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阅读高罗佩 Robert Hans Van Gulik在小说之家的作品!!! |
一、生平简历
1.高罗佩的青年时期和学生时代
高罗佩，字芝台，是罗伯特·汉斯·古利克的中文名。他于1910年8月9日生于荷兰扎特芬，父亲是驻荷属东印度(今印度尼西亚)荷兰殖民军队的一位军医。高罗佩在印度尼西亚群岛最主要的岛屿——爪哇岛上度过了他的小学时光。父亲退役后，高罗佩全家迁回荷兰，定居尼曼根附近的毕克村，这是归国侨民喜爱的定居地之一，在这里，高罗佩就读于吉姆纳瑟姆(古典式中学)。那时，家中花瓶上的中文文字使他对中国产生了浓厚的兴趣。
在中学时代，高罗佩已经开始了他的文学和学术生涯。在吉姆纳瑟姆学生自办的期刊上，他发表了关于热带生活的回忆文章；同时，他协助著名的语言学家 C·C·乌兰贝克进行黑足印第安人(Blackfoot Indians)语言的词汇研究。乌兰贝克的研究成果后来由荷兰皇家科学院出版，他非常赏识高罗佩的工作，因而把他列为合作者，并继而推荐高罗佩研究梵语和比较语言学。
1930年，高罗佩进入莱顿大学，选择汉学作为专业，那时汉学研究在莱顿大学已有相当长的历史传统。1932年，高罗佩获得中文及日文学士学位和殖民法学士学位之后，决定去乌德勒支大学继续深造，乌德勒支大学已于20年代建立了东方学院。1934年，高罗佩以一篇论及12世纪米芾有关砚的论说的文章获得了东方研究硕士学位。其后不久，1935年3月7日，他在乌德勒支大学进行了博士论文答辩，这篇论文探讨了远东一带流传的司诉讼的马头神的情况。
2.外交官生涯
1935年毕业后，高罗佩到荷兰外交界供职，作为助理译员被派往东京。在长达30多年的外交官生涯里，他先后供职于荷兰驻东京、重庆、南京、华盛顿、新德里、贝鲁特、吉隆坡的领事机构。
高罗佩在本职工作之余参加各种学术团体，并与在东京的许多中日知名学者建立了联系，他还经常去北京，结交了不少当地学者。他并不把自己局限于中国文化的学术研究，还积极参与尝试士大夫们所擅长的艺术，如书法、篆刻、绘画、鼓琴等。
1942年，太平洋战争爆发，高罗佩不得不离开日本，他和其他同盟国外交官与日本驻外使节相交换。在东非和埃及，他被误作间谍而历尽艰险，几个月后他被遣送到新德里。1943年，他来到中华民国的战时首都——重庆，在那里与荷兰公使馆人员会合，担任荷兰流亡政府驻重庆使馆一秘。当时的重庆是抗日战争的大后方，重庆的生活为高罗佩提供了许多学术研究的可能，因为当时中国最优秀的文化人由于躲避战火而云集于此，使他有充分的机会接触这些名流，为他全面了解中国社会和文化打下了良好的基础。
战争结束后，高罗佩被召回荷兰并派往海牙。1947年，外交部又派他前往华盛顿。1948年，他被再次派往东京，为期三年。在此期间，他节译了一部中国清代(1644—1911)无名氏的小说，这部定名为《狄公案——狄公破解的三桩谋杀案》(东京，1949)的小说描写了唐朝法官狄仁杰(630— 700)的故事。这部书为他自己的狄公小说提供了蓝本，同年他就写出了其中两部。
在新德里的短期工作之后，高罗佩重返荷兰。此时，他已经晋升到外交官员的最高职衔。1956年至1959年，他担任荷兰驻黎巴嫩全权代表，1959年至1962年，他以荷兰驻马来西亚大使的身份在吉隆坡居留。1962年至1965年，他再次回到荷兰，此间他在行政职务之外又与乌德勒支大学签约讲授“印度以外其他佛教地区的文化史”。1965年，他以驻日大使的身份第三次派驻东京，但是这次他没能完成任期。1967年，他被诊断为肺癌，于1968年9月 24日在海牙辞世，享年57岁。他当时的身份是“荷兰驻日本大使”。
3.娶中国女子为妻
由于对中国文化的强烈认同和沉迷，高罗佩一心想找一个有教养的中国女子终身为伴。在重庆任荷兰使馆一秘时，他爱上当时在大使馆任秘书的江苏名媛水世芳女士。水世芳为清代名臣张之洞的外孙女，其父亲水钧韶曾在中国驻列宁格勒总领事馆工作，后来任天津市长。水世芳不仅是名门之后，而且是齐鲁大学毕业生。 1943年，高罗佩与当时22岁的水世芳结婚，以后共有4个子女。
二、汉学研究
高罗佩在他成果卓著的漫长学术生涯中一直都在发表汉学研究著作。完成学位论文之后，他就开始着手译介中国古代哲学家鬼谷子的论著。在那个语言学研究统治欧洲汉学界的年代，这是一项颇有见地的工作，可惜这部书稿在二战中毁于战火。他一贯倾向于选择与他个人偏好相近的课题，而不是紧跟学术时尚，因此他写出了大量极富独创性的研究专著，而且在四五十年之后，其中的大多数仍在印行。
