The Upright Magistrate's Strange Cases

A landmark of Chinese courtroom fiction, compiled by Yu Xiangdou in the Ming dynasty and published in the twenty-sixth year of the Wanli reign. The four-volume work contains 105 cases across sixteen categories, covering everything from homicide and adultery to theft, marriage, and debt. County magistrates, registrars, assistant magistrates, and circuit inspectors take turns solving cases, pioneering a format in which multiple officials serve as judges in a single book. Each story consists of four parts: the complaint, the petition, the events, and the verdict. It offers the pleasures of a lively tale while preserving the original form of Ming law. More than a hundred mirrors reflecting every corner of Ming officialdom and everyday life.