The collection of evidence, especially on-site evidence, is the beginning of the detection of every criminal case and the key to conviction and sentencing, and inquest inspection is the key link in obtaining on-site evidence. Today, Xiaobian takes you to the Song Dynasty to see the development of the inspection system in the Song Dynasty at that time!
1. The hand of the hand of the work distinguishes right from wrong, and the corpse and bones should be defended
In ancient times, when the level of science and technology was relatively backward, the evidence obtained through inquest and inspection activities proved extremely strong. It was highly recognized at the time and usually directly determined the nature of the case and the means of the crime.
Based on his own case-handling experience, the author Song Ci has a more detailed division of the investigation activities of various criminal cases. The book "Washing the Wrongs" is the most accomplished with the post-mortem technique. It can be said that "Washing the Wrong" is a post-mortem rule.
The "Record of Washing Wrongs" also contains: "Only when the fatal and vital harm is detected, can the two disputes be detained and the relatives can be seen for the order." It is not allowed to come closer, lest the corpse be damaged"; "When the servants and pedestrians were instructed, they threw more Rui (Yizuo Akian) grass into vinegar, smeared the damaged places, and no traces were visible.
In the case of licorice juice, see ", these contents constrain the behavior of the inspector. It can be seen from the relevant literature that it has also made a series of measures against the phenomenon of favoritism and fraud that may occur during the autopsy.
Moreover, Song Ci put forward higher requirements for the quality of personnel involved in autopsies in the "Records of Washing Wrongs", and he required that he should be very attentive when examining the deceased and strictly follow the requirements for unified examination. Therefore, it can also be seen that the two Song Dynasties broke the restrictions of the concept of men and women in the view of life and death, and Song Ci's respect for the dead.
The "Record of Washing Injustices" contains: "First look at the place where the corpse is, four to high and low, a certain place away, within the stream, up to the foot of the mountain or a few banks, who is on the ground, where is the place name, if the house is inside, where is it tied, and whether there is a cover up and down, before the corpse can be examined." ”
From the relevant literature, it can be seen that Song Ci's examination method for unburied corpses is different from the past, and this post-mortem examination step greatly reduces the damage to the crime scene during the examination process.
Nor will it ignore the clues left by criminals. During the autopsy, the clothing, luggage and jewelry carried by the body should be recorded and listed in detail and handed over to the government.
After the body is cleaned, focus on checking whether there are obvious features on the body. Finally, the length and age of the body are indicated, which is similar to today's forensic examination, and its role is to record the death state of the deceased and help in the investigation of murder.
Secondly, if there is doubt about the cause of death of the deceased in a certain murder case or there is new evidence to prove that the deceased has another cause of death, but the deceased has been buried, it is usually necessary to open the coffin and conduct an autopsy to determine the true cause of death. The scope of the inquest in such cases includes the specific location of the deceased's burial, the name of the place, the size of the grave, how the body was placed, the style of the coffin, etc.
Therefore, the examiner should re-survey the situation around the body, determine the changes that the body may have during the burial process, and then test the true cause of death.
Traditional Chinese culture respects the deceased, and even today it is widely said that "the dead are great," not to mention those who have been buried.
The existence of the article "Examination of the Tomb and the Burial of the Funeral under the House" in the "Record of Washing the Wrongs" shows that the Song Dynasty attached importance to and protected personal life. In order to find out the truth, the old ritual can be broken and the coffin can be opened for an autopsy, which is very similar to the judicial goal of "murder must be solved" pursued by contemporary public security organs.
In criminal cases, it is often seen that the corpse has been decomposed for many days at the time of the crime, and for the corpse that has decomposed, the main techniques recorded in the "Washing Record" are deodorization, odor avoidance, and testing the wound in the undecayed skin. On the importance of examining carrion, Song Ci mentioned: "If you don't come in person, you often make mistakes. ”
From the relevant literature, it can be seen that in the Song Dynasty, when there was no modern medicine, judicial officials mainly protected themselves through various Chinese herbal medicines, avoiding corpse odor and filth, so as to concentrate on examining corpses.
In the Song Dynasty, Keshuping and modern nature cannot be compared, but from the post-mortem chapter, we can find that the forensic examination technology of the Song Dynasty can be said to have brought the autopsy function to the extreme.
In particular, the use of the autopsy method of steamed bones has greatly improved the efficiency of judicial organs in solving cases. Even though the deceased has been long dead, Song Dynasty inquest workers can still find clues from the body.
The body was found in a barren mountain area in a foreign area, and the local area had done a preliminary examination, but did not dare to draw conclusions, so it was sent to other counties to apply for re-examination. When encountering such a situation, the inspector shall truthfully report the situation of the corpse, and the bones shall not be buried without authorization, but must report to the superior to which he belongs, and conduct a re-examination in accordance with the instructions of the superior. At the same time, they should personally carry out the re-examination, "which shall not be recognized as an unwarranted test".