1.中国琴艺与书法
1943年初到重庆时，高罗佩就被神奇美妙的中国文化所吸引。安顿下来之后，他开始细心研究中国文化的精髓。首先，他对中国琴艺发生了浓厚的兴趣。不久，他聘请中国琴师指导自己弹奏《高山流水》等乐曲，每当弹琴时，他神情专注，摇头晃脑，一副沉醉其中的模样。同年他与于右任、冯玉祥等社会名流组织“天风琴社”，专门从事中国琴艺研究。
高罗佩认真投入中国琴文化研究，他花费大量心血写成英文专著《琴道》一书，由日本上智大学出版，此书旁征博引，将古琴乐谱、各种琴学著述，以及文学美术中涉及古琴的资料精心译成英文，并加注释，1940年以英文书名“The Lore of the Chinese Lute：An Essay in Ch'in Ideology”出版，被认为是古代琴学研究领域的权威之作。他还他翻译了3世纪嵇康(223—262)关于古琴的长赋，同年以《嵇康及其琴赋》(东京，1941)为题发表。
不仅如此，高罗佩在追寻中国琴学东传日本的踪迹时，发现明末清初有一位旅日僧人，法号东皋，在日本琴史上很有影响，也许是把中国琴学传入日本的第一人，而其名字却绝少出现在中国史籍中。随后他用了整整7年时间遍访名刹古寺、博物馆院，共获得禅师遗著遗物300余件，辑成《东皋新越禅师全集》，原拟于 1941年付梓，但因太平洋战争爆发未成。1944年，他在重庆出版了《东皋禅师集刊》，成为中国佛学史补缺之作。
高罗佩从20岁开始练书法，终生不辍，到重庆后，他更是将这种爱好发挥到了极致。他的“高体”字笔力雄健，功底深厚，并偏爱行书与草书，他对于中国书法的兴趣促成他翻译米芾《砚史》译本(北京，1938)。
高罗佩对中国文化的认同令中国人感动，他在精心绘制的一幅中国画上用汉字题款：“荷兰国笑忘高罗佩识于芝台之中和琴室。”这里面的“笑忘”是他自取的字，暗寓“笑忘百虑”之意；“芝台”是号；“中和琴室”是书斋名。他与水世芳女士结婚之后，把书斋改名为“吟月庵”。
2.东方文物的收藏家和鉴赏家
高罗佩是一位东方文物的收藏家和鉴赏家，诸如古琴、书画、瓷器、画谱、琴谱、佛像等都是他收藏的对象。北平琉璃厂、东京神田区、伦敦旧书店，都是他流连忘返之处。高罗佩对收藏古物有自己的主张，他不买稀世之珍，偏爱残缺古物。他对书画进行鉴赏和研究，积十几年苦功编成《中国绘画鉴赏——中国及日本以卷轴装裱为基础的传统绘画手法》(Chinese Pictorial Art as Viewed by the Connoisseur，罗马，1958) ，全书近600页，插图160幅，书末附有42种中、日纸张样品。还有《书画说铃》译本(贝鲁特，1958)。
高罗佩还是一位藏书家，他收藏的重点是中国古籍。在他逝世后，他的全部藏书及遗稿由家属捐送出来，珍藏于荷兰莱顿国立大学汉学研究院专门设立的“高罗佩藏书专室”，这个藏书室业已成为研究中国文化的一块宝地。
3.中国近体诗诗人
高罗佩还是一位寥若晨星的语言大师和杰出的中国近体诗诗人。他学习语言文字有着非凡的天赋和惊人的毅力，除本国语言荷兰文外，他还精通英文、中文、日文、梵文、藏文，德文、法文、印尼文、马来文、拉丁文、意大利文、西班牙文、古希腊文和阿拉伯文等15种外国语言文字。作为一个西方人，他不但能用白话文和文言文写出漂亮的文章，还擅长用中文写作律诗、绝句等近体诗词。
三、创作侦探小说一举成名
高罗佩著作等身，但流传最广的是他别出心裁的中国古代侦探小说。
1.狄公小说
在重庆时，高罗佩读到一本清初公案小说《武则天四大奇案》，他对清人公案小说《武则天四大奇案》中主人公狄仁杰屡破奇案大为折服，高罗佩对西方侦探小说和中国公案传奇做了深入的研究和比较后，认识到书中所描写的中国古代法官的刑事侦讯本领，无论在运用逻辑推理的方法、侦破奇案的能力方面，还是在犯罪心理学的素养方面，比起福尔摩斯、格雷警长等现代西洋大侦探来，均有过之而无不及。他还发现中国公案小说在西方侦探小说问世前，就已在东方盛行了好几百年，而以探案为题材的短篇故事甚至在1000多年前就在中国广为流传，其中英雄人物的形象也早出现在若干个世纪以前古代中国的舞台上，或被当时的说书人描述得栩栩如生。
他也惊奇地发现中国读者喜欢读西方的侦探小说，这些小说在西方水平很低，而且当时翻译成中文后水平更低了，中国源远流长的公案传奇在西方却屡遭讹传和贬低，中国古代法官的形象在西方也常受到歪曲和损害，高罗佩对此深为不平。
