirious rambling.
 Judge Dee / int_bd2812b5
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 Judge Dee / int_bd2812b5
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Judge Dee / int_bd2812b5
 Judge Dee / int_bec0417c
type
Happily Married
 Judge Dee / int_bec0417c
comment
Happily Married: 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 Defiled Forever). 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.
 Judge Dee / int_bec0417c
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 Judge Dee / int_bec0417c
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1.0
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Judge Dee / int_bec0417c
 Judge Dee / int_bee8baee
type
Faint in Shock
 Judge Dee / int_bee8baee
comment
Faint in Shock: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_bee8baee
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_bee8baee
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Judge Dee / int_bee8baee
 Judge Dee / int_c2393191
type
Show Within a Show
 Judge Dee / int_c2393191
comment
Show Within a Show: 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).
 Judge Dee / int_c2393191
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 Judge Dee / int_c2393191
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Judge Dee / int_c2393191
 Judge Dee / int_c2475826
type
FanFiction
 Judge Dee / int_c2475826
comment
Fan Fiction: 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: French author Frédéric Lenormand wrote eighteen more Judge Dee books (2004-2011), but these have not yet been translated into English. 25 as of 2021, but still no word on that translation. The Chinese/American author Zhu Xiaodi wrote Tales of Judge Dee (2006), set in the same time period as The Chinese Bell Murders.
 Judge Dee / int_c2475826
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Judge Dee / int_c2475826
 Judge Dee / int_c2676b00
type
Jurisdiction Friction
 Judge Dee / int_c2676b00
comment
Jurisdiction Friction: The Judge must frequently deal with this when he's got a large military command in his district.
 Judge Dee / int_c2676b00
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_c2676b00
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Judge Dee / int_c2676b00
 Judge Dee / int_c2ecf3b8
type
Show Some Leg
 Judge Dee / int_c2ecf3b8
comment
Show Some Leg: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_c2ecf3b8
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Judge Dee / int_c2ecf3b8
 Judge Dee / int_c3e4a2f0
type
Poisoned Chalice Switcheroo
 Judge Dee / int_c3e4a2f0
comment
Poisoned Chalice Switcheroo: 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. 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.
 Judge Dee / int_c3e4a2f0
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Judge Dee / int_c3e4a2f0
 Judge Dee / int_c59d7452
type
Unfulfilled Purpose Misery
 Judge Dee / int_c59d7452
comment
Unfulfilled Purpose Misery: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_c59d7452
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Judge Dee / int_c59d7452
 Judge Dee / int_c660bc15
type
Fan Disservice
 Judge Dee / int_c660bc15
comment
Fan Disservice: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_c660bc15
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Judge Dee / int_c660bc15
 Judge Dee / int_c7f294da
type
Large and in Charge
 Judge Dee / int_c7f294da
comment
Large and in Charge: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_c7f294da
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Judge Dee / int_c7f294da
 Judge Dee / int_cad80e66
type
Blame the Paramour
 Judge Dee / int_cad80e66
comment
Blame the Paramour: "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.
 Judge Dee / int_cad80e66
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Judge Dee / int_cad80e66
 Judge Dee / int_cb70651c
type
Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane
 Judge Dee / int_cb70651c
comment
Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The narratives remain creatively ambiguous about whether a rational explanation exists for every last strange phenomenon the Judge witnesses. See Skepticism Failure below.
 Judge Dee / int_cb70651c
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 Judge Dee / int_cb70651c
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Judge Dee / int_cb70651c
 Judge Dee / int_cc7e0fac
type
Bluff Worked Too Well
 Judge Dee / int_cc7e0fac
comment
Bluff Worked Too Well: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_cc7e0fac
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Judge Dee / int_cc7e0fac
 Judge Dee / int_cccfa535
type
Blindfolded Trip
 Judge Dee / int_cccfa535
comment
Blindfolded Trip: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_cccfa535
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 Judge Dee / int_cccfa535
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Judge Dee / int_cccfa535
 Judge Dee / int_ce0d2ab8
type
Familial Foe
 Judge Dee / int_ce0d2ab8
comment
Familial Foe: The Big Bad 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 his wife and not his mother-in-law as everyone assumed.
