Gao Luopei (19 10~ 1967) is the Chinese name of Robert Hans Gulik. Gao Luopei is a Dutch sinologist, orientalist, diplomat, translator and novelist. As a professional diplomat in the Netherlands, he is familiar with the language 15, and has been stationed in Surabaya, Batavia, Tokyo, Chongqing, Washington, New Delhi, Beirut, Damascus, Kuala Lumpur and other places, with positions ranging from secretary, counselor, minister to ambassador. Although his official career was smooth sailing, it was his achievements as an amateur sinologist that passed down from generation to generation. To some extent, the Dutch's understanding of China should also be attributed to his spread of China culture. His detective story "The Digong Case of the Tang Dynasty" successfully created "Sherlock Holmes in China", which was translated into many foreign languages and published, leaving a deep impression in the history of cultural exchange between China and the world.
Chinese name: Gao Luopei.
Robert Hans Gulik.
Nationality: Netherlands
Place of birth: Holland Zattfen
Date of birth: 19 10 August 9th.
Date of death:1September 24, 967
Occupation: Dutch professional diplomat
Graduate school: Leiden University
Representative works: CelebratedCasesofJudgeDee Dee
all one's life
school days
Gao Luopei was born on 19 10 in Zattfen, the Netherlands on August 9th. His father was a military doctor of the Dutch colonial army in the Dutch East India (now Indonesia). Gao Luopei spent his primary school time in Java, the main island of Indonesian archipelago. After his father retired, Gao Luopei's family moved back to Holland and settled in Bi Ke village near Niemangen, which is one of the favorite settlements of returned overseas Chinese. Here, Gao Luopei studied in Jim Naseem (Classical Middle School). At that time, the Chinese characters on the vase at home made him interested in China.
When he was in middle school, Gao Luopei had already started his literary and academic career. In the magazine run by Jim Nathan's students, he published an article about tropical biology. At the same time, he assisted C·C· Ulanbeck, a famous linguist, to study the vocabulary of Blackfoot Indians. Ulanbeck's research results were later published by the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences. He appreciated Gao Luopei's work so much that he was listed as a collaborator, and then recommended Gao Luopei to study Sanskrit and comparative linguistics.
From 65438 to 0930, Gao Luopei entered Leiden University and chose Sinology as his major. At that time, Sinology had a long historical tradition in Leiden University. 1932, after obtaining a bachelor's degree in Chinese and Japanese and a bachelor's degree in colonial civil law, Gao Luopei decided to go to Utrecht University for further study. Utrecht university established the Oriental College in the 1920s. 1934, Gao Luopei obtained a master's degree in orientalism with the article 12 century Mi Fei inkstone theory. Shortly thereafter,1March 7, 935, he defended his doctoral thesis at Utrecht University, which discussed the situation of the horse head god circulating in the Far East.
Diplomatic career
1935 After graduation, Gao Luopei worked in the Dutch diplomatic community and was sent to Tokyo as an assistant translator. During his more than 30 years as a diplomat, he has worked in Dutch consulates in Tokyo, Chongqing, Nanjing, Washington, New Delhi, Beirut and Kuala Lumpur.
In his spare time, Gao Luopei joined various academic groups and established contacts with many famous Japanese and China scholars in Tokyo. He also often went to Beijing and made many local scholars. He is not limited to the academic research of China culture, but also actively participates in trying the arts that the literati are good at, such as calligraphy, seal cutting, painting, guqin and so on.
1942, when the Pacific War broke out, Gao Luopei had to leave Japan, and he and other allied diplomats communicated with Japanese diplomatic envoys abroad. In East Africa and Egypt, he was mistaken for a spy and went through hardships. A few months later, he was sent to New Delhi. 1943, came to Chongqing, the wartime capital of the Republic of China, and joined the staff of the Dutch legation as the first secretary of the Dutch government in exile in Chongqing. At that time, Chongqing was the rear area of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, and life in Chongqing provided Gao Luopei with many possibilities for academic research, because the best intellectuals in China gathered here to escape the war, which gave him ample opportunities to meet these celebrities and laid a good foundation for him to fully understand China society and culture.
After the war, Gao Luopei was recalled to Holland and sent to The Hague. 1947, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent him to Washington. 1948 was sent to Tokyo again for three years. During this period, he abridged a novel written by an anonymous person in Qing Dynasty in China. The novel Di Gong Case-Di Gong's Three-Breaking Murder (Tokyo, 1949) describes the story of Di Renjie (630-700), a judge in the Tang Dynasty. This book provided a blueprint for his own novel Di Gong, and he wrote two books in the same year.
