Transmission of Ancient Chinese Forensic Medicine in the West: The View from Xiyuan Jilu (Records for Vindication)

Abstract

Chinese forensic medicine has a long and brilliant history, and the forensic knowledge in ancient China represents the world’s highest medicolegal level at the time. Among all extant essays and works on China’s early medical jurisprudence, Xiyuan Jilu (Records for Vindication) written by Song Ci in 1247 CE, during the Southern Song dynasty, is the oldest text on legal medicine in the world. Subsequently, this work went through successive editions and expansions. The book was not simply a manual providing instruction on conducting inquests; it also established standards for all judicial practices in ancient China. From the beginning of the 18th century, the earliest existing Yuan edition and subsequent editions of this book were translated. They contributed to the broad dissemination of ancient Chinese forensic culture in the West. By discussing the diffusion of Xiyuan Jilu and its corresponding studies in the Western world, this paper intends to expound on the cultural transmission of early Chinese forensic medicine, and reveal its values and impacts on the history and development of legal medicine worldwide to provide an illustrative example of Sino-Western medical and cultural exchange.