From the relevant literature, we can see the characteristics of regional cooperation and cooperation in the judiciary of the Song Dynasty, precisely because although the inspection and inspection activities are part of the judicial act, their own technical and neutral nature determines that the territory can break through boundaries.
Second, whoever says that there is no good doctor, he can heal the world with his hands
The "Record of Washing Wrongs" quotes the edict of the Song Dynasty: "Those who eat people, according to the 'law of other things'", and the "Affirmation of the Penal System": "Kicking people with boots and shoes is determined from the lawsuit: hard, that is, from other things; If it is not hard, it is difficult to make other things." It can be seen from the relevant literature that the legal significance of the test for such injuries was clearly defined at that time.
In ancient times, the examination of the degree of damage to mechanical systems was similar to the identification of injuries today. Its test results directly determine the nature of the crime and the motives of the perpetrators, how to convict and how to determine the sentence, and so on.
In the Song Dynasty, when the discretion of the magistrate was great, the mechanical injury test result was not only the reference for the judge's conviction and sentencing, but also the limitation of the scope of his discretion, reflecting the concept of a certain degree of crime proportionality.
In addition, the "Record of Washing Wrongs" also describes the situation of disguising scars to cover up the true cause of death, that is, "if beech bark is made into marks and pretended to be marks of other objects, the inside of the marks is rotten and black, and the surrounding is blue, and it gathers into one piece without swelling and is not hard." Another pretended to be killed, burning the green bamboo grate, but there were only scorched black marks, shallow and flat. Less hard. "From the relevant literature, we can know how the Song Dynasty distinguished between fake injuries and fake deaths.
Self-punishment was considered self-injury or suicide at the time, and in such cases, the main thing for the inquest examiner was to determine the fatal wounds of the deceased and to determine whether the deceased was a real suicide or self-injury.
At that time, one of the most common ways of committing crimes in criminal cases was killing, that is, using blunt or sharp objects. In the chapters of "Washing the Wrong" and "Killing", the difference between the wounds left by different murder weapons after physical injury is introduced to infer the circumstances of the crime.
Through the analysis of corpse scars, restoring the criminal process and solving the case is an important means in the criminal investigation process.
The "Record of Washing Wrongs" specifically mentions the method of identifying whether a wound is formed before or after death: "The living person is killed and injured by the blade, and the flesh and skin of the blade are tightened, and there is blood on all sides." If the person is dismembered, the muscles and bones and skin are thick and sticky, and the skin and flesh at the blade are tightened and the bones are exposed", "Those who cut off their heads, cut off when alive, and the tendons are retracted; Truncated after death, the item is long and does not stretch. ”
It can be seen from the relevant literature that this identification technique effectively avoids the interference of the murderer on the judicial investigation agency and makes the detection work more directional.
It is pointed out from the chapter "Washing the Wrongs and Dying by Fire": Those who were burned to death before their lives "had soot in their mouths and noses, and their hands and feet were shrunk"; If they are burned after death, they are "free of soot in their mouths, although their hands and feet are shrunk." The relationship between these two circumstances affects the nature of the case, so it is important for the examining officer to find out the true cause of death.
In addition, fire death usually causes more damage to the body, sometimes even only bones. In this case, the examiner should focus on the bone.
From "Le Gong Zuo picked up the white bones, fanned away the dust from the ground, and poured it on the ground under the corpse, and poured it with rice vinegar wine, and if it was killed, there was blood on the ground, bright red." "You can see how you can tell if it was a homicide or an accident.
In addition to the above, the "Records of Washing Wrongs" also records the different places of corpses, the death of rods, the death of hard object addiction, the death of oxen and horses, the death of wheels, and so on. Although ancient China did not have a sense of human rights and the concept of human rights, human life was the main object to be protected by traditional Chinese law.
Third, the combination of the five elements of yin and yang is only to restore the truth
Based on his rich experience in handling autopsy cases, Song Ci summarized the different deaths in self-hanging. The rope tie method used for hanging alone is divided into live sleeves, dead sleeves, monophyletic crosses and winding ties, etc., and the death status of the deceased is very different from different methods.
In such cases, it is common for the murderer to hang himself after the deceased is killed, in order to avoid judicial punishment. In response to this situation, "Washing the Wrong" specially added an article "Strangling Fake Self-hanging" after the "Self-hanging" chapter for identification.
In the book, there are mainly four kinds of cases: the victim being hung after death, hanging when he was strangled to half death, hanging after being strangled to death by a hard object, and forging self-hanged scars directly on the corpse.
In judicial practice, once the murderer deceives the investigators by forging the scene of self-hanging, he can completely evade legal responsibility. Therefore, accurate judgment of hangings and homicides is the central link in solving such cases.