After working in New Delhi for a period of time, Gao Luopei returned to the Netherlands. At this time, he has been promoted to the highest level diplomat. 1956- 1959 as the Dutch plenipotentiary in Lebanon, 1959- 1962 as the Dutch ambassador to Malaysia, staying in Kuala Lumpur. From 1962 to 1965, he returned to the Netherlands again, signed a contract with utrecht university, and taught "the cultural history of other Buddhist areas outside India" in addition to his administrative duties. 1965, he was stationed in Tokyo for the third time as the ambassador to Japan, but this time he failed to complete his term. /kloc-0 was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1967, and/kloc-0 died in The Hague on September 24th, 1967 at the age of 57. He was then the Dutch ambassador to Japan.
China married a wife.
Because of her strong recognition and obsession with China culture, Gao Luopei is determined to find an educated China woman as her lifelong companion. When he was the first secretary of the Dutch embassy in Chongqing, he fell in love with Ms. Shui Shifang, a famous Jiangsu woman who was then the secretary of the embassy. Shuishifang is the granddaughter of Zhang Zhidong, a famous minister in Qing Dynasty. Her father Shui worked in the Consulate General of China in Leningrad and later served as the mayor of Tianjin. Shuishifang is not only a famous queen, but also a graduate of cheeloo university. 1943, Gao Luopei married Shui Shifang at the age of 32, and later * * * had four children.
Oriental art
Sinology research
During his long academic career, Gao Luopei has been publishing works on Sinology with remarkable achievements. After finishing his thesis, he began to translate and introduce the works of Guiguzi, an ancient philosopher in China. In that era when linguistic research dominated European Sinology, it was a very insightful work. Unfortunately, this manuscript was destroyed by war in World War II. He has always tended to choose topics close to his personal preferences rather than following academic fashion, so he has written a large number of original research monographs. Forty or fifty years have passed, and most of them are still in printing.
Learn piano art
When 1943 arrived in Chongqing, Gao Luopei was attracted by the magical and wonderful China culture. After settling down, he began to study the essence of China culture carefully. First of all, he became interested in China's piano art. Soon, he hired a pianist from China to guide him to play music such as Mountains and Rivers. Whenever he plays the piano, he looks absorbed, shakes his head and looks intoxicated. In the same year, he and Yu Youren, Feng Yuxiang and other celebrities organized the "Tian Organ Society" to study China's piano art.
Gao Luopei devoted himself to the study of Qin culture in China. He made great efforts to write an English monograph Qindao, which was published in sophia university. This book is accompanied by a lot of quotations. He carefully translated the music score of Guqin, all kinds of works on Guqin, and materials related to Guqin in literature and art into English, with annotations, and published it in English on 1940 with the title "Legend of Chinese Pipa: Anes Inge in Ideology". He also translated Jikang's Guqin Poetry in the 3rd century (223-262), which was published in the same year, with the title of Jikang and His Guqin Poetry (Tokyo, 194 1).
Not only that, Gao Luopei found a monk named Gao Dong, who lived in Japan in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, was very influential in the history of Qin Xue, Japan, and was probably the first person to introduce Qin Xue from China to Japan, but his name rarely appeared in the history books of China. Later, he spent seven years visiting famous temples and museums, and * * * obtained more than 300 relics of Zen master's works, which were compiled into the Complete Works of Gao Dong Xin Yue Zen Master. It was originally planned to give it to Fu Zi 194 1, but it could not be made because of the outbreak of the Pacific War. From 65438 to 0944, he published Collected Works of Zen Master Gao Dong in Chongqing, which became a supplement to the history of Buddhism in China.
Practice calligraphy
Gao Luopei began to practice calligraphy at the age of 20 and never stopped. After arriving in Chongqing, he took this hobby to the extreme. His "high body" style is vigorous and far-reaching, and he prefers running script and cursive script. His interest in China's calligraphy prompted him to translate Mi Fei's History of Ink (Beijing, 1938). Gao Luopei's sense of identity with China culture moved China people. He wrote an inscription in Chinese characters on a carefully drawn China painting: "Holland laughs and forgets Gao Luopei's bosom friend station and piano room." The word "laugh and forget" here is his own word, which implies the meaning of "laugh and forget everything"; "Zhitai" is a number; "Zhonghe Piano Room" is the name of the study. After marrying Ms. Fang, a navy teacher, he renamed his study "Yin Yue 'an".
