When a murder case occurs in modern society, it is known that a forensic doctor must accompany the police to the scene. Forensic examination and appraisal is an important basis for police to detect and hear cases. Then, if the murder happened in ancient times, how did the author of the suicide note conduct an inquest? Let's talk about a few cases of ancient suicide notes.
In the Qing Dynasty, there was a family named He outside longnan county, Jiangxi Province. One morning, He's family unexpectedly found that their soon-to-be-married daughter was killed in her room. After reporting to Li Zheng, he sent someone to report to the government and rushed to the scene of the murder. He Jia had protected the scene at that time, and the whole family was crying and talking outside the circle. During the hectic period, a county magistrate named Zhao came with a criminal scribe, an official and an autopsy to investigate the case. Although the magistrate of a county is not a good official who is particularly diligent in political affairs, he also knows that according to the law at that time, if he does not arrive at the scene in time for inspection, his body will be punished if he is corrupt. After questioning the relatives and neighbors of the deceased, the magistrate ordered the coroner to start the autopsy.
I saw Zhao county officials and coroner come to the morgue. They ordered the scribe to record the height, hair length, age and other basic data of the deceased, and recorded the situation of the body lying on its back with clothes and quilts covering its chest circumference. Then, the coroner washes the blood of the body, the scribe opens it, and the punishment department issues it? Bodies? And then what? A human figure? Zhao Zhi also tried his best to suppress his fear and disgust, standing next to the posthumous work to supervise the autopsy, and relatives and others of the deceased also acted as witnesses at the scene. The bodies were examined one by one in the order of front, back, left and right. The body grid lists all parts of the body in detail and indicates whether the part is fatal or not. The scribe read out the parts of the human body one by one according to the body. Every time I read a place, the coroner will check the part and report the results loudly so that everyone present can hear it.
If there is no damage, report it loudly? All of them? Since the county magistrate had no objection to the relatives of the corpse and the relatives present, the scribe filled in the autopsy results in the corpse box. When the body was marked with a fatal throat, Zuo Zuo loudly reported that there was a knife wound and his trachea and esophagus were broken. He also measured the wound with a ruler, loudly reported the shape, size and depth of the wound, and determined that the injury was fatal. The scribe filled in the corpse grid and marked the location of the fatal wound on the corpse map with a red pen. When the lower body was examined, because the deceased was a woman, it was the midwife's turn to examine it. This process was carried out under the supervision of the female relatives of the deceased. Other parts will continue to be examined by the coroner. Judging from the final results of autopsy, Zhao Zhi County decided that He Nv was killed by a sharp knife. Later, according to the autopsy clues, after many twists and turns, the murderer was finally found to be the fiance of the deceased. He committed adultery with another woman for a long time, and then under the pressure of that woman, he went into the house and killed his daughter. When judging a case, the record of the corpse becomes an important basis for conviction.
Since the song dynasty, the autopsy situation is roughly the same as the above cases. Officials supervise the autopsy, and the book collectors record the results of the on-site inspection, and the autopsy makes an appraisal. Moreover, only the coroner is a professional autopsy.
The inspection system of abnormal corpses and scenes in China has a long history. 1975, a number of bamboo slips were unearthed from A Qin's tomb in Yunmeng Crouching Tiger Land, Hubei Province, among which "Fengzhen" is considered to be the earliest textbook for criminal investigation and forensic medicine in the world. It recorded some autopsy cases. Once, an unknown person was killed, and the official Shimou took the official to investigate. Another example is that Wu Bing, a scholar, hanged himself at home, and it was the official who brought history to prison who attended the trial. Here? Prison officials? It may be an official slave in prison for a crime, or it may be a cheap service in prison. Officials must go to the site for inspection on business. But in ancient times, it was unlucky to touch the bodies. Most of the bodies that died abnormally in Japan were terrible and filthy. Of course, officials themselves don't want to mess around, so they are humbled? Prison officials? Do it.
The name of mourning was first seen in the Five Dynasties, also known as mourning for pedestrians. It was a funeral industry, which was naturally considered as a humble industry at that time. Because he often dealt with the dead, his posthumous works gradually gained some knowledge about the cause of death and the phenomenon after death, and there was no ordinary people's fear of corpses, so the people engaged in this work were gradually arranged by the government as specialized hands-on autopsy personnel.
In the Song Dynasty, the inspection system became more and more perfect, and the law stipulated that the coroner must attend. But at that time, the duties of the coroner were not clear, and they were only employed by the government. In the Yuan Dynasty, the official supervision system was formally formed, and it was stipulated that after slaughter, people should be responsible for no omissions or mistakes. This system has been used until the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In the Qing Dynasty, the law clearly stipulated the quota, recruitment, training, assessment, treatment, rewards and punishments. For hundreds of years, the government has been acting as a full-time autopsy officer, that is, a coroner, but it was not until the Qing dynasty that the coroner was officially incorporated into the government? Compile? .
