The other did not reply at once. He seemed lost in thought. When he spoke up at last, his voice was utterly weary.
‘Tala is dead, and I am a dying man. Why shouldn’t I tell you, judge? Tala was in the temple, that night of the tenth. She was bound by mystic ties to the central spot in the hall, the holy lotus flower, the eternal symbol of the source of life, hallowed by continuous sacrifice. Every night when there was a full moon she went there, to burn the sacred wood. Tala saw that young woman enter the hall, and followed her. Lee Ko was standing by the open crypt, and Tala saw him push the girl inside and close the trap door. Tala told me. She didn’t ask Lee why he had thrown her into the crypt. Tala never asked questions.’
‘She did yesterday,’ the judge said. ‘When my lieutenant went to see her, she asked her god about the girl, after she had learned from my lieutenant that her name had been Jade. The answer was that Jade had died on the tenth, and of a broken neck. That was true, for I examined her dead body tonight. That god of Tala’s also told her that she herself would die today. And that came true also.’
The Monk slowly shook his large head.
‘Tala was strong, judge. Stronger than I, and Lee, and Yang. But her god was stronger than her. She was wedded to him by the strange rites that transcend the boundary between life and death. You asked about my faked message, judge. I sent it to Lee to frighten him. Frighten him into giving me that gold. So that I could take Tala away from him. Next to her god, she belonged to me.
‘The next day I sent Cross-eye, my old henchman in the window up there, to Lee’s place. To summon him to my cellar. But Lee apparently hadn’t understood, for he never came.’
‘You shouldn’t have covered the box with dried mud, Monk. Yang came to the door and bought the box, but neither he nor Lee ever gave it a second look. Lee sold it, together with some other rubbish, to a curio-dealer. And I bought it from him. At first …’ The other raised his large hand. ‘Enough of that accursed box, judge. Let’s talk about Lee. Tala threw him away, as one throws away a piece of sugar cane, chewed dry. And she took Yang. The other day she came to see me. Told me you were after her, but that it didn’t matter. Yang knew now where the gold was, and he had killed Lee, and Lee’s helper, Seng-san. She would flee with Yang over the border. It was time, for her people were turning against her, and her god had told her she was about to die, join him for ever. But she didn’t believe him, this time. She laughed when she said that. And now she’s dead. The gods have the last laugh, judge. Always.’ He stared at nothing, his eyes vacant. Suddenly he darted a quick glance at the judge and asked: ‘What did you do with her dead body?’
‘I had it cremated, and the ashes scattered. That was her last wish.’
The other lifted his big hands in a hopeless gesture. ‘That means I have lost her. For ever. The wind will blow her ashes over the plain, and they’ll change into a white witch, rushing through the air, white and naked on her black steed, by the side of the red god, her master. They’ll ride the gale together when it comes raging over the desert, and when the Tartars hear her scream they’ll cower in their tents and say their prayers. You should’ve buried her ashes, Judge.’
‘The rule is,’ Judge Dee said dryly, ‘that the ashes of a person who leaves no known relatives are scattered.’
‘You don’t believe the things I told you, do you, judge?’
‘I neither believe nor disbelieve them. You asked a futile question, Monk. Tell me, where did the gold in the temple come from?’
‘I don’t know. Tala knew, but she never told me. Someone must have hidden it there, last year. In my time it wasn’t there.’
‘I see. Did Lee Ko meet Tala in the temple?’
For a long time the Monk remained silent. His large head sunk, he aimlessly traced with his finger the incised designs on the table-top. At last he spoke: ‘Lee was a learned man and a great artist. But he wanted to know too much, far too much. There are things that even a wise man like you had better not know, judge. Therefore I shall tell you only this. Twenty years ago, when I was forty and Tala twenty, we were the high priest and high priestess of the Temple of the Purple Clouds. When, five years later, the authorities closed down the temple, we feigned to forswear the creed, and continued to practise it in secret, in the Hermitage. For we were adepts, versed in all the mysteries. We knew much about what people for want of better words call the beginning and the end of the spark of life. We knew too much. But we didn’t know, judge, that man is bound to travel in circles, always. Just when you think you have arrived at the end, about to reach the ultimate mystery, you suddenly find yourself right back where you started. Tala, the high priestess, who knew all the secrets, fell in love with Lee Ko. And she left me.’
