Song Ci

[1] Song Ci was born into a bureaucrat family in Jianyang (in present-day Nanping of Fujian province).

During his post at a criminal court in Hunan Province, Song Ci personally examined the crime scenes each time he encountered a difficult case of homicide or physical assault.

[5] In this book Song Ci depicts several cases in which he made notes on how a person died and elaborates on probable causes.

The main purpose of this book was to act as a guide for other investigators so they could assess the scene of the crime effectively.

The level of detail in explaining his observations in his cases is the first recorded account in history of someone using forensic entomology for judicial matters.