The Tang Dynasty’s Female Forensic Doctor

Performing an autopsy for free, a.s.sisting in solving a case without compensation, and even had to specially send gifts, what kind of logic is this?

Ran Yan wasn"t very happy but had no choice. The bright side was that Liu Pinrang was a fourth-ranked Provincial Governor, the first in command in Suzhou City, it was rare that he would think highly of a little Miss like her. If it were another person, she was afraid that once she mentioned performing an autopsy, she would be seen as crazy and thrown out the doors of the prefectural office. However, Liu Pinrang always believed her. 

After visiting two patients, Ran Yan went to the clothing shop[1]to buy a round necked, narrow sleeved Hu robe[2]and changed into it to make it more convenient to perform the autopsy. 

"Miss, where are we going?" Shao Ming saw Ran Yan"s current manner of dress and asked confusedly. 

"Do you wish to learn medical skills?" Ran Yan did not answer but asked a question instead. No matter if it were being a coroner of a doctor, Ran Yan needed one or two a.s.sistants. Even if they only helped a little, it would reduce her burdens greatly. 

Shao Ming"s eyes brightened and he immediately replied, "Yes." 

"Then later, do not speak and observe carefully." Ran Yan also had the intention to test Shao Ming" courage and potential. If he was the same as that rabbit, Sang Chen, regardless of how loyal or how much potential he has, it would all be wasted.  

Regarding autopsy and dissection[3], in the end it was not something shameful. Ran Yan was not afraid of anyone knowing about it.  

They both sat in the carriage and arrived at the prefectural office"s mortuary before Wei time (1-3pm). 

The weather was not very good, dark and gloomy, as if it could rain any time. At the entrance, the supple branches of the willow trees by the river dike were swaying gently in the breeze. There were almost no pedestrians in front of the mortuary"s doors. Even when one or two people pa.s.sed by, they would have their heads lowered and walk hurriedly. 

Two carriages were stopped in the lane on the left side. Ran Yan guessed that Provincial Governor Liu had probably arrived, thus walked to the main entrance of the mortuary. Before she could inquire, the runner asked, "Are you the coroner here to do the autopsy?"

"Yes." Ran Yan said.

Shao Ming who was following behind was bewildered. He had originally thought that they were still going to some household to visit patients. He did not expect that they actually came to the prefectural office"s mortuary and Miss unexpectedly became a coroner! Before he could think further, Ran Yan already entered from the side door. Shao Ming quickly carried the box and followed her in. 

The distinctive rotting scent of the mortuary faintly drifted in the air. The dark clouds in the sky pressed low. It was hot and humid, making one feel uneasy. At this moment only did Shao Ming feel a little afraid. He followed behind Ran Yan without halting his steps while vigilantly taking measure of his surroundings.  

The runner led them to the front of the door to a mortuary room, "It"s inside here." Saying that, he quickly returned the way they came without even looking back. 

Shao Ming saw his behaviour that seemed like he was being chased by ghosts and shivered inside. 

Ran Yan glanced at him through the muslin veil, "If you"re afraid, you may wait outside the main entrance."

Shao Ming swallowed. He did wish to wait at the main entrance, but he knew that Ran Yan was testing him. Thus, he could only summon his courage and said, "I"m not afraid."  

Ran Yan made a faint sound of acknowledgment before pushing open the room door. A cold and gloomy air blew in their faces. Shao Ming trembled and shrunk even more. 

Out of Ran Yan"s expectations, there wasn"t just one or two people in the room. Aside from Provincial Governor Liu who was wearing dark red official robes, there was another youth also wearing dark red official robes, four people in light green official robes, a strong man standing to the side with his arms crossed and a hunched over old man - it was Feng Xun who Ran Yan had met once previously. 

Ran Yan"s eyes widened and stared at that youth in the dark red official robes. A thought of retreating momentarily surfaced in her heart. At the same time, she was also a little suspicious. How was it that he would appear here? At one moment wearing purple, another moment wearing red, in the end what was his official rank?

Xiao Song"s appearance now was very different from his languid style last night. He wore a dark red round collared official robe with a black official"s cap. Little rounded embroidery designs decorated his fine silk robe and a goldfish belt buckle was around his waist. He looked imposing and intimidating, the whole room filled with an oppressive feeling. Ran Yan thought to herself, bringing such a person to an autopsy to avoid evil spirits was not a bad idea. 

Having thought this, Ran Yan relaxed slightly. She bowed towards group of people and indicated for Shao Ming to put down the box.

"Seventeenth Miss, the things are already prepared for you." Liu Pinrang greeted her happily and personally placed a box in front of her.  