Suddenly he laughed. It echoed hollowly in the empty cellar. The old man in the window began to hop to and fro. The Monk checked himself. He said sombrely: ‘You didn’t laugh, judge. You are right. For the biggest laugh is yet to come. You’d think that I, the high priest of esoteric love, would just shrug at her folly, and go my way, wouldn’t you? No. When she was moving from the Hermitage to the city, I begged her not to leave me, judge! Begged her! ‘ With a superhuman effort he raised himself on his muscular arms and shouted: ‘Laugh now, judge! Laugh at me, I tell you! ‘
Judge Dee met his haunted eyes levelly. ‘I don’t know how Tala felt about you, Monk. I do know, however, that she still loved her daughter. Last night she was luring my lieutenant to the spot behind the temple where Yang would kill him, letting the top of the crumbling wall crush him. But at the very last moment, she suddenly saw your daughter coming up behind him, and she raised her arms in alarm. That frantic gesture frightened my lieutenant. He halted in his steps, and that saved his life.’
The Monk glanced away.
‘I had hoped,’ he said in a low voice, ‘that Tala would discard Yang in the same manner as she had discarded Lee. Abandon Yang, as soon as he had got the gold. I also hoped I would then be able to wean her away from her terrible god. For although the spark of life has died in me, I am still familiar with the unnamed rites, and I still know the unutterable spells.’ He heaved a deep sigh that swelled his broad chest. ‘Yes, I had hoped to free her from her bonds, and take her and our daughter over the border, to our own people. To ride over the wide plain again! To ride on and on, for days on end, in the clean, crisp air of the desert! ‘
‘I remember,’ Judge Dee said slowly, ‘that I told Yang that the horse that breaks loose from the team will roam over the plain, free and untrammelled. But the day will come when it grows lonely and tired. Then it finds itself all alone and lost-the track effaced by the wind, and the chariot vanished beyond the horizon.’
The Monk, lost in thought, did not seem to have heard him. When he spoke again, his voice was very soft.
‘Without her god, Tala would have shrunk to an empty shell, just like me. For although the gods let us spend freely all we want to spend, they never give any of it back. But even two empty, old people who love each other can at least wait for death together. Now that I have lost Tala, I shall have to wait alone. It won’t be too long.’ His voice had become so low as to be hardly audible. He raised his head, and whispered hoarsely, ‘It’s getting late, judge. You’d better go. Unless you think you should take action against me, or … or take my testimony…’
The judge rose. He shook his head and said, ‘My case is complete, Monk. There is nothing to be done, nothing to be said. Not any more. Goodbye.’
He went to the staircase, followed by Sergeant Hoong. The small old man squatting in the window had drawn the tattered black robe close to him, his shoulders hunched, his bald head drawn in. A ruffled crow gone to roost.
Postscript
Judge Dee was a historical person who lived from 630 to 700 A.D., during the Tang dynasty. Besides earning fame as a great detective, he was also a brilliant statesman who, in the second half of his career, played an important role in China’s internal and foreign policy. The adventures related here, howeve
r, are entirely fictitious, and the Lan-fang district, where the events described in this novel are supposed to have occurred, is wholly imaginary.
The new, esoteric sect of Buddhism frequently referred to is Tantrism, flourishing at that time in India and abroad, cf. Appendix I of my book Sexual Life in Ancient China, a preliminary survey of Chinese sex and society from c. 1500 b.c. till 1644 A.D. (E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1961).