 Judge Dee / int_ce0d2ab8
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 Judge Dee / int_ce0d2ab8
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Judge Dee / int_ce0d2ab8
 Judge Dee / int_cf1e5580
type
Wizard Beard
 Judge Dee / int_cf1e5580
comment
Wizard Beard: The judge goes undercover as a Fortune Teller 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. Doctor Tsao in the first story is a philosopher with a three-pointed beard, which gives the judge some insecurities. It was actually a fake and the doctor a criminal.
 Judge Dee / int_cf1e5580
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Judge Dee / int_cf1e5580
 Judge Dee / int_cf92fea8
type
Cassandra Truth
 Judge Dee / int_cf92fea8
comment
Cassandra Truth: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_cf92fea8
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Judge Dee / int_cf92fea8
 Judge Dee / int_d015457d
type
Badass Long Robe
 Judge Dee / int_d015457d
comment
Badass Long Robe: This being Imperial China everyone, including the badasses, wear them.
 Judge Dee / int_d015457d
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_d015457d
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Judge Dee / int_d015457d
 Judge Dee / int_d0f63e83
type
Magnetic Hero
 Judge Dee / int_d0f63e83
comment
Magnetic Hero: 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!
 Judge Dee / int_d0f63e83
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Judge Dee / int_d0f63e83
 Judge Dee / int_d1da2c36
type
Played for Drama
 Judge Dee / int_d1da2c36
comment
Played for Drama 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 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, but she had every reason to).
 Judge Dee / int_d1da2c36
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Judge Dee / int_d1da2c36
 Judge Dee / int_d4f087b1
type
Tourism-Derailing Event
 Judge Dee / int_d4f087b1
comment
Tourism-Derailing Event: 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. 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.
 Judge Dee / int_d4f087b1
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Judge Dee / int_d4f087b1
 Judge Dee / int_d62dd556
type
The Chessmaster
 Judge Dee / int_d62dd556
comment
In the final story, the judge is familiar enough with it not just to realize his opponent has the mind of a chess player, but the kind of game chess: not Weiqi (where all pieces have the same value) but Xiangqi (closer to the Western version of chess with a queen).
 Judge Dee / int_d62dd556
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 Judge Dee / int_d62dd556
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Judge Dee / int_d62dd556
 Judge Dee / int_d73ecb18
type
Gun Struggle
 Judge Dee / int_d73ecb18
comment
Gun Struggle: 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. The victim was already dead when he was stabbed.
 Judge Dee / int_d73ecb18
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 Judge Dee / int_d73ecb18
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Judge Dee / int_d73ecb18
 Judge Dee / int_d786481
type
Top Wife
 Judge Dee / int_d786481
comment
Top Wife: 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 Best Friend 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.
 Judge Dee / int_d786481
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 Judge Dee / int_d786481
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Judge Dee / int_d786481
 Judge Dee / int_d7b34c31
type
Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"
 Judge Dee / int_d7b34c31
comment
Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": 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."
 Judge Dee / int_d7b34c31
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 Judge Dee / int_d7b34c31
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Judge Dee / int_d7b34c31
 Judge Dee / int_dae5c997
type
Action Girl
 Judge Dee / int_dae5c997
comment
Action Girl: Despite the fact that this is Imperial China, 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. Ma Joong marries the latter.
 Judge Dee / int_dae5c997
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 Judge Dee / int_dae5c997
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Judge Dee / int_dae5c997
 Judge Dee / int_db6230b7
type
Lightning Bruiser
 Judge Dee / int_db6230b7
comment
Lightning Bruiser: 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. 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.
 Judge Dee / int_db6230b7
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Judge Dee / int_db6230b7
 Judge Dee / int_dc0ca62a
type
Public Execution
 Judge Dee / int_dc0ca62a
comment
Public Execution: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_dc0ca62a
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Judge Dee / int_dc0ca62a
 Judge Dee / int_dc955e66
type
Inspired by…
 Judge Dee / int_dc955e66
comment
Inspired by…: 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): Ancient Chinese detective novels would often reveal the culprit at the beginning (as in Columbo), with the interest lying in following the development of the motive. Here the criminals are shown but not named. Cases are almost always solved via the intervention of a Deus ex Machina in the form of a deity, spirit, or ghost that either reveals a key clue or compels a suspect to confess. Or at least 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. There would be practically no characterization other than describing people as they fit the contemporary stereotypes of their class and profession. 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."
