Dead Bodies and Forensic Science: Cultures of Expertise in China, 1800-1949
type: CreativeWork
description: In late imperial China the forensic examination of dead bodies in homicide cases was a sophisticated field of technical practice which developed through the collaboration of coroners, legal specialists, and literati-officials. After the fall of the Qing empire (1644-1911), successive governments of the Republican period (1912-1949) adopted the late imperial state's technologies of forensic examination in their attempts to institute a modern court system. This dissertation investigates the process through which modern police, coroners, legal officials, laboratory scientists, and urban publics debated, reimagined, and ultimately accepted this long-standing field of technical practice as a foundation for the modern Chinese state and its legal order. The first half of this dissertation examines the forensic practices of the Qing empire and the ways in which they were integrated into Republican statecraft after 1912. Chapters One and Two argue that the late imperial bureaucracy successfully implemented a centralized system of forensic examination that shaped the ways in which coroners and local officials throughout the empire inspected dead bodies, analyzed causes of death, and documented their findings. Relying on the wide distribution of minimal amounts of forensic knowledge and skill, this arrangement made possible high degrees of consistency in examination practices while facilitating central authorities' bureaucratic supervision over local forensic cases. While the "expertise" of individual coroners could become important under certain circumstances, it was not necessary for the legitimation of forensic evidence or knowledge in routine homicide cases. Rather, the bureaucracy expected that officials and coroners would simply follow official procedure, a way of legitimating inquest findings that could be used effectively across local jurisdictions despite uneven levels of forensic knowledge and skill among local officials and coroners. Chapters Three and Four turn to …
abstract: In late imperial China the forensic examination of dead bodies in homicide cases was a sophisticated field of technical practice which developed through the collaboration of coroners, legal specialists, and literati-officials. After the fall of the Qing empire (1644-1911), successive governments of the Republican period (1912-1949) adopted the late imperial state's technologies of forensic examination in their attempts to institute a modern court system. This dissertation investigates the process through which modern police, coroners, legal officials, laboratory scientists, and urban publics debated, reimagined, and ultimately accepted this long-standing field of technical practice as a foundation for the modern Chinese state and its legal order. The first half of this dissertation examines the forensic practices of the Qing empire and the ways in which they were integrated into Republican statecraft after 1912. Chapters One and Two argue that the late imperial bureaucracy successfully implemented a centralized system of forensic examination that shaped the ways in which coroners and local officials throughout the empire inspected dead bodies, analyzed causes of death, and documented their findings. Relying on the wide distribution of minimal amounts of forensic knowledge and skill, this arrangement made possible high degrees of consistency in examination practices while facilitating central authorities' bureaucratic supervision over local forensic cases. While the "expertise" of individual coroners could become important under certain circumstances, it was not necessary for the legitimation of forensic evidence or knowledge in routine homicide cases. Rather, the bureaucracy expected that officials and coroners would simply follow official procedure, a way of legitimating inquest findings that could be used effectively across local jurisdictions despite uneven levels of forensic knowledge and skill among local officials and coroners. Chapters Three and Four turn to …
author: Asen, Daniel
language: English
keywords: History, Science and civilization, Science and state, World history, Forensic sciences, Coroners, Dead, Autopsy, Qing Dynasty (China)
date published: 2012
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:44:20Z
provider: Columbia University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Columbia University

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.7916/D8NG4XQV