The Chinese LakeMurders

succeeded in smuggling out a note about his kidnaping which was brought to the notice of the British authorities. Lord Salisbury intervened and effectuated his release. Truth is often stranger than fiction!

The motive of a robber's nest located in an impregnable swamp is taken from the famous old Chinese picaresque novel Shui-hu-chuan, which is devoted entirely to the fails et gesles of such a robber band. There exist English versions of this novel by J. H. Jackson (Water Margin, two vols., published Shanghai, 1937), and by Pearl Buck (All Men are Brothers, London, 1937).

As regards the letter lock of the jade panel described in the present novel, simple padlocks working on this principle have been known in China for many centuries, and today still are widely used. The body of the padlock consists of a cylinder through which passes the crossbar of the lock. In the middle of the cylinder occur four or more loose rings, marked on the outside with five or seven Chinese characters. On the inside each ring has a dent which fits into a groove along the crossbar. The bar can be drawn out of the cylinder only when each ring is turned in the right position, i.e. when all the dents face the groove. This position can be remembered by a key sentence, composed of one of the characters of each ring.

The Chinese play two kinds of chess, hsiang-ch'i and wei-ch'i The former is played with men of different value, and the aim is to checkmate the opponent's 'general,' as in our game. This is a popular game played by all classes alike. Wei-ch'i, the game described in this novel, is much older, and played nearly exclusively by members of the literary class. In the eighth century it was introduced into Japan, where today it is still popular. The Japanese call it go. There exists an extensive literature on this very complicated and fascinating game, including handbooks with problems. A good English book on the subject is A. Smith's The Game of Go, published New York, 1908, and reprinted Tokyo, 1956.

Finally it may be remarked that in China, contrary to the tendency in Western society, the upper middle-class families try to live together as much as possible in one and the same compound. When a son marries, one courtyard in the family compound is assigned to him, with its own kitchen and servants. The reason was that children had a duty to serve their parents, and therefore had to stay with them, and also that thus the various members of a family could co-operate more closely and promote each other's interest. Wu-tai-tsai- t'ang, 'five generations under one roof,' was the ideal of old Chinese family life. Therefore every Chinese upper-middle-class house was in reality a conglomeration of a number of separate households, connected by courtyards, open corridors and gardens. Hence the numerous courtyards mentioned in the descriptions of Chinese houses in this and the other Judge Dee novels.

Dr. R. H. van Gulik

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