《武则天四大奇案》是清代(1644—1911)的一部无名氏小说，可能写于1800年前后，但是目前所知的最早版本却标注了一个相当晚近的日期，此书以富于幻想和完全违背史实的叙事展现了狄仁杰的不凡生涯。这位佚名作者试图刻画一位完美的官吏，他在关心百姓疾苦、忠于朝廷之外，还善于根据环境的需要随机应变。高罗佩断言这部书的后半部分是伪造的，因而他以《狄公案》为题翻译这部小说时仅限于其中的前三十回。
20世纪40年代末，高罗佩先是将《武则天四大奇案》译为英文，又以狄仁杰为主角用英语创作了《铜钟案》。他原本准备在中国出版《 铜钟案》的中文本，但由于中国出版商尚未意识到该作品的巨大价值，表现并不积极，高罗佩只好先出版英文本。
英文本的《铜钟案》出版后大获成功，一发不可收拾。经出版商的再三催促，高罗佩一鼓作气在20世纪50—60年代又陆续创作了《迷宫案》、《黄金案》、《铁钉案》、《四漆屏》、《湖中案》等十几部中短篇小说。这些作品最终构成了高罗佩的“狄仁杰系列大全”——《狄公断案大观》（Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee），即《狄公案》，包括15个中长篇和8个短篇，全书约130万字。这些各自独立的小说按编年顺序排列，但不依据成书日期，而是根据狄公一生中重要事件的发生时间。
这部重新编排的中文小说定名为《狄公案》。书中内容十分广泛，涉及唐代的司法、政治、行政、吏治、外交、军事、工商、教育、文化、宗教、民情、社会生活等各个方面。全书均以仿宋元话本体裁写成，这在世界汉学著作中是独一无二的。
高罗佩对中国文化、艺术、法律及社会历史等方面的渊博知识在《狄公案》中得到了充分的体现，发挥得淋漓尽致。书中在叙述狄仁杰于不同时期、不同地区任职侦破疑难大案的同时，还广泛展开对中国古代社会生活、民情风习的深入描绘。书中歌颂了狄仁杰的为民做主和缜密思维，宣告了邪恶势力的最终溃灭并受到法律制裁。作品在叙述故事、展开情节的同时，把中国古代社会的典章、名物、风俗习惯、人情地貌同西方现代心理学、侦破学知识巧妙地结合起来，把东方小说中大故事里套小故事的结构方式同西方现代文学的突转、余波融为一体。在叙述方式和写作技巧上，它既不同于中国的公案小说，也有别于西方福尔摩斯、亚森罗平、波洛的探案故事，做到了东西方文学的互补与交融。
2.狄公小说在西方
高罗佩的所有作品都用英文写成。他总在书中提供一份附注以解释相关的中国传统文化，他还为自己作品的荷兰文译本做过准备工作，甚至用中文翻译过《迷宫案》(新加坡，1952)。而最早的两部狄公小说在以英文出版之前就已印行了日文译本(1950；1951)。60年代，当高罗佩的所有小说都被译为法文和德文后，狄公小说在世界范围内获得了巨大成功。在诸多其他外文译本中，还有由荷兰王子伯恩哈德翻译的《黄金案》的西班牙文译本，这本书1965年在马德里出版。现在，狄公小说在西方流行已久，被译成十多种文字，甚至包括瑞典语、芬兰语、克罗地亚语等小语种，并有好几次拍成电影，“Judge Dee”（狄公）也成为欧洲家喻户晓的传奇人物，成了西方人心目中“中国的福尔摩斯”。
高罗佩的狄公小说已全部被译为中文，译者们极为自由地处理文本，他们经常略去过多向西方读者解释中国生活细节的部分。最有趣的是，高罗佩这些各自成篇、独立印行的小说，不久之后就又被重新组织成一部关于狄公故事的长篇小说。
3.狄公小说的贡献
高罗佩的贡献不仅在于他把中国文化介绍到西方，而且在于他以自身的创作实践，完成了从公案小说到侦探小说的变革。
西方侦探小说诞生之前，古老的中国就存在着一种同西方侦探小说相似而又有所不同的通俗文学品种——公案小说。它是从话本故事演变而来的，大多写封建社会清官廉史断案的故事。公案小说同侦探小说相类似，但在破案的过程及方法的描绘方面，公案小说则与侦探小说有很大的不同，它毕竟是中国古代清官轶事和民间传说的志异笔记，缺乏惊险的悬念和严密的推理，所以未能形成西方侦探小说那样的格局。
高罗佩根据丰富的中国古代史料，对中国公案小说进行了改造和革新，他的《狄公案》把中国公案小说改造为西方侦探小说，构成了扣人心弦的悬念、丝丝入扣的推理和恍然大悟的结局。
四、高产和多才的中国文化研究者
高罗佩的多才多艺在出版《狄公案》时得到全面体现，为了完善书的内容和形式，全部《狄公案》以及其他关于中国古代文化著作的插图，都由他亲自精心设计，亲手绘制而成。插图古色古香，韵味十足。他在每幅插图上都署有H.R.H的签名，这3个字母是“荷兰·罗伯特·汉斯”的缩写。