 Judge Dee / int_dc955e66
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 Judge Dee / int_dc955e66
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Judge Dee / int_dc955e66
 Judge Dee / int_dca70c44
type
Reasonable Authority Figure
 Judge Dee / int_dca70c44
comment
Reasonable Authority Figure: 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. 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 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 Defiled Forever. The officials gladly agree, with the stipulation that the higher authorities are told the true facts. 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 Corrupt Church. They also approve of his Justice by Other Legal Means 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.
 Judge Dee / int_dca70c44
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 Judge Dee / int_dca70c44
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Judge Dee / int_dca70c44
 Judge Dee / int_dcaa8b35
type
Locked Room Mystery
 Judge Dee / int_dcaa8b35
comment
Locked Room Mystery: The Judge is faced with one of these in The Chinese Maze Murders and The Willow Pattern.
 Judge Dee / int_dcaa8b35
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 Judge Dee / int_dcaa8b35
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Judge Dee / int_dcaa8b35
 Judge Dee / int_dcf669c2
type
Offended by an Inferior's Success
 Judge Dee / int_dcf669c2
comment
Offended by an Inferior's Success: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_dcf669c2
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 Judge Dee / int_dcf669c2
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Judge Dee / int_dcf669c2
 Judge Dee / int_dde43ab
type
Tattooed Crook
 Judge Dee / int_dde43ab
comment
Tattooed Crook: 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).
 Judge Dee / int_dde43ab
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_dde43ab
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Judge Dee / int_dde43ab
 Judge Dee / int_def127cc
type
Leave Behind a Pistol
 Judge Dee / int_def127cc
comment
Leave Behind a Pistol: Suicide is an acceptable, face-saving alternative to execution: In "The Coffins of the Emperor" the confessed murderer is permitted to "die as an officer" by cutting his own throat. The Judge allows a parricide and his partner in technically-incestuous adultery (one of his father's concubines) a chance to save the family reputation from further damage (the father having sold out many of his men early in his career) by committing suicide. In exchange for a list of those engaged in a conspiracy against the throne, Dee also permits the Big Bad to take "medicine" knowing perfectly well it is poison.
 Judge Dee / int_def127cc
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Judge Dee / int_def127cc
 Judge Dee / int_df0c57a2
type
Job Mindset Inertia
 Judge Dee / int_df0c57a2
comment
Job Mindset Inertia: In one story, the judge infiltrates a gang of criminals under pretense of being a former court guard who applied a little too much Police Brutality. 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.
 Judge Dee / int_df0c57a2
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Judge Dee / int_df0c57a2
 Judge Dee / int_dfe687c9
type
Alone with the Psycho
 Judge Dee / int_dfe687c9
comment
Alone with the Psycho: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_dfe687c9
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Judge Dee / int_dfe687c9
 Judge Dee / int_e069fae8
type
Bad Guy Bar
 Judge Dee / int_e069fae8
comment
Bad Guy Bar: There is at least one of these in every city to which the Judge is assigned.
 Judge Dee / int_e069fae8
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_e069fae8
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Judge Dee / int_e069fae8
 Judge Dee / int_e0d0fb13
type
Please Put Some Clothes On
 Judge Dee / int_e0d0fb13
comment
Please Put Some Clothes On: 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. A similar event happens to the judge in Necklace and Calabash. The girl later apologizes for her attempt at seduction.
 Judge Dee / int_e0d0fb13
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Judge Dee / int_e0d0fb13
 Judge Dee / int_e0fb1d9f
type
Bad Habits
 Judge Dee / int_e0fb1d9f
comment
Bad Habits: Ruffians in the Judge's 'verse like to dress themselves up as Taoist or Buddhist monks.