Oriental cultural relic connoisseur
Gao Luopei is a collector and connoisseur of oriental cultural relics, such as guqin, calligraphy and painting, porcelain, painting music, piano music and Buddha statues. Liulichang in Beiping, Kanda District in Tokyo, and the old bookstore in London are all places where he lingers. Gao Luopei has his own ideas about collecting antiques. He doesn't buy rare treasures, preferring broken antiques. He appreciated and studied calligraphy and painting, and devoted himself to it for more than ten years, compiling Appreciation of Japanese Painting-Traditional Painting Techniques Based on Scroll Mounting in China and China (Rome, 1958), with nearly 600 pages and 160 illustrations. At the end of the book, 42 samples of Chinese and Japanese papers are attached. There is also calligraphy and painting translation (Beirut, 1958).
bibliophile
Gao Luopei is also a bibliophile, and his collection is mainly China ancient books. After his death, all the books and manuscripts were donated by his family and kept in the "Gao Luopei Library" specially set up by the Institute of Sinology of Leiden National University in the Netherlands. This library has become a treasure house for studying China culture.
Language masters and poets
Gao Luopei is also a rare language master and outstanding poet in China's modern poetry. He has extraordinary talent and amazing perseverance in learning languages. Besides Dutch, he is also proficient in 65,438+05 foreign languages such as English, Chinese, Japanese, Sanskrit, Tibetan, German, French, Indonesian, Malay, Latin, Italian, Spanish, ancient Greek and Arabic. As a westerner, he can not only write beautiful articles in vernacular and classical Chinese, but also write modern poems such as rhymes and quatrains in Chinese.
Create a novel
Datang digong case
Create detective stories and become famous in one fell swoop.
Gao Luopei's works are well known, but his ingenious ancient detective stories in China are the most popular.
Di Gong's Novel Creation Background
In Chongqing, Gao Luopei read a case-solving novel "Four Mysteries of Wu Zetian" in the early Qing Dynasty. He was deeply impressed by De Renjie, the hero of the Qing Dynasty case-solving novel Four Mysteries of Wu Zetian. Through the in-depth study and comparison between the western detective novels and The Legend of China's Case-solving, Gao Luopei realized that the criminal investigation skills of the ancient judges in China described in the book were better than those of the western detective novels in terms of logical reasoning methods, case-solving ability and criminal psychological quality. He also found that before the appearance of western detective stories, China's case-solving novels had been popular in the East for hundreds of years, while short stories with detective stories were widely circulated in China more than 1000 years ago. The image of heroes appeared on the ancient stage of China for centuries, or was vividly depicted by storytellers at that time.
He was also surprised to find that readers in China like to read western detective stories, and their level in the west is very low, even lower after being translated into Chinese. China's long-standing case-solving legend has been distorted and belittled repeatedly in the west, and the image of ancient judges in China has also been distorted and damaged frequently in the west, which is deeply unfair to Gao Luopei.
The Four Mysteries of Wu Zetian is an anonymous novel in Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). It may be written around 1800, but the earliest known version is marked with a fairly recent date. This book shows the works of Di Renjie with an absurd and completely opposite narrative. The anonymous author tries to portray a perfect official, who is concerned about the sufferings of the people, loyal to the court, and good at improvising according to the needs of the environment. Gao Luopei asserted that the second half of the book was forged, so he only translated the first thirty chapters of the novel.
In the late 1940s, Gao Luopei first translated The Four Mysteries of Wu Zetian into English, and then wrote The Bronze Bell Case with Di Renjie as the protagonist in English. He had planned to publish the Chinese version of the bronze bell case in China. However, because the publishers in China didn't realize the great value of the book and their performance was not positive, Gao Luopei had to publish the English version first.
After the publication of the English version of The Bronze Bell Case, it was a great success and was out of control. Under the repeated urging of publishers, Gao Luopei worked hard to create more than a dozen short stories such as Labyrinth Case, Gold Case, Nail Case, Four Paintings Screen and Lake Case in 1950s and 1960s. These works eventually formed Gao Luopei's "encyclopedia of De Renjie series"-The Judge of Di Gong Case, that is, Tang Di Gong Case, which included 15 novellas and 8 short stories, and the book was about1.3000 words. These independent novels are arranged in chronological order, but not according to the date of writing, but according to the time when important events happened in Di Gong's life.
