The Research On Ancient Chinese Forensic Medicine

Forensic medicine, as one of the applied subjects that serve law and justice, appears and develops as the results of the development, evolution and transformation of a society and its legal system. The paper studies the appearance, development and transformation of forensic medicine in China taking as backgrounds the changes and development of Chinese society and legal system.Ancient Chinese forensic medicine experiences special backgrounds and conditions, which require that the science serving legal system has to show obedience to the feudal ethical rules, which restrict how it functions. Furthermore, although forensic medicine is an applied science, government officials appear to be its exponential and researchers in ancient Chinese centralized feudalism; and some officials, such as Song Ci and Wang Yu, become important features in the field. These are where the particularities of Ancient Chinese forensic medicine lie.Chinese forensic medicine presents a zigzagged forward development.It can be dated from as early as pre-Qin period(bout 2nd century Before Christ) and is greatly influenced by Legalism then; meanwhile, it is severely limited by Confucianism which centered"etiquette". Later, the direction of its development is defined by legal thoughts turning from"Legalism"to"Confucianism"in Han Dynasty.The transitional period of Chinese forensic medicine is in Tang Dynasty. Laws of Tang sets criterions for the responsibilities of legal medical experts. During North and South Song Dynasties, the inspections of legal medical experts become mature and the first work in forensic medicine is published. In Yuan Dynasty, forensic medicine gets refreshed thanks to the reign of northern minorities, which weakens the ruling status of Confucianism, In early Ming Dynasty, Empire Zhu Yuanzhang's reins keeps forensic medicine stagnant. Though, previous studies being foundations, Qing Dynasty sees the climax in the development of forensic medicine and the appearance of innovative legal medical experts as well as great academic works.The paper further introduces several historically influential forensic medicine experts, specially focusing on their academic works. Besides, it categories the literature in forensic medicine kept to the present day, making general introductions to their contents, versions and values.