 Judge Dee / int_e0fb1d9f
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1.0
 Judge Dee / int_e0fb1d9f
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Judge Dee / int_e0fb1d9f
 Judge Dee / int_e13156e1
type
Mama Bear
 Judge Dee / int_e13156e1
comment
Mama Bear: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_e13156e1
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 Judge Dee / int_e13156e1
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Judge Dee / int_e13156e1
 Judge Dee / int_e2c4b927
type
Dub Name Change
 Judge Dee / int_e2c4b927
comment
Dub Name Change: Han Yun-Hang from The Chinese Lake Murders is renamed Han Sei-Yu in the French translation to keep an important plot point (the murderer thought the dancer was on a First-Name Basis with Han when she was actually saying "Your Honor"/"Seigneur Juge").
 Judge Dee / int_e2c4b927
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Judge Dee / int_e2c4b927
 Judge Dee / int_e3d06d0c
type
Bash Brothers
 Judge Dee / int_e3d06d0c
comment
Bash Brothers: There are quite a few badass teams in the series: 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. Crab and Shrimp from The Red Pavillion are a classic big power fighter/small precision fighter team.
 Judge Dee / int_e3d06d0c
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 Judge Dee / int_e3d06d0c
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Judge Dee / int_e3d06d0c
 Judge Dee / int_e4b69188
type
Very Loosely Based on a True Story
 Judge Dee / int_e4b69188
comment
Very Loosely Based on a True Story: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_e4b69188
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Judge Dee / int_e4b69188
 Judge Dee / int_e5421161
type
Expy
 Judge Dee / int_e5421161
comment
Expy: Dee is pretty much universally considered by the Chinese as their answer to Sherlock Holmes.
 Judge Dee / int_e5421161
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 Judge Dee / int_e5421161
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Judge Dee / int_e5421161
 Judge Dee / int_e6c72641
type
Asian Fox Spirit
 Judge Dee / int_e6c72641
comment
Asian Fox Spirit: 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. Unfortunately, she catches rabies from her foxes, goes mad, and dies horribly. The sequels 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.
 Judge Dee / int_e6c72641
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Judge Dee / int_e6c72641
 Judge Dee / int_e83f211c
type
O.O.C. Is Serious Business
 Judge Dee / int_e83f211c
comment
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Judge Dee's behavior in setting up his scheme to take down 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, though Tao Gan, at least, was certain it was all a clever plan from the beginning.
 Judge Dee / int_e83f211c
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Judge Dee / int_e83f211c
 Judge Dee / int_e851b5
type
The Plan
 Judge Dee / int_e851b5
comment
In a handful of notable cases, The Chinese Bell Murders especially, the Judge does, in fact, play chessmaster, with a politico-legal plan or two.
 Judge Dee / int_e851b5
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Judge Dee / int_e851b5
 Judge Dee / int_e9e35e8f
type
Exact Words
 Judge Dee / int_e9e35e8f
comment
Exact Words: Dee is able to solve some problems by applying the letter of the law. The only real crime he can accuse the Big Bad 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. So he gets the man to confess to having trapped the judge 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. 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.
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Judge Dee / int_e9e35e8f
 Judge Dee / int_ed581814
type
Dismembering the Body
 Judge Dee / int_ed581814
comment
Dismembering the Body: 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.
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Judge Dee / int_ed581814
 Judge Dee / int_ef21c962
type
Hired Help as Family
 Judge Dee / int_ef21c962
comment
Hired Help as Family: 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 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.
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Judge Dee / int_ef21c962
 Judge Dee / int_ef2582c3
type
Named Weapons
 Judge Dee / int_ef2582c3
comment
Named Weapons: The Judge's sword is the ancient and legendary jian "Rain Dragon."
 Judge Dee / int_ef2582c3
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Judge Dee / int_ef2582c3
 Judge Dee / int_f0c4ce7d
type
The Lost Lenore
 Judge Dee / int_f0c4ce7d
comment
The Lost Lenore: It's clear that Pure Jade will be this to Candidate Wang in The Chinese Bell Murders.
 Judge Dee / int_f0c4ce7d
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Judge Dee / int_f0c4ce7d
 Judge Dee / int_f4b1129f
type
Anger Born of Worry
 Judge Dee / int_f4b1129f
comment
Anger Born of Worry: 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.