The content of Di Gong's case in Tang Dynasty
This rearranged Chinese novel is called A Case Study of Di Gong in Tang Dynasty. The content of this book is very extensive, covering the aspects of justice, politics, administration, bureaucracy, diplomacy, military affairs, industry and commerce, education, culture, religion, people's feelings and social life in the Tang Dynasty. The book is written in the style of imitating the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and it is unique among the sinology works in the world.
Comment on "Datang Digong Case"
Gao Luopei's profound knowledge of China's culture, art, law, social history and other aspects was fully reflected in the case of Datang Di Gong. The book not only describes that Di solved difficult and serious cases in different periods and regions, but also gives an in-depth description of the social life and customs in ancient China. The book praised Di Renjie's decision-making and meticulous thinking for the people, and declared the ultimate downfall of the evil forces and their punishment by law. While telling the story and unfolding the plot, the works skillfully combine the laws and regulations of ancient China society, famous things, customs and habits, human feelings and landforms with modern western psychology, criminal investigation and other knowledge, and integrate the story structure in oriental novels with the sharp turn and aftermath in modern western literature. In narrative style and writing skills, it is different from both China's case-solving novels and the detective novels of Sherlock Holmes, Yasen Luoping and Poirot in the west, thus realizing the complementarity and blending of eastern and western literature.
Di Gong's novels in the west.
All Gao Luopei's works are written in English. He always provides a note in his books to explain the relevant traditional culture of China. He also prepared for the Dutch translation of his works, and even translated Labyrinth into Chinese (Singapore, 1952). The first two novels of Di Gong were published in Japanese first and then in English (1950; 195 1)。 In 1960s, when all Gao Luopei's novels were translated into French and German, Di Gong's novels achieved great success in the world. Among many other foreign language versions, there is the Spanish version of The Golden Case by Prince bernhard of the Netherlands, which was published in Madrid on 1965. Di Gong's novels have been popular in the west for a long time. They have been translated into more than ten languages, even including Swedish, Finnish, Croatian and other small languages, and have been made into movies many times. JudgeDee (Di Gong) has also become a well-known legend in Europe and "Sherlock Holmes in China" in the eyes of westerners.
Gao Luopei's Di Gong novels have all been translated into Chinese. Translators are very free to deal with texts, and they often omit too many parts that explain the details of China's life to western readers. The most interesting thing is that Gao Luopei's independent novel was quickly adapted into a novel about Di Gong.
The Contribution of Di Gong's Novels
Gao Luopei's contribution lies not only in his introduction of China culture to the west, but also in his own creative practice, which completed the transformation from case-solving novel to detective novel.
Before the birth of western detective stories, there was a kind of popular literature-case-solving novels, which was similar to but different from western detective stories in ancient China. Evolved from script stories, most of them write historical stories of honest and upright officials in feudal society. Crime-solving novels are similar to detective novels, but they are quite different from detective novels in the process and method of solving crimes. After all, it's the anecdotes and folklore of China's ancient officials, lacking thrilling suspense and strict reasoning, so it failed to form the pattern of western detective novels.
According to the rich historical materials in ancient China, Gao Luopei reformed and innovated China's case-solving novels. His Da Tang Di Gong Case transformed China's case-solving novel into a western detective novel, which constituted a gripping suspense, meticulous reasoning and epiphany.
High yield and multifunction
Gao Luopei's versatility has been fully reflected in the publication of The Case of Don Di Gong. In order to improve the content and form of the book, all the illustrations of China's ancient cultural works, such as Di Gong Case in Tang Dynasty, were carefully designed and drawn by him personally. Illustrations are antique and full of charm. He signed H.R.H on every illustration. These three letters are short for "Holland Robert Hans".
In the process of finding templates to draw novel illustrations, I came into contact with various erotic pictures in the late Ming Dynasty (1368- 1644). Only then can we understand the artistic atmosphere of the late Ming Dynasty.