在寻找范本以便亲自绘制小说插图的过程中，他接触到了明朝(1368—1644)末年形形色色的春宫图。他这才明白晚明的艺术风气，
作为汉学家，高罗佩以收集中国春宫画，房中术书籍，研究性学而享盛名。高罗佩的性学研究，实际源自小说。1950年，高罗佩的小说《迷宫案》准备出日文版时，出版商要求以裸女画为封面，而高罗佩认为这种做法绝非中国传统，于是拒绝了。高罗佩只肯用中国古代版画，双方僵持不下。为了证明这一点，他分别致函日本、中国几十家古董商，讯问有无明代木刻裸体画像，结果上海商号说他们的顾客有，可供临摹，京都的古董店却有明代木刻册页的原本刻版，即一套二十四幅的彩印《花营锦阵》，乃万历年间刊行刻工颇为精细的的“秘戏图册”，这引起了他对中国传统社会两性生活的兴趣。高罗佩开始收集汉初至明末的有关古籍，特别是道家的房中术和历代描写男女关系的诗歌小说，从民间得到不少佚书和手抄本，经校勘整理，在禁锢保守的50年代，他自费重印了50套，并冠名为《秘戏图考 ——明代春宫图，附论汉代到清代(公元前206—1644)中国的性生活》(东京，1951)。这部书近年来多次再版，尽管一些学者私下怀疑这些画作的真实性。
之后，高罗佩重新着手研究《秘戏图考》中的中国性行为和性文学。1961年，他以英文写了一部大书“Sexial Life in Ancient China”，中文名为《中国古代房内考——中国古代的性与社会》，在荷兰出版，成为全世界系统整理中国房中术书籍的第一人。
去世前几年，高罗佩在吉隆坡和东京居留时都曾以长臂猿为宠物，这一嗜好促使他研究这种动物在中国文化中的角色，辑成他最后一部专著《中国长臂猿——中国动物传说札记》(莱顿，1967)，其中还包括一张录有猿哀啼的唱片。
五、学术评价
按照传统观点，高罗佩的汉学属于“另类”。他不满足于在经典古文中寻章摘句，而是接触社会，在民俗中发掘中华文化，收集资料，进行研究，介绍给全世界。他既述且作，将中华文明与西方思想相结合，写出不少传世之作，实为汉学之扩展。
Van Gulik was the son of a medical officer in the Dutch army of what was then called the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia). He was born in the Netherlands but from the age of three till twelve he lived in Batavia (now Jakarta) where he was tutored in Mandarin and other languages. He went to the University of Leyden in 1934 and obtained his Ph.D in 1935. His talents as a linguist suited him for a job in the Dutch Foreign Service which he joined in 1935 and he was then stationed in various countries, mostly in East Asia (Japan and China).
He was in Tokyo when Japan declared war on the Netherlands in 1941 but he, and the rest of the Allied diplomatic staff, were evacuated in 1942. He spent most of the rest of World War II as the secretary for the Dutch mission to Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government in Chongqing. While in Chongqing he married a Chinese woman (Shui Shifang), the daughter of an Imperial mandarin (under the Manchu Dynasty). Together they had four children.
