Stills from "The Great Song Ti Criminal Officer"
The two film and television dramas produced and broadcast by CCTV, "The Great Song Ti Criminal Officer" and the Hong Kong TVB classic drama "Wash of Grievances", made Song Ci well known to the public, and also made him a super detective comparable to Di Renjie and Bao Zheng. For the real Song Ci in history, the "Punishment Officer" is his official position, and the "Record of Washing" is the forensic science work he wrote, which is a strange book that is regarded as a classic by the forensic science community in the world.
Such a well-known figure does not appear in the "History of Song", which is the longest and most detailed history of the twenty-four histories. Many unknown figures can appear in the "History of Song" and be famous in history, but Song Ci, who has such a deep influence on later generations, has no biography, and it should be known that he is a high-ranking official of the temple of the official Erpin. In fact, the "History of Song" only began to be compiled at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, and the "History of Song", "History of Jin", and "History of Liao" were compiled in just two or three years. The hastily compiled history books are simply "edited + pasted" of the historical materials of the former dynasty, which naturally misses many well-known figures. Not only Song Ci, but also Gao Li, who is widely known for his "Water Margin", actually has no biography.
History of the Song Dynasty
Song Ci tried the corpse to decide the case, and you may think that he was from the ancestry of The Servant (the name of the ancient "forensic doctor"). In fact, He zuo was a "bureaucrat" with no rank, and Song Ci was an official court official. In ancient times, the distinction between officials and officials was strict, and "officials" had grades and room for ascension, while "officials" had no rank and were officials for life.
Song Ci grew up in the middle and late Southern Song Dynasty, and at the age of thirty he entered the priesthood and the first, and it was not until the age of fifty-five that he was appointed as the "Xing Prison of Guangdong Province". Since then, "Detective Song Ci" has officially appeared, and until his death nine years later, Song Ci left a very rich forensic wealth to posterity. When Song Ci decided the case, he attached great importance to "testing first", which made him far beyond the contemporaries and predecessors who relied on experience and IQ to reason about the case.
"Wash of Wrongs"
Due to the relative backwardness of anatomy in ancient Chinese medicine, many people also feel that the corpse is too ominous, and because of the constraints of Confucianism, the remains of women are more avoided. However, Song Ci's ability to break through these obstacles and achieve "careful exploration" of the remains is very admirable.
What do you think of this Great Song Detective?