The “Hsi Yüan Lu” or “Instructions to Coroners.”

Abstract

THE office and functions of coroner, in the modern sense of the term, were known to the Chinese many centuries before "Crowner's Quest Law" was quoted in Hamlet.It was while stationed at Ningpo, in 1873, that I first heard of the Ilsiyiuan-lu.I found that a copy of this work, here translated, was always carried to the scene of an inquest by the high territorial official on whom the duties of coroner devolved.I also found that inquests were held on the living, when dangerously wounded, as well as on the dead.In the latter case, to move or disturb in any way a corpse, before the coroner had seen and examined it, would lead to the most serious consequences for such reckless interference.I became sufficiently interested in this phase of Chinese civilization to proceed to a careful study of the text of the Hsi-yiian-lu, and thence to translation, for which I was repaid by the possession of some acquaintance with the system of medical jurisprudence in ancient China.

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