The Robert van Gulik & Judge Dee webring This webring is just a small network of pages on the two characters, designed by some enthu- siasts. The pages are located on different sites. Links to other pages will be issued here soon. Webpages on RHvG and Judge Dee The conflagration of the temple in Jiangling Missing woodcuts in the german edition of "The Chinese Lake Murders"

The conflagration of the temple in Jiangling A story about Judge Dee     In the time of Emperor Gaozong, Di Renjie acted as investigating censor. One day he came to Duanzhou and heard about a wild ghost ravaging the local temple. Judge Dee planned to burn the ghost but whoever he sent into the temple, they all died at once.     Therefore he offered a reward of 100.000 cash for those, who could destroy the ghost. After a while two men came to the judge. The judge asked them, how they wanted to accomplish the task. They answered: "We will need an imperial edict from you." The judge gave it to them and they went with it to the temple.     After arriving there, they called out: "We have an imperial edict", opened the scroll and went in. After they read the edict in the temple, the ghost was unable to move and they had no problems burning him.     Di Renjie came back to Bianzhou and met there one who could see ghosts. This person said to him:     "Behind your highness the censor stands a wild ghost crying out you burned his home. Now he wants you to compensate him."     The judge asked back: "Excuse me could you please explain this to me?"     "Your highness the censor just visited the chancellor, but you are not alone. More than twenty ghosts are following you. What else could they do? But after some time they will surely return to Lingnan ". Notes: Gaozong - (reg. 650 - 683); third Emperor of the Tang-Dynastie. Di Renjie - (607 - 700), Minister of the Tang-Dynastie. Source: This story is part of the collection "Extensive Gleanings of the Reign of Great Tranquility" (Taiping guangji), which was compiled out of several older texts in the 10th century. Cited is "TPGJ Juan/Nr.". Juan denotes the chapter of the TPGJ and Nr. the position of the story within this chapter. The conflagration of the temple in Jiangling. - Original title: Di Renjie, TPGJ 298/3; taken from the text "Extensive records about unusual tings" (Guangyiji). The author of this work was a certain Dai Fu. No further information about his person or the compilation time of his work is available.   Christian-Weinert.de/acad/dee/tpgj289_3.html Version 1.1, 21-Aug-1999 - Deutsche Version © 1999 by Christian Weinert