Records for the redemption of injustice

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Names of Man's Bones in Song Ci: 'Collected Records for the Redemption of Injustices' (Sòng Cí: Xǐ-yuān lù jí-zhèng , printed 1843 edition, edited by Ruǎn Qíxīn)
German translation by H. Breitenstein (1908)

Records for the redemption of injustice ( Chinese  洗冤录  /  洗冤錄 , Pinyin Xǐ yuān lù , W.-G. Hsi Yüan Lu ) or also Collected Records for the redemption of injustice ( Chinese  洗冤 集 录  /  洗冤 集 錄 , Pinyin Xǐyuān Jílù , W.-G. Hsi Yüan Chi Lu ) is a handbook for official coroners , written by the Chinese doctor Song Ci ( Chinese  宋 慈 , Pinyin Sòng Cí ) of the Song Dynasty in 1247, which the author wrote about himself prevent repeated convictions of innocent people. This is the world's first work on forensic medicine , which has also aroused the interest of Europeans since the 19th century. The book remained an isolated case; the next Chinese work on forensic entomology was not published until 750 years later.

content

The oldest printed edition preserved today appeared during the Yuan Dynasty . It is divided into 5 books with a total of 53 chapters. The first book contains the song dynasty's imperial edicts on the examination of bodies and wounds. The second book introduces the corpse examination procedures. The following three books describe the condition of the corpse in different types of death and the treatment of certain injuries.

Song Ci takes up historical case studies that he links with his own experiences. His anatomical knowledge recognizable in the text does not go beyond contemporary knowledge. Of lasting value, however, were the procedures he developed and the requirements placed on the responsible officer. This should not leave the wounded or killed person to someone else, but rather examine it himself - in the case of corpses as quickly as possible, in order to avoid changes due to decomposition or manipulation by third parties. Nor should he be put off by the smell of the corpse. If necessary, the examination should be repeated. The report is written by hand with the greatest attention to detail and care.

Song Ci did not stop at mere observation. So he carried out tests on animal corpses to determine the type of wound. Wounds are marked, in addition to the color, shape and size, it is also determined whether they go to the bone. Blisters should be opened as there may be a wound underneath. A silver needle is inserted into the throat and its blackness noted if necessary. The skin is processed to make wounds visible again. Blood stains that are no longer visible on the blades reappear after heating and wetting with vinegar. All body orifices are checked for secretly inserted nails or needles. In order to identify injuries to the bones, they are cleaned in a complex procedure and treated with ink or oil.

distribution

The book remained an isolated case; the next Chinese work on forensic entomology was not published until 750 years later. Song Ci's book shaped a number of later works and was cherished for centuries. In China, writings similar to those of Wáng Yŭ ( 王 與 ) published in 1308, “Records for the Elimination of Injustice” ( Wū-yuān lù , 無 寃 録 ) , soon appeared in China . In 1439, a reprint of the Chinese text ( Sinju Muwǒnnok , 新 註 無 寃 録 ) was first published in Korea at the instigation of King Sejong , and the editor Choe Chi-un ( 崔 致 雲 ) commented on it extensively. An improved version followed four years later, which was then edited again.

At the beginning of the seventies of the 17th century, Itakura Shigenori ( 矩 重 矩 ), then governor of Kyoto , initiated the first Japanese reprint of the Chinese text in Japan. Further editions printed in short order signal the rapidly growing interest in forensic medicine. 1736 published Kawai Jinbē ( 河 合 甚 兵衛 尚 久 ) excerpts in Japanese translation. The work was used in forensics in both Korea and Japan until the 19th century.

In the early modern era , the book also attracted Western interest. In 1779, the French Jesuit Pierre-Martial Cibot (1727–1780) , who lived in Beijing , presented a brief outline of the work as “ Notice du livre Chinois Si-yuen ”. The first English report published in Hong Kong, the Scottish doctor William Aurelius Harland (1822-1858) in 1855 under the title " Notice on a Chinese Work on Medical Jurisprudence, entitled Se-yueh-lu ". Only a few years later, the " Geregtelijke Geneeskunde " was published by the Dutch military pharmacist , sinologist, vice-consul in Amoy and translator Carolus Franciscus Martinus de Grijs (1832–1902). In 1908 the military doctor Heinrich Breitenstein published the "Forensic Medicine of the Chinese of Wang-in-Hoai". Breitenstein, however, had only undertaken this effort “to give the reader an insight into the crimes and vices of this people”. By studying “forensic medicine” he finally managed to fathom the character of medical science in China: “a raw empiricism based on pure animism” (p. VI). The following year Charles Henry Litolff (1865-1951) published a French translation of an edition he had found in Vietnam, distributed over eight numbers of the Revue Indochinoise . An English translation made by the sinologist Herbert Allen Giles (1845-1935) “The Hsi Yüan Lu, or Instructions to Coroners” appeared in 1924 in the China Review . Further English editions followed in the course of the 20th century.