 Judge Dee / int_f4b1129f
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Judge Dee / int_f4b1129f
 Judge Dee / int_f522d94b
type
Kneel Before Frodo
 Judge Dee / int_f522d94b
comment
Kneel Before Frodo: 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.
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Judge Dee / int_f522d94b
 Judge Dee / int_f54a4264
type
Disability Alibi
 Judge Dee / int_f54a4264
comment
Disability Alibi: 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 (Wang's huge but mentally-retarded son). He gives Wang a chance by stating that 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 his son is well taken care of, and take the circumstances for Wang's attempted perjury into account at the trial.
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Judge Dee / int_f54a4264
 Judge Dee / int_f6b2bfb7
type
Gold Digger
 Judge Dee / int_f6b2bfb7
comment
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 Gold Digger to his extensive harem.
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Judge Dee / int_f6b2bfb7
 Judge Dee / int_f8084d07
type
Society Is to Blame
 Judge Dee / int_f8084d07
comment
Society Is to Blame: While the Judge fully realizes that Tang China is no Utopia, he never accepts this as an excuse.
 Judge Dee / int_f8084d07
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Judge Dee / int_f8084d07
 Judge Dee / int_f8b3fa5d
type
Our Werewolves Are Different
 Judge Dee / int_f8b3fa5d
comment
Our Werewolves Are Different: Tang in The Chinese Gold Murders might be a weretiger. Maybe. Either that or he convinced himself he's one after reading his grandfather's diary who claimed to be one.
 Judge Dee / int_f8b3fa5d
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Judge Dee / int_f8b3fa5d
 Judge Dee / int_f9304f8b
type
Afterlife of Service
 Judge Dee / int_f9304f8b
comment
Afterlife of Service: Necklace and Calabash: After acknowledging his plot's failure, 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. 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. 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.
 Judge Dee / int_f9304f8b
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Judge Dee / int_f9304f8b
 Judge Dee / int_fb724048
type
Real After All
 Judge Dee / int_fb724048
comment
Real After All: 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 These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know).
 Judge Dee / int_fb724048
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Judge Dee / int_fb724048
 Judge Dee / int_fd7267dd
type
Master of Disguise
 Judge Dee / int_fd7267dd
comment
Tao Gan actually is a barely-reformed criminal and Master of Disguise.
 Judge Dee / int_fd7267dd
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_fd7267dd
featureConfidence
1.0
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Judge Dee / int_fd7267dd
 Judge Dee / int_name
type
ItemName
 Judge Dee / int_name
comment
 Judge Dee / int_name
featureApplicability
1.0
 Judge Dee / int_name
featureConfidence
1.0
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Judge Dee / int_name
 Judge Dee / int_name
itemName
Judge Dee

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Judge Dee
hasFeature
A Family Affair / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Actually, I Am Him / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Adaptation Amalgamation / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
After-Action Patch-Up / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Afterlife of Service / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Anger Born of Worry / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Aroused by Their Voice / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Asians Love Tea / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Attack on One Is an Attack on All / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Band of Brothels / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Bed Trick / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
"Begone" Bribe / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Best Served Cold / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Black Cap of Death / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Blame the Paramour / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Blindfolded Trip / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Bloodstained Defloration / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Bluff Worked Too Well / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Bondage Is Bad / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Bribe Backfire / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Butter Face / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Cannibal Clan / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Carry a Big Stick / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Chemically-Induced Insanity / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Chinese Literature / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Chivalrous Pervert / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Collapsed Mid-Speech / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Combat Haircomb / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Confess to a Lesser Crime / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Confucian Confusion / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Connect the Deaths / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Conspicuous Gloves / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Critical Staffing Shortage / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Crusading Widow / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Cryptic Conversation / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Death of a Thousand Cuts / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Defiled Forever / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Dirty Old Monk / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Discreet Drink Disposal / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Dismembering the Body / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Distinguishing Mark / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Dragons Up the Yin Yang / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Dressing as the Enemy / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Dressing to Die / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Eastern Zodiac / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Effeminate Misogynistic Guy / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Elite Man–Courtesan Romance / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Empathic Environment / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Enlightened Self-Interest / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Eunuchs Are Evil / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Exalted Torturer / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Exit, Pursued by a Bear / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Facial Dialogue / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Failure Is the Only Option / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Fake Assassination / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Faked Gift Acceptance / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Familial Foe / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Family Extermination / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Fan Sequel / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Fantastic Foxes / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Fatal Attractor / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Forging the Will / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Glamorous Single Mother / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Gold–Silver–Copper Standard / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Got Over Rape Instantly / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Gun Struggle / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Hairpin Lockpick / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Hangover Sensitivity / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Haughty Help / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Heavier than It Looks / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Heroic Ambidexterity / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Hidden in Plain Sight / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Hired Help as Family / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Historical Detective Fiction / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Hollywood Costuming / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Hollywood Mid-Life Crisis / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Hypocrisy Nod / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Identifying the Body / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Imperial China / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Incest Standards Are Relative / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Incest-ant Admirer / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Job Mindset Inertia / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Just Between You and Me / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
