The 16th century Chinese detective novel which I published in
1949 in English translation under the title DEE GOONG AN was
illustrated with inferior 20th century illustrations. I tried,
therefore,to illustrate my English translation with plates
drawn by myself in the style of the book-illustrations of the
Ming period. This first attempt failed miserably: my drawings
were so clumsy that I had them omitted in the~German edition
of DEE GOONG AN. The plates I drew for my first Judge Dee
novel The Chinese Bell Murders are slightly better,mainly be-
cause I had then acquired some fine illustrated Ming block-
prints to work from. For the plates of this and my subsequent
novels I used as models mainly the fu1l-page illustrations of
the Ming blockprint: Lieh-nü-chuan  "Lives of Famous
Women",and Lieh-hsien-ch'üan-chuan  "Complete
lives of the Immortals",while I modelled the nudes after the
style of the erotic albums of that same period.
The sketches and rejected drawings I enclose herewith show
that the majority of my plates are composite drawings,consist-
ing partly of details traced directly on thin paper after
Chinese originals (chiefly dresses,pieces of furniture,styliz-
ed versions of trees,flowers and architectural designs) and
partly of my own independent work.Since the strictly linear
style of the Chinese book illustration leaves no margin for
corrections by shading or other conventional devices,I had to
re-draw practically every plate a number of times before
aChieving the desired effect. Hence I always work on transpa-
rent paper,which enables me to re-draw quickly a rejected de-
sign.
Since some Western reviewers asserted that my plates are
"un-Chinese",I enclose herewith a reprint of a Chinese Ming-
play containing facsimile reproductions of the original plates,
for comparison with my own work.
It may be added that most of the cover designs of my Judge Dee
novels are executed according to my designs,and that most of
the designs made by draughtsmen of my publishers were sub-
mitted to me for approval first - as stipulated in my con-
tracts.