Since 1958 I had been writing occasional Judge Dee short
stories,and six of these had been published together in a
Dutch edition in 1961. A longer short-story,"Four Fingers"
had been published separately in Dutch,as "Bonus-Book" dis-
tributed in Holland during the National Week of the Book,in
1964;another one,"The Night of the Tiger",had been published
in 1963 by Van Hoeve,as a pocket edition. In 1965 Heinemann
published these two long short-stories together in one vo-
lume,entitled "The Monkey and the Tiger",and an American
edition was brought out by Scribners.The manuscripts of these
two stories I have lost."The Night of the Tiger" I wrote in
The Hague in 1963,and the "Morning of the Monkey" later that
year;the latter is more or less a routine story,where Judge
Dee figures together with Tao Gan,but the former,where Judge
Dee appears all alone I consider as one of my best efforts.