Collected Cases of Injustice Rectified

Collected Cases of Injustice Rectified is a book written by Song Ci in 1247 during the Song Dynasty. 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 forensic scientists, and it was eventually translated into English, German, Japanese, French and other languages.

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Content

Different versions of the book exist, but the earliest existing version was published during the Yuan Dynasty, containing fifty-three chapters in five volumes. The first volume describes the imperial decree issued by Song Dynasty on the inspection of bodies and injuries. The second volume contains notes and methods on post-mortem examinations. The third, fourth, and fifth volumes detail the appearances of corpses from various causes of death and methods of treatments to certain injuries.^[1]

In the book, Song Ci said:

“A forensic medical doctor must be serious, conscientious, and highly responsible, and must also personally examine each dead body or that of a wounded person. The particulars of each case must be recorded in the doctor’s own handwriting. No one else is allow to write his autopsy report. A coroner must not avoid performing an autopsy because he detests the stench of corpses. A coroner must refrain from sitting comfortably behind a curtain of incense that mask the stench, let his subordinates do the autopsy unsupervised, or allow a petty official to write his autopsy report, leaving all the inaccuracies unchecked and uncorrected.”

He also said:

“Should there be any inaccuracy in an autopsy report, injustice would remain with the deceased as well as the living. A wrongful death sentence without justice may claim one or more additional lives, which would in turn result in feuds and revenges, prolonging the tragedy. In order to avoid any miscarriage of justice, the coroner must immediately examine the case personally.”

English translations

• In 1855 Dr. Harland published the Records of Washing away of Injuries in Hong Kong^[2]
• In 1924 sinologist H.A. Giles published The Hsi Yuan Lu, or Instructions to Coroners. ^[3]
• In 1981 D. Brian E. McKnight published The Washing Away of Wrongs: Forensic Medicine in Thirteenth-Century China.^[4]

References