The Haunted Monastery (1961)

About this episode

The episode discusses Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee stories, focusing on 'The Haunted Monastery' and its themes of mystery and crime.

Inspired by the real life Tang-dynasty magistrate, Di Renjie, Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee stories continue a rich history of Chinese crime writing, gong'an , featuring government figures who solve mysteries. In this adventure, Judge Dee and his entourage find themselves seeking shelter in the Morning Cloud Monastery, suspiciously linked to the mysterious deaths of three young women. Dee and his lieutenant Tao Gan leave no stone unturned (and no tea undrunk) in their pursuit to unravel the dark secrets of this two-faced, peace-proclaiming sanctuary! We had a great time talking about this intriguing text, recommended to us by our buddy Nick over at The Book Graveyard (https://www.youtube.com/@TheBookGraveyard). FastFacts@9:45; Summary@46:00; PIPES@1:07:15

People in this episode

Host: Lighting the Pipes

Topics covered

• Chinese crime writing
• Judge Dee
• mystery
• literature
• murder investigation

Keywords

• Judge Dee
• Robert van Gulik
• Tang-dynasty
• mystery
• Chinese literature
• crime writing
• murder

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Book Graveyard

Books & works: The Haunted Monastery

More episodes of Lighting the Pipes

• The Leavenworth Case (1878) · May 27, 2026 · 2h 39m
• Where the Body Was (2023) · May 7, 2026 · 1h 48m
• LTP 007: Death is Forever (1992) · April 30, 2026 · 1h 39m
• Assignment Sorrento Siren (1963) · April 22, 2026 · 1h 31m
• He Who Whispers (1946) w/ The Book Graveyard · April 7, 2026 · 2h 60m
• The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb (1923) · March 27, 2026 · 54 min