After the war ended, he returned to the Netherlands then went to the United States as the Councillor of the Dutch embassy in Washington D.C.. He returned to Japan in 1949 and stayed there for the next four years. While in Tokyo he published his first two books, Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee and a privately published book of erotic colored prints from the Ming dynasty. Later postings took him all over the world from New Delhi, Kuala Lumpur, Beirut (during the 1958 Civil War) to The Hague. From 1965 until his early death from cancer in 1967 he was the Dutch ambassador to Japan.
The Judge Dee mysterie
During World War II Robert van Gulik translated the 18th century detective novel Dee Goong An into English under the title Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee (first published in Tokyo in 1949). The main character of this book, Judge Dee, was based on the real statesman and detective Di Renjie who lived in the seventh century during the Tang Dynasty (A. D. 600-900), though in the novel itself elements of Ming Dynasty China (A. D. 1300-1600) were mixed in.
Thanks to his translation of this largely forgotten work, van Gulik became interested in Chinese detective fiction and he decided to attempt one himself. His first attempt, The Chinese Bell Murders, was written from 1948-1950 and "borrowed" Judge Dee and his assistants from Dee Goong An.
His intent in writing this first Judge Dee novel was, as he wrote in remarks on The Chinese Bell Murders, "to show modern Chinese and Japanese writers that their own ancient crime-literature has plenty of source material for detective and mystery-stories"
Van Gulik's Judge Dee mysteries follow the long tradition of Chinese Detective fiction, intentionally preserving a number of key elements of that writing culture. Most notably he had Judge Dee solve three different (and sometimes unrelated) cases, a traditional device in Chinese mysteries.
