History
There are no surviving works of Song gong'an,a genre of Song dynasty (10th–13th centuries AD) puppetry and oral performances. Judge Bao stories based on the career of Bao Zheng,a common protagonist of gong'an fiction,first appeared during the Yuan dynasty (13th–14th centuries). [1] Bao was a historical figure who worked for Emperor Renzong of Song as a magistrate. Accounts of his life were recorded in historical documents that later inspired the mythological Judge Bao of gong'an fiction. [2]
The Circle of Chalk (Chinese:灰 闌 記) is a Yuan zaju play that recounts a Judge Bao criminal case. The popularity of Judge Bao performances contributed to the success of written gong'an novels published in the 16th and 17th centuries. [3] The oldest collection of Judge Bao stories is the Bao Longtu Baijia Gong'an,the Hundred Cases of Judge Bao,also included in the Ming dynasty Bao Gong An (Chinese:包 公 案). [3]
The popularity of gong'an novels diminished in the early years of the Qing dynasty. It was not until the latter years of the dynasty that the genre experienced a resurgence. During this period of time,Gong'an novels were politicized as a tool of shaping public opinions towards the government. “Wuxia”heroes,also known as martial heroes,rather than acting according to their own code of justice,would often swear loyalty and work in assistance to a government official figure- the initiative of justice derives from the government's actions,not the heroes'. Thematically,the gong'an works of the Qing dynasty mixed elements of traditional gong'an fiction with the wuxia martial arts genre. [4] Qing Judge Bao stories were widespread in every medium,from operas to folk performances and novels. [2] Other magistrates like Judge Peng and Judge Li were also the subject of gong'an works. Shi Gong'an,Judge Shi's Cases,was published in 1798. [2]
In the 1940s, Di Gong An (Chinese:狄 公 案),an 18th-century collection of gong'an stories,was discovered at a second-hand book store in Tokyo,Japan and translated into English as the Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee by Dutch sinologist Robert Van Gulik in 1949. [5] Van Gulik chose Di Gong An to translate because it was in his view closer to the Western tradition of detective fiction and more likely to appeal to non-Chinese readers. He used the style and characters to write a long running series of Judge Dee books that introduced the gong'an genre to Western audiences as the "Sherlock Holmes of China". [6] The hybrid gong'an and wuxia stories of the Qing dynasty remain popular in contemporary China. Wuxia writer Jin Yong's novels portray more elaborate martial arts and weapons than that of earlier gong'an works. [7]
Etymology
The term gong'an originally referred to the table,desk,or bench of a Chinese magistrate. [8] It was later used as a name for unusual legal cases. [9] Gong'an as a genre of fiction has been translated into English as "court-case" fiction [10] or "crime-case" fiction. [11] The above etymological development is similar to that of "case" in English - a word which originally described the physical depository where documents of a particular criminal investigation were kept,and later came to refer to the investigation itself.
