Author: Our special guest author Zhu Yingyuejiang
Mention the famous forensic doctor Song Ci of the Southern Song Dynasty, people will always unconsciously think of a popular TV series - "The Great Song Ti Criminal Officer".
In this brain-burning suspense drama, Song Ci relied on the ingenious means of "reasoning + judicial appraisal" to solve a series of difficult murder cases such as "Taiping County Unjust Case", "Li Fu Serial Case", "Maozhuwu Nameless Case", "Chengnanjing Corpse Case", "Legacy Fan Marriage Case", "Liang Yu Life Case", "Li Yugu Disappearance Case" and so on, which attracted the admiration of countless fans.
The wonderful plot of judging the case like a god has also made many viewers curious about the real Song Ci in history, so is the historical Song Ci really such a god in film and television dramas?
First, the Southern Song Dynasty
Speaking of Song Ci's "god", we have to mention the background of prudent prison affairs during the Southern Song Dynasty.
In the third year of Qiandao, Emperor Xiaozong issued a special edict saying: "Prison, heavy matters." There are laws for the auditors, there are comparisons for those who should be, and there are doubters for those who are suspicious," which is an official statement that they will carry out prudent prison affairs to the end.
The kings of the Southern Song Dynasty said so and did the same. In order to reflect the spirit of prison compassion, the Southern Song Dynasty stipulated that the number of people who died in prison was used to evaluate judicial officers, and if there was a situation of disregard for human life, judicial officers would be punished with cane and deposed.
In addition, the kings of the Southern Song Dynasty also adhered to the ruling concept of "if the officials are not good, then there is a law and there is no law", carefully selecting a high-quality law enforcement team, and being more cautious in the selection of judicial inspectors.
In order to prevent judicial inspectors from favoritism and fraud, the Southern Song Dynasty formulated a system for judicial inspectors to avoid suspicion. At the same time, the Southern Song Dynasty also stipulated that if the inspector violated the inspection principle or accepted bribes during the autopsy, he would be punished accordingly. These strict rules force judicial inspectors to be diligent and conscientious during inspections to avoid unsafe work.
At the same time, the Southern Song Dynasty also stipulated strict procedures for initial inspection and re-inspection, and there was no risk of false inspection at 360 degrees. Once any test is found to be untrue, not only correct the error immediately, but also hold the inspector responsible.
The Southern Song Dynasty government, which had a heart of leniency and benevolence, also did not forget to stipulate that all convictions and sentences must have criminal facts, and the facts of crimes must have sufficient evidence. In a word, human life is at stake, and it is not careless to be careless.
Under the strict and harsh judicial system of the Southern Song Dynasty, the judicial level of the Southern Song Dynasty thus surpassed one prosperous dynasty after another and moved to a new stage of maturity of the judicial inspection system.
Second, the cattle man Song Ci
The strict judicial inspection system of the Southern Song Dynasty not only reduced the occurrence of unjust, false and wrongly decided cases, but also trained many excellent forensic doctors for the imperial court, the most outstanding of which was Song Ci.
Originally, Song Ci also read the Four Books and Five Classics and became an official, but after working, he raised the position of prison officer, which made Song Ci realize the shortcomings of his professional skills. Therefore, song ci, without any medical foundation, on the one hand, studied medical works assiduously, on the other hand, carefully summarized the cases that appeared in the work and the experience of predecessors, and strived to improve the level of business.
After reading one thick medical book after another, Song Ci was finally able to apply physiological, pathological, pharmacological, toxicological knowledge and diagnostic methods to the forensic work of examining the dead and injured, and the long-term summary of the experience of learning also made Song Ci's test methods start from reality, taking into account both diversity and scientificity, and preventing the "mistakes of prison conditions" and "errors in determination" to the greatest extent.
In 1235 AD, Song Ci founded the "Forensic Identification" based on his years of practical experience and medical theory. This achievement not only marked the perfect transformation of Song Ci from a liberal arts student to a medical student, but also had a profound impact on the development of forensic identification in later generations, and Song Ci was revered as the originator of forensic science in the world.
But the myth of Song Ci was far from over, and in 1247 AD, Song Ci summed up his life's experience and wrote the immortal work "Collection of Washed Injustices". This "Collection of Washed Grievances" is not only the first systematic forensic science monograph in China, but also the world's earliest forensic science monograph, which has made indelible contributions to the development of forensic science in the world.
3. Collection of washed injustices
In the "Collection of Washed Grievances", Song Ci proposed many testing methods that are consistent with modern science, and some of them are still active in the field of forensic examination to this day.
For example, the "Red Oil Umbrella Bone Examination" method in the "Collection of Washed Grievances" mentions that the bones are rinsed with lees and vinegar and placed under the oil-paper umbrella to find the wounds.
This is actually the use of optical principles. Because the color displayed by opaque objects in sunlight is selectively reflected, oil-paper umbrella shielding can absorb some of the light that affects observation, making it easy to find scars.
This principle is still used in forensic examinations today, except that the ancient oil-paper umbrella shading was replaced by ultraviolet radiation.
What is even more amazing is that in many places in the "Collection of Washed Grievances", it is mentioned that the wound should be cleaned with lees, vinegar, white plum, five-fold seeds, etc., which is conducive to preventing bacterial infection and protecting the original appearance of the wound, which is very in line with modern scientific theory.
To this day, modern forensic science still uses acid to precipitate and protect wounds, and the subtlety of the Collection of Washed Grievances is evident from this.
With a copy of the "Collection of Washed Grievances", Song Ci instantly threw the many detectives in the wild history out of the three streets, even if Bao Zheng Di Renjie was reborn, there was only one capital letter in the face of the "Collection of Washed Grievances".
The advent of the "Collection of Washed Injustices" is like a guiding light for future generations, and countless innocent people have been able to show this treasure book. If the Qing officials on the stage brought immortal spiritual strength, then Song Ci brought scientific value beyond history, and this is also the most important significance of the "Collection of Washed Injustices".
Respecting life and maintaining justice, even in ancient times, when the technical conditions were extremely backward, were also the creeds that Song Ci and other heroes pursued all their lives. Flipping through the "Collection of Washed Injustices", although there are many imperfections and even limitations in it, its immortal spirit still deserves to transcend the admiration and touch of history.
References: Xu Xiaohui's "Research on the Judicial Inspection System of the Southern Song Dynasty", Zhuge Ji's "Song Ci and His Collection of Washed Grievances"
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