Robert Hans van Gulik and the Reinvention of Chinese Detective Fiction

This article studies how the Dutch sinologist Robert van Gulik absorbed the rich materials of classical Chinese popular literature and reinvented the original character of Judge Dee as a Chinese detective welcomed by Western readers. I argue that in the Judge Dee series, van Gulik not only made use of many elements of Chinese culture, including superstition, religion, crime and justice, sexuality, and illustrations, but more importantly, he reinvented the narrative method of classical Chinese fiction, shedding light on the deep philosophical and ethical ideas behind the unique narratology.