A Comparative Study Of The History Of Forensic Medicine In China And Foreign Countries

China has a long history of forensic studies, dating back to the Qin dynasty when thesystematic forensic inspection specification was made, more than a thousand years earlierthan the situation in Europe. During the Song dynasty, expert Song Ci, based on the previousacademic resources and his own experience accumulated from forensic cases he done, wrotethe first complete forensic medicine monograph in human history. His European counterpartsdid not write the similar monograph (De Rela-tionabus Medicorum) until over three hundredslater. China experienced slow development in its forensic studies after the great success;meanwhile, forensic medicine studies in the western countries enjoyed great momentum. Thatresulting in the rise of western forensic identification practices as the mainstream in the worldand by the end of the Qing dynasty, the traditional Chinese post-mortem identification patternwas totally overtaken by the western practices. By comparing the history of this development,we can find the basis for promoting the development of forensic science, and making usefulsuggestions for the development of contemporary Chinese forensic science.This paper consists of three parts: the first part is a chronic comparison of forensic studiesdevelopment between China and western countries, analyzing development of Chinesedynasties forensic characteristics and Western characteristics at different periods; the secondpart is a horizontal comparison between the two parties in the aspects of ideology and culturefoundation, development of related academic fields and practiced expertise, with exploringthe Confucian ideology, religion, and other factors’ influence on the forensic history; the thirdpart is suggestions on reforming China’s forensic identification system, based on lessonslearnt from history, learned from Western experience for China’s actual situation.