Robert van Gulik became famous twice. First, as a world-renowned scholar of the East and a high-ranking diplomat; then, in the late 1940s, he decided to write his first detective novel about Judge Dee. Van Gulik used intricate plots from classical Chinese literature—stories not particularly known to Western authors. The success exceeded all expectations.
The prototype of Judge Dee was a real Chinese official who lived in the 7th century and was famous for uncovering many mysterious crimes; he also became the hero of medieval Chinese criminal tales. As in those tales, Van Gulik’s hero encounters a wide variety of mysteries.
“The Four Fingers” is one of Van Gulik’s first, but also one of his most famous detective stories.