When he said the words "Seventeenth Miss", Ran Yan could clearly feel an almost palpable gaze sweeping across her, making her scalp feel numb. Without knowing why, she actually felt a little unconfident. 

"Many thanks to Provincial Governor Liu." Matters had already progressed to this point, she could only grit her teeth and continue. 

Opening the box, Ran Yan first took out the mask and wore it, before taking off her veil and wore the gloves. Even though she knew that there wasn"t much point in doing so as the truth could not be concealed from that man, but she subconsciously did it anyway.  Ran Yan straightened her gloves and thought with puzzlement, why would she be afraid of him knowing?

She couldn"t think of why, thus did not continue pondering further. Ran Yan did not say any unnecessary words and directly hurried to the corpse placed by the side.

This time, the corpse was placed on a wooden table. It was about the height of one"s waist standing up. Tables of this height was not common in the Tang Dynasty. With one look, she knew that this was especially custom made. Ran Yan secretly scolded Liu Pinrang: d.a.m.ned old fox. 

Pulling open the white cloth, a female corpse with a terrifying face appeared in front of the crowd. This corpse was still fresh, and just as Provincial Governor Liu had said, her face was badly mutilated from lacerations. To the naked eye, there were at least 11-12 cuts. The wounds were mainly concentrated on her cheeks and lower jaw. Her forehead was stained with blood but uninjured. 

Her face was purple and bloated. Ran Yan used her hands to pull open the corpse"s eyelids and as expected, discovered that there was bleeding under the conjunctiva. 

The pattern of a.n.a.lysing the dead used by forensic doctors was to first consider murder before suicide, external causes (of death) before internal causes, injury before illness. Seeing Cui Mei"s corpse that was dead from cruel disfigurement, Ran Yan would definitely start from the angle of murder to investigate. The external cause (of death) and injuries were very obvious. 

However, through a series of examination, according to the arrangement of the wounds and the direction of the cuts, Ran Yan obtained a confusing result - Cui Mei"s injuries on her face actually seemed to be inflicted by the deceased herself! 

Her neck also only had a single mark under her throat. The marks at the back of her head were split like the letter eight 八and did not intersect. These were all signs of suicide by hanging rather than someone first strangling her to death and then staging it as a suicide. 

In order to verify this result, Ran Yan swiftly took off the corpse"s clothes. She did not leave a single garment behind. 

Cui Mei had only been dead for a night, so her body was well preserved. Her skin was fair and exquisite, her swelling b.r.e.a.s.t.s full and ample, her legs straight and long. If one did not look at the face, this beautiful body was enough to make one"s fantasies run wild. The people present were all men and it was all their first time observing a woman"s body together in a crowd. Inevitably it was a little awkward.

Liu Pinrang coughed dryly twice. He glanced out of the corner of his eyes at Xiao Song and saw that his expression did not change, staring unceasingly at Ran Yan"s actions on the corpse. He could not help sighing, no wonder he was able to obtain a high position at a young age. This steadfast and unshakable power of concentration, even he(LPR) was hard pressed to obtain. 

Ran Yan carefully examined the whole corpse while saying, "The deceased has 10 wounds on her face. The edges of the cuts are neat and turned outwards, with mild signs of inflammation. The depth of the wounds vary. The cuts are rather well distributed. I judge that the wounds were formed when the deceased was still alive and that there is a high possibility that she had did it herself." 

"How is that possible? Who would cut their face up to that extent!" Feng Xun immediately called it into question. He had determined that it was a murder. If it was overturned easily, his reputation in Suzhou City would take a dive.

Liu Pinrang also felt that Cui Mei died from being murdered. He said with some confusion, "Why is it so?" 

"First, other than the cuts on the deceased"s face and the rope marks on her neck, there are no obvious wounds anywhere else on her body. If someone did it, why would the deceased motionlessly let someone cut her face up? At the very least the murderer would firmly press her down. The strength used for this would definitely be big, but why was there not a single trace left?" Ran Yan explained. 

Feng Xun refuted coldly, "If the murderer bound her tightly with a blanket, causing her four limbs to be unable to move, it is very possible that this situation would occur."

Ran Yan nodded, "There is definitely such a possibility. But there is another reason why I suspect she mutilated herself. This is because people have pain perception, so when they commit suicide or self-harm, they would feel pain. That pain would cause their strength to weaken, therefore the initiation of the cut would be deep, but the end would be shallow. In this way, the depths of the cuts would vary. If there are many cuts, generally the uneven cuts would be well distributed evenly. Look at Cui Mei"s wounds on her face, it completely corresponds to this point." 

