The magistrate-detective is a standard character in much popular Chinese literature. English readers will know Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee. The Japanese transferred the literary genre to their own home-grown magistrates, Ooka Echizen and Tooyama no Kin-san. And in recent years Fujita Atsuko has had a manga series about a young and beautiful magistrate in China's Quing period (1664-1912)- Kou Josei.
Kou Josei is the youngest man ever to pass the Imperial examinations that were the gateway to a public career through most of China's history. At fifteen he came in first of many thousand candidates, and began a career distinguished both by Imperial favour and the enmity of other officials. Both are as much due to his brilliant good looks as to his talents. So lovely is he that the Emperor gives him the soubriquet Josei- like a star- instead of his given name. Western readers may not see what's so wonderful about Josei's looks as drawn. No matter. Take it that he's supposed to be stunningly beautiful.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Chinese magistrate in possession of brilliant detective ability and penetrating insight into the human heart must be in want of a year's supply of Ex-lax. It's an unfortunate given of the genre: Chinese magistrates are constipated prigs. (Or staunch Confucianists if you want to put it nicely.) Kou Josei alas is no exception. A humourless bore, his wife calls him affectionately. In his detective work he judges others by a clear set of moral standards, without rancour but without pity. Fortunately Atsuko-sensei is perfectly aware of the discrepancy between Josei's high standards and the turmoils and passions that lead people to harm others. A constant theme in her stories is the sad inevitability that messy human feelings will destroy the harmony of society that Josei prizes so highly.
But all is not priggishness. In the first place, these stories are meticulously researched as to historical detail- see our Kou Josei gallery of Manchu and Chinese costume- and give a very good idea of life in China under Manchu rule. (The architecture and interiors are beautifully rendered too.) For aesthetic reasons, Fujita-sensei has taken a few liberties with people's physical appearance. The style of shaving the front of the head and wearing the hair in a braid in back was forced on the native Chinese population by the foreign Manchu conquerors. It's probably the ugliest male hairstyle ever invented, and fortunately our hero and his friends are allowed to dispense with it. There's also the little detail of the occasional blond Chinese and the (almost universally) blond Manchus to contend with. I like it. Fujita-sensei's Manchus look like Anglo-Saxons and Visigoths, quite fittingly in view of our history- uncouth barbarians who conquered the civilized world.
Not least of the series' charm is that the stories themselves are a good read. They're real detective stories, with satisfying twists and plots to them, and all the dramatic emotional undercurrents that lead to murder.
And then there's the surrounding cast of characters.
Shou- Josei's childhood friend. Fifteen years old, adolescent, always talking about food. Comic relief, oh well.
Shukujin- Josei's superior, a playboy, man-about-town and amorist. Has it bad for Josei, who spurns his advances, occasionally keeping him at bay with a chair. More comic relief, oh well, but also a deeper character. Shukujin may mutter about how he hates ugly old men a lot, but he has a kind and fundamentally gallant heart. Get him away from Josei, as in the stories 'Lily Plucking Song' from Spring Dream, and especially when he goes out to face the rebels in Japanese Sword Song, and he comes across as quite admirable.
Hibaku Eika- a Manchu lord of the highest rank. Prune-faced exquisitely disapproving Josei melts like an icicle in his presence. Their first meeting is presented in Orchid Dew. We flashback to the beginning of their friendship. After young Josei passed the examinations so signally, he went to work in a government bureau closely attached to the Emperor. A high-ranked military man suggested indirectly that Josei divorce his wife and marry the man's niece. Josei, inexperienced in the ways of the world, refused with an apposite quote and thought no more of it.
But a few nights later as he was leaving his quarters for the office he was attacked and nearly killed by a group of palace servants, and rescued by Eika. The next night he was trying to nerve himself to walk the long deserted passages to the office. "It wasn't fear of death- it was fear of being afraid. If the general made his proposal to me again, would I still be able to stand by my beliefs and refuse?" In this moment of extreme self-doubt Eika appeared and suggested that they go for a walk in the moonlight- to Josei's office. "I was crying- I couldn't believe it myself." Eika trains Josei in archery and self-defence, most effectively as the few fight scenes we see can prove. The two are models of devoted friendship. Um, friendship. "In China, friendship is too important an emotion to be mixed with something as domestic and ordinary as sex," my informant tells me. OK. Whatever you say.
Here's a list of the Josei Manga in the order they appeared, for those who like to know what happened when. (Well, it bothered me, reading randomly the first time through, not to know whether Josei was in or out of favour in the current volume.)
I have summarized several of the tankoubon on the following pages. More will be added as I have time. Semi-spoilers, of course, though I won't tell you Whodunnit, for those planning to read them some day. Note that the chapter headings usually come from a Chinese poem that is quoted in the story and forms its theme.
The manga
| Yuuranro: Orchid Dew | Youryuushun: Willow Spring | Tennyo Mulan: Heavenly Maid Mulan |
| Shunmu: Spring Dream | Kouu: Crimson Rain | Shunjou Hika: Spring City, Flying Blossoms |
| Ryuu-ou: Lark Flight | Nihontou no Uta: Song of the Japanese Sword | Soei Zankou: Thin Shadows, Lingering Fragrance |