On the basis of their predecessors, the Song Dynasty prosecutors summed up the different reactions of people drowning before and after death, which is of great significance for judging the nature of the case.
Song Ci not only summarizes how to judge whether the victim is dead when drowning, but also mentions how to judge whether the cause of death before drowning is death due to illness or beating.
However, it should be pointed out that with the development of medicine, some of the judgment bases summarized in the "Washing of Wrongs" in the chapter "Drowning" have been proved to be unscientific today.
This statement is relatively one-sided, and the red face of the corpse in the water may be post-mortem blood. After the body sinks in the water, the sinking degree is greater than the body torso due to the large mass of the head.
Blood will flow to the head and cause corpse spots to appear, so it cannot be assumed that as long as the face is red, the victim is thrown upside down into the water.
The book states: "Whoever is killed by someone with clothes or wet paper on his mouth and nose will have a dry stomach." "But in fact, there is no abdominal dryness in the case of the external hole of the mouth and nose being pressed to death. Moreover, the book says: "If the mouth and nose are pressed by something other than a person, and the person who is killed after breathing will not be able to breathe, his eyes will be open, his eyes will be protruding, and clear blood will flow out of his mouth and nose, and his face will be bloody and black."
It can be seen that the pressure on the mouth and nose dies, resulting in respiratory disorders and death. In fact, after the mouth and nose are blocked to death, the face will be bruised and purple. However, small spots may appear on the facial skin, so the statement that you eat black with blood is also inaccurate.
From today's point of view, we should not be too demanding of the ancients, even if the "Cleansing of Wrongs" is not so perfect from the perspective of modern forensic science, but its role in the Song Dynasty and its impact on the world are immeasurable.
Fourth, who seeks writers in poor alleys, and who seeks writers in poor alleys
When the ancient Chinese bone examination method originated is still inconclusive, but it is indeed well documented in the article "Washing Wrongs and Bone Examination", and there is also the "Qin Envoy Bone Examination Map" drawn by Zhang Zhiying, a famous Qing dynasty master.
For long-buried bodies, the body may have long been decomposed and cannot be examined, and the emergence of osteopathy has made up for this gap. The number , morphology, and basic structure of human bones are discussed in detail. Although according to today's medical conclusions, there are many errors in the understanding of human bones in the book.
For example, the book says that the human body has 365 bones, but in fact the human body has 206 bones. The division into long bones, short bones, partial bones and irregular bones also shows that this view is wrong.
Even so, the "Bone Examination" chapter is a very detailed record of bone anatomy in my ancient country. Regarding the method of bone examination, the article "On the Key Places of Bone Veins" mainly records three types, namely steamed bones, boiled bones and dripping bone examinations.
In the process of boiling bones, Song Ci noticed that the tin element contained in the tin pot would chemically react with the hydrogen sulfide contained in the bones during the bone boiling process, which was not conducive to bone testing, so he specifically stated that "tin must not be seen in boiling bones".
The article "Taking Poison" mainly records how to distinguish between the depth of poisoning, taking poison on an empty stomach or after meals, taking poison before death or after death, and chronic poisoning and the occurrence of poison at that time.
Most of the descriptions in the text are based on Song Ci's own experience in the process of practice. Although this article does not explain too much about the principle of poisoning and the toxicity of poisons, in the judicial environment at that time, the content contained in "Taking Poison" was very conducive to operation.
epilogue
"Washing the Wrong" not only reflects the level of forensic science in the Song Dynasty, but also shows the level of law, investigation and judicial development at that time to varying degrees, and reflects the political, economic and cultural conditions of the two Song Dynasties.
Although some of the forensic science knowledge in the "Records of Washing Wrongs" is no longer used by us, it is also of certain reference significance for our judicial activities today to analyze the litigation, evidence, procedures and other aspects of this work from a historical perspective.
For Song Ci himself, as a generation of forensic science experts, he will be personally involved in the judgment of prison cases throughout his life. During his four terms as a sentencing officer, he truly "let the dead speak, let the bones cry out", and made the case handle it fairly on the basis of correct examination.
bibliography
Translated by Song Ci, Gao Suijie, translated by Zhu Linsen, 2009 edition, p. 63
Song Ci, Gao Suijie, translated by Zhu Linsen, 2009 edition, p. 151
Song Ci, Gao Suijie, translated by Zhu Linsen, 2009 edition, p. 43
Translated by Song Ci, Gao Suijie, translated by Zhu Linsen, 2009 edition, p. 59
Song Ci, Gao Suijie, translated by Zhu Linsen, 2009 edition, p. 106
Song Ci, Gao Suijie, translated by Zhu Linsen, 2009 edition, p. 109
Translated by Song Ci, Gao Suijie, translated by Zhu Linsen, 2009 edition, p. 110
Song Ci, translated by Gao Suijie and Zhu Linsen, 2009 edition, p. 115