BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / Amazing Detective Di (Chinese Sherlock)

**Posted by saturnR** September 5, 2012 10:10 am

This isn't strictly speaking an adaptation at all, but the main character from the Chinese series that I'm talking about is clearly based on Sherlock Holmes - & since I don't see a Chinese Sherlock Holmes series-proper coming out any time soon, this is the closest that we will get to the real deal. Detective Di uses reasoning and deduction to solve crimes and is an excellent medic himself (however, he's not a recluse or oddball).

He uses the word "logic" a lot, which sounds funny because in the context of the series (Tang Dynasty China, or AD late 600s to early 700s), the word "logic" had not yet entered into the Chinese vocabulary. Not that we are incapable of thinking logically, it's just that I don't think we had a word for it. Even in modern Chinese, "logic" is translated phonetically from English (pronounced luo ji).

So yeah, if there ever was a Chinese version of Holmes, Detective Di would be it. The series is mostly about conspiracy type plots because at the time, many members of the aristocracy were considering offing Empress Wu - so she got there first and offed a lot of the ones who were hostile to her or considered being hostile to her.

**Posted by The Doctor** September 6, 2012 12:24 am

Could you point us towards some story titles as I would love to read more about this character?

**Posted by saturnR** September 6, 2012 12:07 pm

They're not really books (don't know if they are based on novels). They are a Mandarin TV show. 3 seasons. Each season has two story arcs which span roughly half a season each so six stories have been told in total. The inspector/detective Di Ren Jie is a real person from Chinese history with very embellished stories told on the TV show

The reason it reminded me of Sherlock Holmes is because on the show, the inspector/detective, goes out of his way to talk you through crime scenes that he has stumbled upon in a completely logical/detached way which is not the norm for its genre (usually you get a big lecture on duty & loyalty to king & country (Communist propaganda maybe?) but not the case here. Here he talks you through his reasoning & his deductions first AND THEN he alludes to the importance of duty & loyalty to king & country, lol).

Basically the point I was trying to make is that, although the source for the character was nothing like Holmes, the way they chose to write the story/tell it on camera does look like it has been influenced a fair bit by Holmes. Inspector/detective Di even publishes a manual on the show for fellow inspector/detectives on correct crime detection/evidence interpretation methods (Sherlock does the same in the books & on the show).

Jokes aside, it is a very good series if you can speak Chinese (don't know if there is a version that comes with English subtitles).

**Posted by Davina** September 6, 2012 12:59 pm

Bit of research done for you. There are books based upon Judge Dee (Dee Goong An). They are written by Robert van Gulik and are to be found in print as: Judge Dee at Work: Eight Chinese Detective Stories; or alternatively Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee. First published in 1976.

Both can be found on Amazon.

**Posted by The Doctor** September 6, 2012 10:37 pm

Excellent, thank you so much!