Robert H. Van Gulik was born in the Netherlands on August 9, 1910. He joined the Dutch Foreign Service in 1935. From 1942-1945, he was secretary for the Dutch mission to Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government in Chongqing, China. During this time, he translated a number of Chinese texts including Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee (Dee Goong An). He proceeded to write sixteen of his own Judge Dee novels. His scholarly works included Siddham: An Essay on the History of Sanskrit Studies in China and Japan, Hayagriva: Horse Cult in Asia, and Sexual Life in Ancient China. He died on September 24, 1967.
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