I was looking for something to read on the ferry to Boston the other day when I happened upon a book which I first read 20 years ago, The Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee. Judge Dee was a provincial magistrate in China during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The Dutch ambassador to China in the 1940s found and translated a copy of a book describing the judge’s court and recounting three murders he had investigated and solved. It is a great read.
I first stumbled upon Judge Dee when I was looking for a book on tape to keep my wife and I occupied during a drive to D.C. As the narrator described life in the law courts of China, I was struck how little had changed in a millennium. In China, the courts were open to the public. Anyone could attend, and anyone could bring the court to session by banging the gong at the entrance. But woe to the poor soul who did so.
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