Robert van Gulik

Robert van Gulik was a highly educated orientalist and diplomat who wrote 16 or more mysteries about Judge Dee, a Confucian magistrate.

Judge Dee was a fictional character from early chinese literature, apparently based on a real statesman and detective who lived in the seventh century. Van Gulik's novels take place in a later era in ancient China. They are outstanding in their depiction of the society of the time.