Judge Dee: The Mother and Father of Chang Ping
Judge Dee was referred to as the "mother and father" of the district of Chang Ping. Judge Dee was the district magistrate. He was faced with many cases, some which thought to be left unsolved. Judge Dee used different philosophies to help solve the cases that he faced. He used Confucianism by being truthful, Legalism by being equal, and Daoism by using intuition.
Judge Dee exercised his Confucian teachings in the cases he had come across. Before becoming a government official, Judge Dee learned about Confucianism. A quality of Confucianism is being truthful. He showed being truthful when he reported himself to be punished for grievously slandering a woman and having a corpse exhumed without
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Judge Dee used equality when finding all the facts before coming to any conclusions and convictions. Throughout the Poisoned Bride case, there was much evidence that implicated Mr. Hoo was guilty in the murdering of Miss Lee. This is evident from Mr. Hoo's extremely incriminating threatening remark to Mr. Hua, "You're going to pay for this!" (144). After being reprimanded for not leaving the newlyweds alone, Judge Dee searched for more clues and evidence and finally solved the case. He revealed that the poison came from the adder snake that had lived in the roof. Mr. Hua sternly encouraging Judge Dee to torture Mr. Hoo, saying, "I have followed your interrogation with considerable interest. I observe that the methods of judges have changed greatly since my own days. In my time, we treated a criminal as a criminal. When he refused to confess, we put the screws on him. You will forgive that I, seeing that your methods fail to produce the slightest result, plan to bring this case before the prefect. We will see whether he shares your views." (160). If Judge Dee had listened to Mr. Hua, he would have made the wrong conviction because Mr. Hoo would have confessed to the murder under the pressure of the torture. Judge Dee also dealt fair sentences for the actions of the guilty convicts. He imposed extremely harsh punishments for criminals that committed the most outrageous crimes. The three people who were punished by