Litigation master

A litigation master or sòngshī (訟師) was a person who supported lawsuits by common people in pre-modern China.

Instead, they made a living by writing legal documents for ordinary people with low literacy skills, as well as by receiving settlement money from the other party.

[4] However, "litigation masters" by that name first emerge in historical records during the Song dynasty and continuing into the 20th century Republic of China.

[5] In the early Ming dynasty they were heavily repressed, but a 1503 statute provided that while false accusations were subject to punishment, the act of helping common people with their complaints was not.

[4] The existence of these groups of legal professionals helped to pave the way for the introduction of modern lawyers in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The possession of such handbooks, along with case documents for use as templates, was often cited as evidence against those charged with habitually practicing as a litigation master.

In the classic 18th-century novel Dream of the Red Chamber, the family hires a litigation master to obtain a reduced sentence for Xue Pan after he commits murder.