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The Chinese Gold Murders
A Judge Dee Detective Story
ROBERT VAN GULIK
with ten plates drawn by the author in Chinese style
Perennial
An Imprint of
HarperCollinsPublishers
A hardcover edition of this book was published in 1959 by Harper & Brothers.
THE CHINESE GOLD MURDERS Copyright 1959 by Robert van Gulik. All rights reserved. Printed in the
United States of America. No part of this book may he used or reproduced in any manner whatsocver
without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
For information address 1 HarperCollins publishers Inc., 10 Fast 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022.
HarperCollins hooks may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. For information
please write: Special Markets Department, HarperCollins publishers Inc., to East 53rd Street, New York, NY
10022
First Perennial edition published 2004.
Librarv of Congress Cata loging-in-Publication Data
Gulik, Robert Hans van, 1910-1967.
The Chinese gold murders: a Judge Dee detective story / by Robert van Gulîk; with ten plates drawn by the
author in Chinese Style - l st Perenriial ed.
ISBN 0-06-072867-1
1. Di, Renjie, 629-700--Fiction. 2. China-Historv-Tang dynasty, 618-907-Fiction. 3. Judges-Fiction. I. Title.
PR9130.9.G8C48 2004
823'.914-dc22
2004045651
04 05 06 07 08 RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
PREFACE
THE CHINESE GOLD MURDERS takes us back to the beginning of Judge
Dee's career when, thirty-three years of age, he had been appointed to his first post
in the provinces, viz. that of magistrate of Peng-lai, a port city on the northeast
coast of Shantung Province.
Then the Tang Emperor Kao-tsung (64ß-683) had just succeeded in establishing
Chinese suzerainty over the greater part of Korea. According to the chronology of
judge Dee Mysteries, Judge Dee arrived in Peng-lai in the summer of A.D. 663.*
During the successful Chinese Korea campaign in the autumn of the preceding year,
when they defeated the combined Korean-Japanese forces, the girl Yü-soo had been
carried away as a war slave. Chiao Tai had taken part in the previous campaign of
661 as a captain over hundred.
The reader will find a pictorial map of Peng-lai in the front of the book, and in
the Postscript information on the ancient Chinese judicial system, taken over, with a
few changes, from the preceding volume of the series, together with an account of
the Chinese sources utilized.
ROBERT VAN GULIK
* In the year 665 Judge Dee was transferred from Peng-lai to Hanyuan, and thence in 658 to
Poo-yang in Kiangsu Province. In 670 he was appointed to the magistracy of Lan-fang, on the
western frontier, where he stayed five vears. In 676 he was transferred to Pei-chow in the far
north, where he solved h i s last three cases as district magistrate. In the same year he was
appointed President of the Metropolitan Court of justice, in the Imperial Capital.
CONTENTS
FIRST CHAPTER:
Three old friends part in a country pavilion;
A magistrate meets two highwaymen on the road
SECOND CHAPTER:
A strenuous sword duel is broken off undecided;
Four men drink wine in the hostel of Yen-chow
THIRD CHAPTER:
An eyewitness relates the discovery of a murder;
The judge has a weird meeting in an empty house
FOURTH CHAPTER:
Judge Dee goes to visit the scene of the crime;
He studies the secret of the copper tea stove
FIFTH CHAPTER:
Two stalwarts have a gratis meal in a restaurant;
They watch a strange performance on the water front
SIXTH CHAPTER:
A drunken poet composes a song to the moon;
Chiao Tai meets a Korean girl in a brothel
SEVENTH CHAPTER:
Judge Dee hears the report on the lacquer box;
He goes to visit a temple in the dead of night
EIGHTH CHAPTER.
A rich shipowner reports the loss of his bride;
The judge reconstructs a meeting of two persons
NINTH CHAPTER:
Judge Dee takes his men to inspect a farmhouse;
A strange discovery is made in the mulberry bush
TENTH CHAPTER:
A philosopher propounds his lofty views;
Judge Dee explains a complicated murder
ELEVENTH CHAPTER:
The judge visits a Buddhist abbot;
He has a dinner on the water front
TWELFTH CHAPTER:
The confession of a disillusioned lover;
The disappearance of a Korean artisan
THIRTEENTH CHAPTER:
Ma Joong and Chiao Tai go out on a boat trip;
A lovers' tryst has unexpected consequences
FOURTEENTH CHAPTER:
Judge Dee discourses on two attempted murders;
An unknown woman appears before the tribunal
FIFTEENTH CHAPTER:
A young woman tells an amazing tale;
An old man confesses a strange crime
SIXTEENTH CHAPTER:
Judge Dee goes out to eat noodles in a restaurant;
He applauds the decisions of an ancient colleague
SEVENTEENTH CHAPTER:
A pious abbot conducts a magnificent ceremony;
A skeptical philosopher loses his best argument
EIGHTEENTH CHAPTER:
The judge uncovers an evil conspiracy;
An elusive person is finally identified
POSTSCRIPT
SKETCH MAP OF PENG-LAI
1. Tribunal
2. Temple of Confucius
3. Temple of War God
4. Temple of City God
5. Drum Tower
6. Nine Flowers Orchard
7. Hostel
8. Crab Restaurant
9. Wharf
10. River
11. Korean Quarter
12. Creek
13. Rainbow Bridge
14. White Cloud Temple
15. Flower Boats
16. Watergate
17. Town House Dr. Tsao
18. Yee's house
19. Koo's house
20. Restaurant

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