Di Ren-Jie 狄仁杰
Di Ren-Jie (狄仁杰) lived two lives. In the first, the real one, he was an honest and stubborn official of the seventh century who twice rose to the post of chancellor under Empress Wu Zetian and twice fell into disgrace. In the second, the invented one, he became a shrewd judge unraveling the most tangled crimes of the empire — first in a Chinese novel, then in the books of the Dutch diplomat Robert van Gulik, and later on screen. The Chinese press calls him the busiest hero of period cinema: in recent years, dozens of internet films about him have been released.
Di Ren-Jie was born in 630 in Taiyuan, into a family of hereditary officials. Having passed the state examination, he served in the provinces, and in 676 he became a secretary of the Supreme Court. Even then his character showed itself: he spoke out against the execution of a general who had cut down a cypress at the tomb of Emperor Taizong, accused influential dignitaries of corruption, and in 688, while serving as an official in Jiangnan, ordered the destruction of around 1,700 temples.
Under Wu Zetian, who in 690 proclaimed her own Zhou dynasty, Di in 691–692 first entered the ranks of the chancellors. He was soon falsely accused of treason – the charge was brought by Lai Junchen – and exiled as a county magistrate to Pengze. In 697 the empress brought Di back to the capital, and he again became chancellor. It is believed that it was he who persuaded her to name the son of Li Xian as heir. Before his death, Di recommended Zhang Jianzhi, Yao Chong and other officials to the court – in 705 they removed Wu Zetian from power and restored the Tang dynasty to the throne. Di Ren-Jie died in 700 in Luoyang and was buried near the White Horse Temple.
It was literature that made him a detective. In China there existed an entire genre, the "gong'an" – tales of wise judges solving crimes. The anonymous novel Di Gong An (狄公案) about his cases is dated variously – from the 18th century to 1890. The Dutch diplomat and orientalist Robert van Gulik found it in a Tokyo bookshop and in 1949 published a translation of the first thirty chapters under the title Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee. He then began writing his own novels about Judge Dee: between 1957 and 1968, sixteen of them appeared. Van Gulik's novels were also published in Russian, and it was through them that "Judge Dee" became known outside China. They were adapted into an English TV series (1969) and a TV film (1974).
In Chinese cinema, Di first appeared alongside the empress – as in the 1939 film Empress Wu Zetian, where he was played by Lai Ming. Television made him the lead: after the series Dee Case Legend (1986), real success came with the series Amazing Detective Di Ren Jie (CCTV-8, 2004). Di was played in it by Liang Guanhua, and he remained in the role in all the sequels through 2017. It was Tsui Hark who brought the sleuth to the big screen: Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2010) with Andy Lau competed at the Venice Film Festival and won six Hong Kong Film Awards, including Best Director. There followed the prequel Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon (2013) with Mark Chao and Detective Dee and Four Heavenly Kings (2018).
After 2017, Di became the lead of internet cinema: the site already lists around fifty such films. The most successful, such as Under the Tower (2018) and Di Ren Jie Zhi Fei Tou Luo Cha (2020), each grossed more than 30 million yuan on the platforms.
Over half a century the image has changed noticeably. Television showed Di as a mature and level-headed dignitary for whom investigation was an extension of public service. Tsui Hark made the hero younger and added mysticism and fight scenes to his cases, while internet films went even further: judging by their titles, Di now more often battles demons, ghosts and dragons than interrogates witnesses.
