Song Ci

Song Ci was born into a bureaucrat family in Jianyang (in present-day Nanping of Fujian province). He served as a presiding judge in the high courts of the Song dynasty for several terms. During his post at a criminal court in Hunan Province, Song Ci personally examined the crime scenes each time he encountered a difficult case of homicide or physical assault. Ci combined historical cases of forensic science with his own experiences and wrote the book Collected Cases of Injustice Rectified, the oldest known evidence of forensic entomology, with an eye to avoiding miscarriages of justice. The book was esteemed by generations of forensic scientists. Eventually it was translated into English, German, Japanese, French, and other languages. It recounts a murder using a sickle in 1235. Sickles were used for cutting rice during harvest time, which led them to suspect that a peasant worker was the culprit. The villagers were assembled in the town square where they were made to relinquish their sickles. Despite the clean appearance of one sickle, flies were attracted to traces of blood and swarmed it and not other sickles, revealing the perpetrator, who confessed to his crime. The book was meant to be a criminal investigations textbook for coroners. He explains in detail how to examine a corpse both before and after burial as well as the process of determining a probable cause of death. The main purpose of this book was to act as a guide for other investigators so they could assess the scene of the crime effectively. The level of detail in explaining his observations in his cases is the first recorded account in history of someone using forensic entomology for judicial matters.

The authorities additionally record the headings Sung Tz‘ŭ, Huifu and Song ti xing. His recorded language was Chinese. He was the child of Song Gong. One child is recorded: Song Bingsun.

Song Ci is recorded as judge, writer, physician, scientist and medical examiner.