Translations into western languages

  • Notice du livre chinois Si-yuen . In: Mémoires concernant l'histoire, les sciences, les arts, les moeurs, les usages, & c. des Chinois par les missionnaires de Pe-Kin. Tome IV, 421-440, Paris, 1791. ( Digitized version (Google Books) )
  • WA Harland, MD, Records of Washing away of Injuries . Hong Kong 1855.
  • Geregtelyke geneeskunde, uit het chineesch vertaald door CFM de Grijs . Negotiations of the Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen; d. 30, 3rd stuk, 1863. 118pp.
  • Forensic Medicine of the Chinese by Wang-in-Hoai - According to the Dutch translation of Mr. CFM de Grys edited by Dr. H. Breitenstein . Leipzig: Th. Grieben (L. Fernau), 1908. 174pp. ( Digitized version )
  • Ernest Martin, Exposé des principaux passages contenus dans le Hsi Yuan Lu . Revue d'Extrême-Orient. 1882, 3: 333-380; ditto 4: 596-625.
  • Charles Henry Litolff, Médecine légale sino-vietnamienne - le livre de la réparation des torts . In: Revue Indochinoise, (1909) 6: 531-565 ; 7: 676-703 ; 8: 767-787 ; 9: 881-905 ; 10: 1017-32 ; 11: 1107-1113 ; 12: 1217-1224 . (1910) 1: 418-27 .
  • HA Giles, The Hsi Yüan Lu, or Instructions to Coroners . Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine. 17: 59-107, 1924.
  • Song Ci: Egy kínai halottkém feljegyzései . (Hungarian translation by Tokaji Zsolt) Quattrocento Kiadó, Budapest 2013. ISBN 978-963-366-618-0

literature

  • Brian E. McKnight, The Washing Away of Wrongs: Forensic Medicine in Thirteenth-Century China . Science, medicine, and technology in East Asia, v. 1. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1981 ( ISBN 0892648007 ).
  • Wolfgang Michel: Looking at Corpses - Negoro Tōshuku's "True Shape of Human Bones" and its Place in Japanese Medical History . In: Michel / Yoshida / Oshima (ed.), Source Materials and Personalities IV. Nakatsu, 2012, pp. 42–89. (Japanese)
  • Miki Sakae, History of Korean Medicine and of Diseases in Korea . Kyōto: Shibunkaku Shuppan, 1991 ( 三 木 栄 『補 訂 朝鮮 医学 史 及 疾病 史』 ). Slightly revised edition of the first edition published in 1963 (Japanese).
  • Viole O'Neilly et al., A Chinese Coroner's Manual and the Evolution of Anatomy . In: Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. 1976, 31 (1): 3-17.

Individual references / comments

  1. ↑ The first relevant Western work was Fortunato Fideli's “De relationibus medicorum libri quatuor. In quibus ea omnia, quae in forensibus, ac publicis causis medici referre solent, plenissime traduntur "(Palermo, 1602)
  2. ↑ See also article on the history of forensic entomology by Mark Benecke in Acta Biologica Benrodis , Vol. 14, 2008, p. 15-38 (with .pdf)
  3. ↑ a b M. Benecke: A brief survey of the history of forensic entomology . In: Acta Biologica Benrodis . tape 14 , 2008, p. 16 .
  4. ↑ Miki (1963), pp. 133, 137, 321, 401
  5. ↑ Michel (2012), pp. 65-67
  6. ^ Letters and documents from de Grijs are kept in the manuscript department of the University of Leiden.
  7. ↑ It is not clear whether this was a Chinese print or an edition published in Vietnam.

Web links

  • Digitized Chinese Text (Chinese Text Project)
  • HA Giles: The "Hsi Yuan Lu" or "Instructions to Coroners". In: Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine. Volume 17, Sect Hist Med 1924, pp. 59-107, PMID 19983962 , PMC 2201406 (free full text). (Scan of translation)