"She was perfectly fine, why would she self-mutilate?" Feng Xun frowned and said. 

"Perfectly fine?" Ran Yan looked at him and said in a flat voice, "The state of human beings when sunk in pain are usually related to feelings and emotions.  When suicide victims carry out suicide, self-harm and self-abuse, the state of their mind cannot be a.s.sessed using the logic of an ordinary person. I"m sure you"ve already discovered that she had been pregnant for almost a month. She is a music courtesan at Caixiu House and does not sell her body, why would she suddenly be pregnant? Moreover, there is the appearance of red bayberry sores[4]on her lower genitalia. It is obvious she had Hua Liu disease (syphilis). This is also something that should not have appeared, why would it occur on her body? Of course, currenly there are only a few signs proving that she self-mutilated. For the definite situation, it can be only confirmed after dissection." 

Feng Xun stared blankly. He had been a coroner for a few decades but had only dissected just a handful of corpses. Firstly because the deceased family did not allow it. Secondly, it was because unless there was major injury such as a ruptured liver, otherwise he dare not guarantee that he would be able to discover the cause of death after dissection. This was the case for most of the coroners in the Tang Dynasty. Even if a little Miss dissected the corpse, could she be able to see anything? Feng Xun did not believe it, thus he held his tongue and observed quietly. 

Since it was a suicide by hanging, Ran Yan started dissecting from the ligature marks on the neck. When she cut open the skin on the deceased"s neck and exposed the muscle tissue, she immediately discovered that the tissue and muscles underneath the neck skin had appearance of bleeding. Ran Yan"s hands did not stop moving but still had to explain to these laymen beside her. Otherwise, what use was it if she was the only person that knew. "Everyone, please look. There are signs of bleeding in the skin and muscles, this is one of the signs of death by hanging." 

Saying that, Ran Yan used tweezers to point out the part where there was bleeding to the crowd. After that, she cut open a part where there was no ligature mark and let them compare the both. 

After this, Ran Yan lifted her head and was suddenly met with a pair of gleaming dark eyes. She was slightly startled and saw Xiao Song nod his head with interest. Whereas Feng Xun was astonished when he saw Ran Yan"s practised knife skills. Even though he did not wish to show it, but when Ran Yan started to explain, a secret delight like he had stolen a teacher emerged, thus he listened very earnestly. 

The other people"s faces turned deathly pale and green with nausea. They pressed their lips tightly, trying to stop themselves from losing composure and vomiting. Even Xiao Song"s bodyguard looked discomfited. 

As long as there was someone who understood, it was fine. Ran Yan continued dissecting deeping. When she cut near to the hyoid bone, she said, "The cervical artery ruptured horizontally, the hyoid bone fractured, behind the wall of the pharynx underneath the membrane, there are signs of blood spots and hyperaemia…" 

As Ran Yan spoke, she pointed out each of these parts out for them to see. Ran Yan knew even though the others did not dare to look, at the very least there was Feng Xun and Xiao Song. 

Her scalpel continued cutting down, stripping away the attached muscles and revealing white bone, "The cervical vertebrae is fractured and dislocated. There are also signs of bleeding." 

After examining these, Ran Yan did not stop and swiftly continued to dissect the chest. The knife in her hands seemed to be alive. She controlled it very well, where she cut and how deep she cut were all very precise. Once the knife pressed down, the skin and fat underneath were cut open, and the internal organs would definitely remain unharmed. 

Xiao Song"s gaze couldn"t help shifting to Ran Yan"s face.

T/N: In the Tang Dynasty, you could tell the rank of officials based on the clothes they wore. For further clarification: 

3rd rank and above (including royalty): purple fine silk robes decorated with large rounded patterns and a jade belt buckle. 

4th and 5th rank: red fine silk robes decorated with small rounded patterns and a goldfish[5]belt buckle. 

7th rank: light green damask silk robes with geometric patterns and a silver buckle. 

[1]成衣店: shop that sells ready-made clothes

[2]胡服: Hu clothing. See picture below: 

[3]验尸解剖: 验尸 means autopsy (literally "examine corpse") and 解剖 means dissection. I think the author has been using "autopsy" to describe merely examining the body without cutting it open and "dissection" to mean an autopsy involving cutting open the body.  

[4]杨梅: ancient name for syphilis - named so because of the characteristic sores resembling red bayberries 

[5]草金钩: ok so 草金= a type of goldfish. separately, 草= gra.s.s; 金= gold. So, it could either mean "Goldfish buckle" or "Gra.s.s Gold buckle" … who knows. And I couldn"t find any pictures of this buckle either. D: