Song Ci

Song Ci (Chinese: 宋慈; pinyin: Sòng Cí; Wade–Giles: Sung Tzʻu; 1186–1249) was a Chinese physician, judge, forensic medical scientist, anthropologist, and writer of the Southern Song dynasty. He was the first known anthropologist who wrote a groundbreaking book titled Collected Cases of Injustice Rectified (Xi Yuan Ji Lu).

Song Ci was born into a bureaucratic family in Jianyang (in modern Fujian Province). He served as a presiding judge in the Chinese high courts for many terms. During his post at a criminal court in Hunan Province, Song Ci would personally examine the crime scene each time he encountered a difficult case of homicide or physical assault. Song Ci combined many historical cases of forensic science with his own experiences and wrote the book Collected Cases of Injustice Rectified 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. He also wrote The Washing Away of Wrongs (1247), a criminal investigations textbook where he recounts a murder using a sickle. Despite it is wiped out and looks clean, flies swarm it and not other sickles revealing the perpetrator who confesses.