King Incognito / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
King of the Homeless / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Kinslaying Is a Special Kind of Evil / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Kirin / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Lawful Good / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Leave Behind a Pistol / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Lecherous Stepparent / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Lonely at the Top / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Lost Will and Testament / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Love Father, Love Son / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Love Forgives All but Lust / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Love Sacrificed for Power / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Loyal to the Position / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Magnetic Hero / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Make the Dog Testify / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Mama Didn't Raise No Criminal / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Manly Facial Hair / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Marry Them All / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Medieval Universal Literacy / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Mistaken for Afterlife / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Mistaken for an Imposter / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Mistaken for Exhibit / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Mrs. Robinson / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Must Let Them Get Away / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Named Weapons / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Nobody Here but Us Statues / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Not an Act / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Not-So-Fake Prop Weapon / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Offended by an Inferior's Success / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Old Man Marrying a Child / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
One-Episode Wonder / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
One-Track-Minded Artist / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Original Position Fallacy / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Orphaned Punchline / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Passed-Over Promotion / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Patricide / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Perfection Is Impossible / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Personal Seals / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Pimping the Offspring / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Platonic Prostitution / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Please Put Some Clothes On / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Plotline Crossover / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Police Brutality / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Political Hostage / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Post-Support Regret / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Predatory Prostitute / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Prematurely Grey-Haired / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Psycho Lesbian / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Psychological Projection / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Public Execution / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Pushover Parents / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Put Their Heads Together / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Racial Face Blindness / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Rate-Limited Perpetual Resource / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Reading Lips / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Real After All / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Recruiting the Criminal / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Reformed Criminal / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Revenge via Storytelling / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Screw the Money, I Have Rules! / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Screw the Rules, I Have Connections! / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Scullery Maid / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Self-Imposed Exile / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Sexy Discretion Shot / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Shameful Source of Knowledge / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Simple Solution Won't Work / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Skepticism Failure / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Statuesque Stunner / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Stereo Fibbing / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Stroke the Beard / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Sumo Wrestling / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Sweet on Polly Oliver / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Sworn Brothers / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Taking Over the Town / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Technical Virgin / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Terminally-Ill Criminal / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
The Cavalry / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
The Consigliere / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
The Dead Guy Did It / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
The Exotic Detective / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
The Hermit / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
The Perry Mason Method / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
The Wicked Stage / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Thinks Like a Romance Novel / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Throw 'Em to the Wolves / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Top Wife / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Tourism-Derailing Event / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Two Dun It / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Unbreakable Bones / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Unfulfilled Purpose Misery / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Unintentionally Notorious Crime / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Unproblematic Prostitution / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Variable-Length Chain / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Vengeful Widow / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Virtual-Reality Interrogation / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Virtuous Vegetarianism / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Wake-Up Call / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
Watching the Reflection Undress / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
Yubitsume / int_468c2a7a
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hasFeature
All Crimes Are Equal / int_468c2a7a
 Judge Dee
hasFeature
The Matchmaker / int_468c2a7a