As a sinologist, Gao Luopei is famous for his collection of paintings of China erotic palace, books about sexual intercourse and research studies. Gao Luopei's sexology study actually originated from novels. 1950, when Gao Luopei's novel Labyrinth was to be published in Japanese, the publisher asked for a picture of a naked woman as the cover, but Gao Luopei thought it was not a tradition in China, so he refused. Gao Luopei only used China ancient prints, and the two sides were deadlocked. To prove this, he wrote to dozens of antique dealers in Japan and China, asking if there were any woodcut nudes of the Ming Dynasty. As a result, the Shanghai office said that their clients used it for copying, but the antique shop in Kyoto had the original version of the Ming Dynasty woodcut album, that is, a set of 24-color printed "Hua Ying Jin" and the "Secret Album" published by NINEONE over the years, which aroused his interest in the traditional society of China. Gao Luopei began to collect ancient books from the early Han Dynasty to the late Ming Dynasty, especially Taoist sexual intercourse and poems and novels describing the relationship between men and women in previous dynasties, and got many lost books and manuscripts from the people. After finishing, he reprinted 50 sets at his own expense in the 1950s when he was in prison and conservative. This book has been reprinted many times, although some scholars privately doubt the authenticity of these paintings.
Since then, Gao Luopei began to study China's sexual behavior and sex literature in The Study of Secret Plays. 196 1 year, he wrote a big book "Sexualized China" in English, and the Chinese name was "China Ancient Indoor Examination-China Ancient Sex and Society", which was published in the Netherlands and became the first person in the world to systematically sort out China's sex books.
A few years before his death, Gao Luopei kept gibbons as pets when he was in Kuala Lumpur and Tokyo. This hobby prompted him to study the role of this animal in China culture, and compiled his last monograph, Notes on China Gibbon-Animal Legend of China (Leiden, 1967), which also included a record of an ape crying.
academic achievement
The first edition of Di Gong's novels
Judgedeemysteries (1954-1967) series: bronze bell case, written in 1948- 195 1, modified in 19565438+. London: Michelle Yue Se, 1958.
Maze case, written in 1950, The Hague: W. Van Hof, 1953.
The case in the lake, the draft of which was written in 1952 and rewritten in1957; London: Michelle Yue Se, 1960.
The Golden Box, written in 1956, London: Michelle Yue Se, 1959.
The nail case, written in 1958, London: Michelle Yue Se, 196 1 year.
New underground palace series
Four paint screens, written in 1958, Kuala Lumpur: Art Publishing House, 1962.
Temple haunted by demons, written in1958-1959, Kuala Lumpur: Art Publishing House, 196 1 year.
Red Tent, written in 1959, Kuala Lumpur: Art Publishing Factory, 196 1 year.
The Pearl of the Emperor, written in 1960, London: William Hyman, 1963.
Guangdong homicide, written in1961-1962, London: William Hyman, 1966.
Willow model, written in 1963, London: William Hyman, 1965.
Ghost of Ancient Temple, written in 1965, London: William Hyman, 1966.
Necklaces and gourds, written in 1966, London: William Hyman, 1967.
Poet and murder, written in 1967, London: William Hyman, 1968.
Other works
Mi Fei's Translation of Mo Shi (Beijing, 1938)
Qindao (1940)
China on Qin (Tokyo, 194 1)
Ji Kang and His Fu Qin (Tokyo, 194 1)
Collection of Zen Master Gao Dong (published by Chongqing Commercial Press, 1944)
Textual research on the secret play-erotic picture of Ming dynasty, and also on China's sexual life from Han dynasty to Qing dynasty (206- 1644 BC) (Tokyo, 195 1).
Siddhartha: A History of Sanskrit Studies in China and Japan (Nagpur, 1956)
Tang Yinbi: Two Similar Cases under the Pear Tree,/kloc-a textbook of law and investigation in the 3rd century (Leiden, 1956).
Appreciation of China's Painting —— Based on the traditional painting techniques of scroll mounting in China and Japan (Rome, 1958).
Translation of the calligraphy and painting Tell the Bell (Beirut, 1958)
An Indoor Examination of Ancient China —— Sex and Society in Ancient China (Leiden, 196 1).
Notes on Gibbon in China-Animal Legend in China (Leiden, 1967).
Academic evaluation
According to the traditional view, Gao Luopei's sinology belongs to the "alternative". He was not satisfied with looking for chapters and sentences in classical Chinese prose, but contacted the society, explored China culture in folk customs, collected information, conducted research and introduced it to the world. He combined Chinese civilization with western thoughts and wrote many works handed down from generation to generation, which is the expansion of Sinology.