The whodunit element is also less important in the Judge Dee stories than it is in the traditional Western detective story, though still more so than in traditional Chinese detective stories.
Other work
In van Gulik's opinion, although this is "an ably executed, realistic picture", the emperor's "brushwork is devoid of force", and "there is too much padding in the form of bamboo twigs".
Robert van Gulik studied Indisch Recht (Dutch-Indies law) and Indologie (Indonesian culture) at Leiden University from 1929 until 1934, receiving his doctorate for a dissertation on the horse cult in Northeast Asia. Though he made his career in the Netherlands diplomatic service, he kept up his studies. During his life he wrote twenty-odd essays and monographs on various subjects, mainly but not exclusively on aspects of Chinese culture. Typically, much of his scholarly work was first published outside of the Netherlands.
In his lifetime van Gulik was recognized as a European expert on Imperial Chinese jurisprudence.
Van Gulik was quite interested in Chinese painting. For example, in his book "Gibbon in China" (1967), he devotes quite a few pages to the gibbon-themed paintings in China in Japan, from the Northern Song Dynasty on. Analyzing the portrayal of these apes throughout history, he notes how the realism of the pictures deteriorated as the gibbon population in most of China was extirpated. As an art critic, he greatly admired the portrayal of the apes by such renowned painters as Yi Yuanji and Muqi Fachang. Commenting on one of Ming Emperor Xuande's works, "Gibbons at Play", Robert van Gulik says while it is "not a great work of art", it is "ably executed". The life-like images of the apes make one surmise that the emperor painted from the live models that could have been kept in the palace gardens.
Bibliography
Judge Dee
In 1956, the author published a translation of the "T'ang-yin-pi-shih" (Parallel Cases from under the Pear Tree), a 13th century case book for district magistrates. He used many of the cases as plots in his novels. (Confirmed in the Postscripts of his novels.)
The author, having finished the translation of the story Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee around 1948, included an essay on the largely forgotten genre of Chinese detective stories. He suggested in his afterword that it was easy to imagine re-writing some of the old Chinese case histories with an eye towards modern readers. Not long after he published Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee, van Gulik himself tried his hand at creating a detective story based on some older Chinese case histories. This became the book The Chinese Maze Murders (completed around 1950). As van Gulik thought the story would have more interest to Japanese and Chinese readers, he had it translated into Japanese by a friend (finished in 1951) and it was sold in Japan under the title "Meiro-no-satsujin". With the success of the book, van Gulik embarked on translating the book into Chinese. The translation was published by a Singapore book publisher in 1953. The reviews were good and van Gulik wrote two more books (The Chinese Bell Murders and The Chinese Lake Murders) over the next few years, also with an eye towards Japanese and then Chinese editions.
After all this work was done, van Gulik found a publisher for English language versions of these stories and the first English language book was published in 1957. Later books were written and published in English first, the translations came afterwards.
Van Gulik's autograph in Chinese
The Judge Dee Mysteries in the order in which they were written
Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee (originally Dee Goong An) (1941-1948 translated from Chinese by Van Gulik)
The Chinese Maze Murders (originally written 1950, published in Japanese in 1951, published in English in 1957)
The Chinese Bell Murders (originally written between 1953 and 1956, published in English in 1958)
The Chinese Lake Murders (originally written between 1953 and 1956, published in English in 1960)
The Chinese Gold Murders (first published in English in 1959)
The Chinese Nail Murders (1961)
The Haunted Monastery (1961)
The Emperor's Pearl (1963)
The Lacquer Screen (1964)
The Red Pavilion (1964)
The Monkey and the Tiger, short stories (1965)
The Willow Pattern (1965)
Murder in Canton (1966)
The Phantom of the Temple (1966)
Judge Dee at Work, short stories (1967)
Necklace and Calabash (1967)
Poets and Murder (1968)
The Judge Dee Stories in the order in which they were set
Judge Dee at Work contains a "Judge Dee Chronology" telling of Dee's various posts, stories—either books or short stories—set during that posting, and giving information about the stories. Based on this chronology, the works can be arranged in this order:
663 - Judge Dee is a magistrate of Peng-lai, a fictional district on the north-east coast of China.
