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Legalism And Gulik's Celebrated Cases Of Judge Dee

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“In the end, as a general rule, no criminal escapes the laws of the land. But it is up to the judge to decide who is guilty and who is innocent” (Gulik 5). In the court rooms of Chang-Ping, a town district in the province of Shantung, a magistrate delves deep into the cases presented to him to do just that. Dee Jen-djieh, referred to as Judge Dee, was a Chinese magistrate who became well-known for his ability to solve mysterious cases. When most would consider a case impossible, Judge Dee would look past the obvious and interpret the clues to pass a fair judgment. In “Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee” Judge Dee encounters three murder cases. The first involves the murder of two silk merchants, the second a young husband suddenly comes to his death, and in the third a bride is poisoned. Legalism, Confucianism, and Daoism are all philosophies that allowed him to bring justice to the land playing an important role throughout the cases. …show more content…

Throughout the murder cases, Legalism played an important role in helping Judge Dee expose the truth. Harsh and strict punishments were inflicted anytime even a slight variation of the truth was presented to Judge Dee. For example, when Warden Pang is questioned about his involvement in a crime during the case of The Double Murder at Dawn, he is given one hundred strokes with heavy bamboo for not instantly giving the response Judge Dee expected (Gulik 15). In the case of The Strange Corpse, Mrs. Djou was questioned by Judge Dee under torture even though others in the courtroom believed her story and felt sympathy for her. Judge Dee knew she was guilty of a crime and abided by the philosophy of legalism by punishing her for not being honest in her testimony and for committing a crime

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