Western Cognition And Semiosis Construction Of Chinese Artifacts: A Study Of Van Gulik’s Judge Dee Mysteries

In recent years,research mapping the English detective series of Judge Dee Mysteries has been increasing as diversified perspectives are adopted.The prime reason is that Robert Hans van Gulik,a Dutch sinologist,constructs an ancient society that highlights the traditional Chinese charms with the attainment of Chinese literature and art.The grandeur of traditional Chinese culture is weaved and presented by abundant Chinese artifacts with texts and illustrations.As the topical subjects of this series of novels,Chinese artifacts’ symbolic value is worth exploring.On the one hand,the artifacts serve as the medium for van Gulik’s cognition of Chinese folk customs,religious beliefs and values.On the other hand,they are wielded as instruments for constructing the “Chinese society” and the image of China.However,previously,only a few studies paid attention to the constructive functions of the Chinese artifacts.On this account,the thesis seeks to investigate the constructive functions of the Chinese artifacts through the lens of the Peircean semiotic analysis;and examine how van Gulik adopts these artifacts in his cognition and construction of Chinese culture in Judge Dee Mysteries.The thesis studies on the core artifacts.They are incense-clock and abacus as Chinese folk life cognition,lacquer screen and the Willow Pattern porcelain as Chinese art cognition,and calabash as Chinese religious cognition.This part focuses on the textual or graphical representations of the five artifacts of this series and van Gulik’s Chinese cultural experience with them.Furthermore,with the application of the Peircean triadic structure of the sign,the thesis surfaces that the Chinese artifacts in Judge Dee Mysteries have transcended their original meaning and become the new cultural cognitive signs.And the “Chinese society” is constructed by van Gulik with the modification of components of a sign’s object.Lastly,the thesis restates that Judge Dee Mysteries is actually crafted with a semiotic web of the Chinese artifacts.It caters to the Western imaginations of the image of China.With the construction of signs/ artifacts,this detective series reveals not only the grandeur of the traditional Chinese culture,but also van Gulik’s ideal projection of a utopian world.