Most ancient suicide notes were handed down from generation to generation, and people with little culture were engaged in occupations. However, for thousands of years, it is these essays with low educational level that, under the supervision of officials, have undertaken the heavy responsibility of forensic examination of corpses. The achievements of ancient forensic medicine in China attracted worldwide attention. There are few natural forensic works, but most of them are intentional officials who participate in the inspection. The research results of these officials are undoubtedly formed by absorbing and summarizing the practical experience of the legacy. The Collection of Imprisonments (written by Song Ci in Southern Song Dynasty), which occupies a very important position in the history of forensic medicine in China and the world, mentions the role of burial after death in the process of autopsy in many places. Xu Lian, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, also recorded the inquiry about the old corpse in his forensic work "Remembering the Injustice". China's ancient forensic medicine was in a leading position in the world, and the contribution of his legacy was indispensable.
As a full-time coroner in ancient times, if it is necessary to examine the injuries of the living when handling a case, it will be examined by a doctor or a woman. Doctors do not participate in autopsy, and officials with higher education rarely do it themselves. Those without education mainly rely on experience. This division of labor of ancient forensic doctors is also an important reason why they later fell behind Europe.
The social status of suicide note is extremely low. Even in the Qing dynasty, which was incorporated into the official establishment, they and their descendants, like prostitutes and actors, did not have the right to participate in the imperial examination and be an official. The government's reward for the coroner is not much different from the prisoner's food. Bonuses obtained because autopsies help solve crimes are often deducted by the government. Originally, in ancient times, when science was underdeveloped and the judicial system was not strict, there were many opportunities for collusion because of frequent essays from the public. Low status and low fixed income make the coroner often lie about the autopsy results because of coercion or bribery.
It is said in The Collection of Unfair Memories that inspectors must be on guard against bribery and deception. In the Ming Dynasty, it was also said that because the inspector often refused to go near the corpse, the scale of the wound was enlarged or reduced during the autopsy, and even the report was squeezed at will. Many unjust, false and misjudged cases are related to lying about autopsy results. For example, in the 13th year of Jiaqing in Qing Dynasty (1808), Li Yuchang, the alternate county magistrate of Jiangning, Jiangsu Province, was ordered to investigate the disaster relief work in Shanyang County. At that time, it was discovered that the magistrate Wang of Shanyang County had offered relief food to the victims. Li Xiang, the servant bought by Wang, and others poisoned him, and then faked the scene of hanging. The body was bleeding from 7 to 7, and the rope was put on after death. It is not difficult to find out the general post mortem examiner, but Wang was an inspector, so post mortem examiner hanged himself according to his will. Later, the deceased's uncle Li Qingtai came to Yang Shan to escort the deceased's coffin back to his hometown. If you find something different, you will go to Beijing to take charge, and the case will be exposed.
Another example is the famous case of Yang Naiwu cabbage in Tongzhi period of Qing Dynasty, which is also related to fake autopsy and cheating. The son of Yuhang county magistrate Liu Xitong tried to seduce Ge Pinlian's wife Bi Shi, but Bi Shi refused. Liu Zihuai suspected that Bi Shi had an affair with scholar Yang Naiwu and refused him, so he wanted to frame them. Just as Ge Pinlian died of illness, Liu's son bribed relatives of the deceased to accuse Yang and Bi of killing Ge Pinlian for rape.
At autopsy, according to the intention of the county magistrate, the memorial service was determined as arsenic poisoning. As a result, Yang and Bi were unjustly imprisoned and tortured, and almost died by the sword. Fortunately, she caught up with Cixi to clean up some people in the officialdom, so she took advantage of the disagreement of court officials and ordered people to review again and again to clarify the grievances of Yang and Bi.
Of course, there are also honest people in the suicide note. During the reign of Emperor Qianlong in Qing Dynasty, Tu, a native of Macheng, Hubei Province, was at odds with his wife Yang, ran away from home and hid in the scholar Yang Jiazhong. Yang's younger brother Yang falsely accused Tu of killing his wife at Yang's instigation, but the body could not be found and there was no evidence. Just then, a man's body was found on the floodplain. Yang and Yang bribed posthumous title Li Rong to say that it was a woman's body, thus admitting that it was Yang's body. Li Rong refused, but Yang Er continued to go up and down and sued Governor Huguang. When the governor sent someone to re-examine, Xue accepted a bribe from Yang and lied that the body was a female body and her ribs were seriously injured. As a result, Tu Rusong was falsely accused of killing his wife, and he was finally rehabilitated. Li Rong's counter-cause? Autopsy is not true? Tortured to death on charges of.
It was not until the late Qing Dynasty in Xuan Tong that officials of the Ministry of Justice realized that autopsy was too backward and began to set up a laboratory to train modern forensic talents, but the Qing Dynasty soon died. Since then, modern forensic doctors have gradually replaced the post-mortem task.