Song Ci (1186–1249), courtesy name Huifu, was a Han Chinese, a native of Jianyang (present-day Nanping, Fujian), and a famous forensic scientist of the Southern Song Dynasty. Friends who have watched the TV series "The Great Song Ti Punishment Officer" should have a deep memory of this Song Ti Punishment, the fact is that in the Chinese and Western forensic medicine circles, Song Ci's name is also like thunder, which can be called the originator of forensic medicine.
What made Song Ci the originator of forensic medicine was his "Collection of Washed Injustices". This is the first and most systematic forensic science monograph in the world.
The "Collection of Washed Grievances" records human dissection, autopsy, on-site investigation, identification of the cause of death and injury, first aid, detoxification, etc., and the whole book is composed of 53 items such as injury examination, autopsy, injury defense, and bone examination. It is the first and most systematic ancient judicial examination book in existence on the mainland, and since the Song Dynasty, it has only been limited to circulation in the official government and is strictly forbidden to be popular in the folk, the main reason is that it is afraid that the evil people will be evil with this book, and the forensic works of later generations are based on this book.
The Collected Works of Washed Grievances "Examines the method of death by fire, recording that the corpses of those who were burned before their deaths will have soot in their mouths and noses, and their hands and feet will be curled up... If after death, the hands and feet of the burner are curled up, there is no soot in the mouth." This means that everyone who is burned to death must have inhaled soot in the respiratory tract, and if not, he will be murdered and stop breathing before burning the body.
There is also a record in the book on burning corpses after murder, "If you are killed by a blade but do the burning of the dead, you will make white bones, fan the dust off the ground, and sprinkle rice vinegar on the ground under the corpse, and if you kill, there will be blood on the ground, bright red." (High concentration means tea) This should be a high concentration of vinegar essence spilled on the road surface of the scene to make the invading blood molecules appear.
The Collected Works of Washing Injustice records the method of drowning, strangulation, and self-hanging, "drowning bloating, with water inside; Death on the nose and mouth with clothing or wet paper, i.e., dry abdominal distension; If strangled, the rope under the item has been crossed, and the fingernails may be damaged; If you hang yourself, that is, the back of the head is divided into eight characters, the rope is not crossed, the rope is under the throat, the tongue is out, the throat is on the throat, and the tongue is not out." It means that a person who drowns will have a bloated stomach, and his stomach will be full of water, and if he is suffocated, his abdomen will also swell but there is no water in his stomach. If the neck is strangled, there must be traces of rope crossing, and the fingernails may be damaged while struggling. If it is hanged, there will be no traces of rope crossing on the neck, if the rope is under the throat the tongue will spit out, if the rope is above the throat the tongue will not spit out.
As an ancient forensic masterpiece on the mainland, the "Collection of Washed Grievances" predates the western equivalent books by 350 years, and it is no exaggeration to say that the "Collection of Shen Grievances" covers all the forensic science categories and 53 items, which are called the ancestors of forensic science.