The Chinese Gold Murder
The Lacquer Screen.
Five Auspicious Clouds, a short story in Judge Dee at Work
The Red Tape Murders, a short story in Judge Dee at Work
He came with the Rain, a short story in Judge Dee at Work
666 - Judge Dee is the magistrate of Han-yuan, a fictional district on a lakeshore near the capital of Chang-An.
The Chinese Lake Murder
The Morning of the Monkey, a short story in The Monkey and the Tiger
The Murder on the Lotus Pond, a short story in Judge Dee at Work
666 - Judge Dee is traveling and forced to take shelter in a monastery.
The Haunted Monastery
668 - Judge Dee is the magistrate of Poo-yang, a fictional wealthy district through which the Grand Canal of China runs (part of modern-day Jiangsu province).
The Chinese Bell Murder
The Two Beggars, a short story in Judge Dee at Work
The Wrong Sword, a short story in Judge Dee at Work
The Red Pavilion
The Emperor's Pearl
Poets and Murder
Necklace and Calabash
670 - Judge Dee is the magistrate of Lan-fang, a fictional district at the western frontier of Tang China.
The Chinese Maze Murder
The Phantom of the Temple
The Coffins of the Emperor, a short story in Judge Dee at Work
Murder on New Year's Eve, a short story in Judge Dee at Work
676 - Judge Dee is the magistrate of Pei-chow, a fictional district in the far north of Tang China.
The Chinese Nail Murder
The Night of the Tiger, a short story in The Monkey and the Tiger
677 - Judge Dee is the Lord Chief Justice in the Imperial capital of Chang-An.
The Willow Pattern
681 - Judge Dee is the Lord Chief Justice for all of China.
Murder in Canton
Two books, Poets and Murder and Necklace and Calabash, were not listed in the chronology (which was published before these two books were written) but they were both from the time when Judge Dee was the magistrate in Poo-yang.
Selected scholarly work
(with Christianus Cornelius Uhlenbeck). A Blackfoot-English vocabulary based on material from the Southern Peigans. Amsterdam, Uitgave van de N. V. Noord-Hollandsche Uitgevers-Maatschappij, 1934. 12.
The Lore of the Chinese lute; an essay in ch'in ideology (1941)
Hsi K'ang and his Poetical Essay on the Lute (1941)
Erotic Colour Prints of the Ming Period Privately printed, Tokyo (1951)
Siddham; An Essay on the History of Sanskrit Studies in China and Japan (1956)
Chinese Pictorial Art, as Viewed by the Connoisseur Istituto Italiano Per Il Medio Ed Estremo Oriente, Roma (1958) (Limited edition in 950 copies)
Sexual Life in Ancient China. A preliminary survey of Chinese sex and society from ca. 1500 B.C. till 1644 A.D. (1961). (In spite of its titillating title, this book deals with the social role of sex, such as the institutions of concubinage and prostitution.)
The gibbon in China. An essay in Chinese animal lore. E.J.Brill, Leiden, Holland. (1967)
Reference
Janwillem van de Wetering; Robert van Gulik: Zijn Leven Zijn Werk; Loeb, Amsterdam, ISBN 90-6213-899-3 (Hardback, First edition 1989)
Janwillem van de Wetering; Robert van Gulik: His Life His Work; Soho Press, Inc.; ISBN 1-56947-124-X
C.D. Barkman, H. de Vries-van der Hoeven; Een man van drie levens (A man of three lives); Forum, Amsterdam, ISBN 90-225-1650-4 (1993)
John Thompson's collected anecdotes on van Gulik's Guqin artistry
Judge Dee website
The Dutch language Rechter Tie website
^ Robert van Gulik, The gibbon in China. An essay in Chinese animal lore. E.J. Brill, Leiden, Holland. (1967). Pages 94-95.
^ Thomas Geissmann, Gibbon paintings in China, Japan, and Korea: Historical distribution, production rate and context". Gibbon Journal, No. 4, May 2008.