If you've read the cases of Sherlock Holmes and the detective novels of Keigo Higashino, you'll certainly want to check out the cases of Judge Song Ci, from China, eight hundred years in the past!

A same type comparing to Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee by Robert Hans van Gulik

A fiction based on an actual historical figure —Song Ci

Song Ci, author of the first work in the world on forensic medicine, Collected Cases of Injustice Righted, the “Sherlock Holmes of the ancient world,” is definitely a Chinese person worth remembering.

What makes Wang Hongjia qualified to write this book?

Born in Jianyang Fujian province, Wang Hongjia is a home fellow of Song Ci . He is a multi-award winning writer, a well-known scholar, and perhaps the best-known author of reportage literature in China.

In 1987, when the first international forensic medicine seminar was convened in China, experts from China and abroad alike flocked to China for Song Ci. As an expert on Song Ci, Wang Hongjia was invited to give a featured report, Song Ci, Great Forensic Scientist.

A photo of the forensic medicine seminar

L: Wang Hongjia, R: English translator

Who would be interested in this book?

Lovers of detective fiction and of forensic medicine alike would be interested in this book, as would be those who appreciate ancient Chinese history and biography.

Points of Interest

Song Ci in the Flesh

Even the greatest figures take up no more than a few pages of the history books, but Wang Hongjia has used the form of fiction to place Song Ci into his real historical context, telling of Song Ci’s life, as well as his emotional dealings at every stage of his life. The Song Ci in this trajectory book was not just naturally a master sleuth and judge; in the beginning, he was just a naive scholar, unaware of the ways of the world, or the shifting forces of society. But then, having seen all the cruel and dark parts of life again and again, he went from shocked, to stressed, to depressed, to gradually arriving at his own willingness to work for the nation, with his own unique method of writing wrongs. This was why his story looms so large in the history of forensic medicine.

The Wisdom of the Ancients

With improvements in technology, we have new tools to detect crimes and solve cases, like surveillance cameras and DNA testing. But in the remote year 1233, criminal investigation was no easy matter. All of the cases and methods in this book come those documented in Song Ci’s Collected Cases of Injustice Righted, an 800-year-old Chinese version of C.S.I. Many of the techniques, ideas and values employed here are still used in forensic medicine today: examining bone fractures under the shade of a red oil-paper umbrella, and using wine and vinegar to discover blood traces; distinguishing wounds received after death from those received before, as well as murder from suicide; making careful records of the scene of the crime, and closely observing a system for investigation.

 What Impact Can One Man Leave?

Song Ci could hardly have been lived to its full ambitions, in the midst of a complicated political environment, without the protection of the high officials Zhen Dexiu and Li Zongmian. High officials of the Southern Song Dynasty also saw him as no more than an “efficient cleaning worker,” being made use of consolidating political clout and purchasing popular support. His efforts can indicate the glory of an era, yet lacked the power to light up the darkness behind the glory. How much can one man’s effort hope to change the world? As we of later times now know, his efforts were no more than a streak of brightness in the midst of destructive darkness. But the work he leaves behind, Collected Cases of Injustice Righted, gives endless wisdom and inspiration. He successfully passed down his own ideals of cleaning the world up and preserving the law.

About the book

Make no doubt about it—no matter the era, hope cannot rest solely on the virtue of officials. It is more important to devote oneself to building a sound legal system.  

1217 A.D.: the eleventh year after Genghis Khan unified the various parts of Mongolia to create the Mongol Empire. In China’s Southern Song Dynasty, a young mandarin called Song Ci travelled back to his hometown to care for his ailing father. During this time of endless warfare, the numerous crimes in Song Ci’s hometown piqued his interest in criminal cases. Thus began the legend of the father of forensic science.

The Strange Case of the Hare's Fur Cup, the Case of the Wormwood Image, the Case of Flying Detectives, the Extraodinary Case of the Burnt Body… in turbulent times, Song Ci redressed injustices and preserved the peace for the people through his own meticulous investigations.