Record of Redressing Mishandled Cases
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Collected Cases of Injustice Rectified
Collected Cases of Injustice Rectified or the Washing Away of Wrongs is a Chinese book written by Song Ci in 1247 during the Song Dynasty (960-1276) as a handbook for coroners. The author combined many historical cases of forensic science with his own experiences and wrote the book with an eye to avoiding injustice. The book was esteemed by generations of officials, and it was eventually translated into English, German, Japanese, French and other languages.
Forensic science and forensic Medicine
The first written account of using medicine and entomology to solve (separate) criminal cases is attributed to the book Xi Yuan Ji Lu «Collected Cases of Injustice Rectified», written in 1248 China by Song Ci (1186-1249). In one of the accounts, the case of a person murdered with a sickle was solved by a death investigator who instructed everyone to bring their sickles to one location. Flies, attracted by the smell of blood, eventually gathered on a single sickle. In light of this, the murderer confessed. The book also offered advice on how to distinguish between a drowning (water in the lungs) and strangulation (broken neck cartilage).
Brief History of Forensic Medicine in China
A handbook entitled Xi Yuan Ji Lu (“The Washing Away of Wrong” or “Collected Cases of Injustice Rectified”) written by Song Ci (1186-1249) has been considered the first systematic book on forensic medicine in history. It stated that a forensic medical doctor must be serious, conscientious, and highly responsible, and must also personally examine each dead body or body of a wounded person. The particulars of each case must be recorded in the doctor’s own handwriting. No one else was allowed to write his autopsy report. The handbook contains guidelines for postmortem examinations, including descriptions of various wounds caused by sharp and blunt instruments. It also offered comments on the determination of whether an individual who was found in the water had died of drowning or had been killed beforehand, and whether a burned individual was dead before the onset of the fire. The book was translated into many foreign languages, including Korean, Japanese, German, French, Dutch, and English. Song Ci is honored as the greatest figure in the history of Chinese forensic medicine.
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Examples
1 Moreover, another example of using food in an inspection was found in Record of Redressing Mishandled Cases.
2 He wrote the book Record of Redressing Mishandled Cases in which he put forward the method of identify direct relative through blood.
3 Song Ci (1186–1249) was a forensic medical expert active during the Southern Song Dynasty who wrote a groundbreaking book titled The Record of Redressing Mishandled Cases.