In Judge Dee’s time the Chinese did not wear pigtails; that custom was imposed on them after 1644 A.D., when the Manchus had conquered China. Before that date they let their hair grow long, and did it up in a top-knot. They wore caps both inside and outside the house, and both men and women dressed in wide, long-sleeved robes resembling the Japanese kimono-which is, in fact, derived from the Chinese Tang costume. Only the military, and low-class people, wore short dresses that showed the wide trousers and leggings. Tea, rice wine and various kinds of strong liquor were the national beverages. Tobacco and opium were introduced into China only many centuries later.
—ROBERT VAN GULIK
About The Author
Robert Van Gulik was born in the Netherlands in 1910. He was educated at the Universities of Leyden and Utrecht, and served in the Dutch diplomatic service in China and Japan for many years. His interest in Asian languages and art led him to the discovery of Chinese detective novels and to the historical character of Judge Dee, famous in ancient Chinese annals as a scholar-magistrate. Van Gulik subsequently began writing the Judge Dee series of novels that have so captivated mystery readers ever since. He died of cancer in 1967.
Robert Van Gulik
The Judge Dee Mysteries
The Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee
The Chinese Maze Murders
The Chinese Bell Murders
The Chinese Lake Murders
The Chinese Gold Murders
The Chinese Nail Murders
The Haunted Monastery
The Red Pavilion
The Lacquer Screen
The Emperor’s Pearl
The Monkey and the Tiger
The Willow Pattern
Murder in Canton
The Phantom of the Temple
Judge Dee at Work
Necklace and Calabash
Poets and Murder
A Chronology of the Judge Dee Books
Judge Dee at Work contains a "Judge Dee Chronology" telling of Dee's various posts, in which Van Gulik places the mysteries—both books and short stories—in the context of Dee's career and provides other information about the stories. On the basis of this chronology, the works can be arranged in the following order:
663 A.D. – Judge Dee is the magistrate of Peng-lai, a district in the Shantung province on the northeast coast of China.
The Chinese Gold Murders
"Five Auspicious Clouds", a short story in Judge Dee at Work
"The Red Tape Murders", a short story in Judge Dee at Work
"He Came with the Rain", a short story in Judge Dee at Work
The Lacquer Screen
666 A.D. – Judge Dee is the magistrate of Han-yuan, a fictional district on a lakeshore near the capital of Chang-An.
The Chinese Lake Murders
"The Morning of the Monkey", a short novel in The Monkey and the Tiger
The Haunted Monastery (Judge Dee, while traveling, is forced to take shelter in a monastery.)
"The Murder on the Lotus Pond", a short story in Judge Dee at Work (667 A.D.)
668 A.D. – Judge Dee is the magistrate of Poo-yang, a fictional wealthy district through which the Grand Canal of China runs (part of modern-day Jiangsu province).
The Chinese Bell Murders
"The Two Beggars", a short story in Judge Dee at Work
"The Wrong Sword", a short story in Judge Dee at Work
The Red Pavilion, visiting Paradise Island in the neighboring Chin-hwa district
The Emperor's Pearl
Poets and Murder, visiting neighboring Chin-hwa
Necklace and Calabash, visiting Rivertown and the Water Palace
670 A.D. – Judge Dee is the magistrate of Lan-fang, a fictional district at the western frontier of Tang China.
The Chinese Maze Murders
The Phantom of the Temple
"The Coffins of the Emperor", a short story in Judge Dee at Work (672 A.D.)
"Murder on New Year's Eve", a short story in Judge Dee at Work (674 A.D.)
676 A.D. – Judge Dee is the magistrate of Pei-chow, a fictional district in the far north of Tang China.
The Chinese Nail Murders
"The Night of the Tiger", a short novel in The Monkey and the Tiger
677 A.D. – Judge Dee is Lord Chief Justice (President of the Metropolitan Court) in the imperial capital of Chang-An.
The Willow Pattern
681 A.D. – Judge Dee is Lord Chief Justice for all of China.
Murder in Canton, visiting Canton
Two books, Poets and Murder and Necklace and Calabash, were not listed in the chronology (which was published before those two books were written); both were set during the time when Judge Dee was magistrate in Poo-yang.
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
The Phantom Of The Temple
Copyright © 1966 Robert H. Van Gulik
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