Song Ci, an outstanding forensic scientist in the Southern Song Dynasty,was remembered as the Father of Forensic Medicine.

Song Ci, a Confucian learner when young, was appointed the local official at over ten places, mostly taking charge of prison administration. In all his life he dealt with numerous cases. Two years before he passed away (1247), he composed and published the five-volume Xiyuanjilu (Records for Wiping out Wrong Cases), which was his lifetime experience and thoughts on forensic medicine and the first of its kind in the world. It was completed more than 350 years earlier than the first European forensic work written by the Italian Forturiatus Flaelis in 1602.

The book, including Song Ci's trial of applying traditional Chinese medicine into the penal inspection and an all-inclusive summary of long term practice and reference of many related literatures, was a systemic and theorized summary of medical experience of the past dynasties and necessary reference for justice bureaucracy since being published.

The book has been translated into many editions abroad, such as Korean, Japanese, French, English, Dutch, German and Russian, etc. Up till now, it still enjoys far-reaching influence and is being studied by many countries. It has written down a brilliant page in the history of medicine, forensic medicine, and science home and abroad.