The Cases of Judge Lan: True Casebook a Qing Magistrate (English Translation)

Every other judge in this series is a legend. This one filed his own reports. Lan Dingyuan really governed the district of Chaoyang in Guangdong in the 1720s, and he wrote down twenty four of his own cases himself, in the first >About the Book This is the rarest thing in Chinese crime literature: a courtroom classic that is not fiction. Lan Dingyuan was a scholar of the Yongzheng era who took charge of one of the most ungovernable districts in the empire, a coastal county of armed lineages, sea robbers, corrupt garrisons and villages that settled their >He writes about a heretical sect stripping the credulous of their savings, a corpse stolen by three villains to extort a family, a beggar found dead who gains a wife and son after his death, sea robbers working both sides of the Fujian and Guangdong coast, brothers ruining each other over a field, and a petition submitted without a single word written on it. He is candid about the >The collection has a spine that no invented judge could give it. The scandal of the adulterated relief grain, the cases of the western grain boatmen, and the affair of Lin the Strategist all end the same way: with Lan himself impeached and removed from office. The last cases are written by a magistrate who has >About This Edition This complete English translation presents all twenty four cases, rendered directly from the Chinese text. The first person voice and the sober administrative register are preserved rather than novelised, official titles, ranks and measures are translated consistently, and the proclamations and depositions are given in full, since >Themes and Legacy - Real cases from a real Qing magistrate, told by the man who tried them - Local government, lineage feuds and coastal piracy in Guangdong - Evidence, interrogation, confession and the limits of the law - Corruption above as well as below the magistrate >For Readers Who Love The Cases of Judge Dee - The Cases of Judge Bao - The Cases of Judge Li - True Crime History - Qing Dynasty History - Legal History