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Final Witness: The Story of China’s First Crime Scene Investigator
Where is the justice in a corrupt and crumbling empire?
Thirteenth century China, and the Song Empire is crumbling due to endemic corruption and the incursion of barbarians from abroad. Ambitious men do what they must to get ahead, trampling the commoners who come in their path.
Into the decaying ranks of the civil service, a young scholar called Song Ci is admitted. He soon gets the chance to prove his worth by developing an unmatched skill for interpreting crime scenes. In a series of complex murder cases that baffled his predecessors, Song is finally able to dispense justice to the relatives of those whose lives have been lost in the chaos.
As the world he knows wanes, Song will be pitted against increasing dangers that will tax him to the edge of his abilities. But will his efforts be enough to save the empire?
Thirteenth century China, and the Song Empire is crumbling due to endemic corruption and the incursion of barbarians from abroad. Ambitious men do what they must to get ahead, trampling the commoners who come in their path.
Into the decaying ranks of the civil service, a young scholar called Song Ci is admitted. He soon gets the chance to prove his worth by developing an unmatched skill for interpreting crime scenes. In a series of complex murder cases that baffled his predecessors, Song is finally able to dispense justice to the relatives of those whose lives have been lost in the chaos.
As the world he knows wanes, Song will be pitted against increasing dangers that will tax him to the edge of his abilities. But will his efforts be enough to save the empire?
540 pages, Paperback
Published June 1, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 30, 2020
Final Witness is the story of Song Ci, the 13th Century physician and judge, who compiled the oldest extant forensic or legal medicine manual in the world – Collected Cases of Injustice Righted (aka The Washing Away of Wrongs) – in 1247 during the Song Dynasty; a manual that would go onto to become highly influential all across East Asia and continue to be consulted in its various forms until the end of the Qing Dynasty.
What Wang Hongjia has written here is what he calls a marriage of two genres: biography and the novel. I cannot speak to Chinese literature but biographical novels – The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone, for instance – are nothing new in Western literature. However, they do take tremendous skill to write. Dramatizing a person’s life – a human life can hardly ever be said to fit into a novel’s story arc – is extremely difficult. To bring a historical person, their relations, their struggles – both internal & external – the themes of their human experience to life so that the attention of the reader is captured for the length of a novel, is a wonderful gift to possess. And the sources relied upon must be of such quality that the novelization of that life is believable even though assumptions and dramatic fabrications are necessarily made. I cannot speak to the sources consulted by Wang Hongjia in the writing of this book. I can only assume he has read all the sources that are available to him to read. So I will not comment on the basic historical accuracy of this novel. What I will say is that the novel fell flat to me, and that in sticking to the chronologically known facts of the life of Song Ci, Wang Hongjia has created a rather dull episodic story – a story that does not exactly sparkle with life.
I am not sure that this has anything to do with the quality of the translation. The text reads well and smoothly. I suspect, though he is the winner of many literary awards in China, that Wang Hongjia is not as skilled or as gifted an author that a story such as this required him to be. I am left thinking that Song Ci – as physical and morally courageous an official as one was likely to meet – deserves so much more. Furthermore, though we are told repeatedly about the political and military pressure the Song was under in the 13th Century, first by the Jin and later by the Mongols, and that corruption and injustice was rife, I never really got a sense about what Song Ci felt about the law, about what it really meant to him and the people, other than its application was indifferent throughout the land and that criminal investigations were not exactly performed rigorously. Moreover, we are given no sense of Song Ci’s inner spiritual life. The supernatural seems entirely missing from the novel which, in terms of the Song Dynasty, seems particularly odd. The historical Song Ci would certainly have believed some illnesses to be caused by possession, for instance. Possibly Wang Hongjia avoided themes he thought too difficult to write or perhaps for a novel to succeed in modern China one has to avoid anything that might be considered excess religiosity or superstition. However, my gut feeling is that Wang Hongjia avoided these issues because he isn’t comfortable with them himself. After all, Song Ci, the finest early exponent of forensic medicine, has to be more like a modern man, doesn’t he? Primarily a man of facts, a man of evidence! This, I feel, is a major mistake.
Wang Hongjia has also added what I felt to be some fanciful elements to the story – martial arts, miracle cures from curious exotic medicinal concoctions, discussion of various powerful acupuncture points – which seem to belong in wholly different style of novel, though these are not overly intrusive and I am probably nit-picking.
All in all, this novel took quite an effort to read. I found it best to read it in bursts, taking in one ‘episode’ in Song Ci’s life at a time.
Now, none of this is to say that the novel does not have redeeming qualities. It does. The story, though not sparkling, flows well. And Song Ci’s life is very interesting. And there is lots of history. I just wished that the story of Song Ci had been told with a bit more verve and vitality, and that Song Ci, his family, and the Song Dynasty as a whole had been brought more to life.
Still, I am glad I have the book in my collection. A novel for Chinese history aficionados, I think.
What Wang Hongjia has written here is what he calls a marriage of two genres: biography and the novel. I cannot speak to Chinese literature but biographical novels – The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone, for instance – are nothing new in Western literature. However, they do take tremendous skill to write. Dramatizing a person’s life – a human life can hardly ever be said to fit into a novel’s story arc – is extremely difficult. To bring a historical person, their relations, their struggles – both internal & external – the themes of their human experience to life so that the attention of the reader is captured for the length of a novel, is a wonderful gift to possess. And the sources relied upon must be of such quality that the novelization of that life is believable even though assumptions and dramatic fabrications are necessarily made. I cannot speak to the sources consulted by Wang Hongjia in the writing of this book. I can only assume he has read all the sources that are available to him to read. So I will not comment on the basic historical accuracy of this novel. What I will say is that the novel fell flat to me, and that in sticking to the chronologically known facts of the life of Song Ci, Wang Hongjia has created a rather dull episodic story – a story that does not exactly sparkle with life.
I am not sure that this has anything to do with the quality of the translation. The text reads well and smoothly. I suspect, though he is the winner of many literary awards in China, that Wang Hongjia is not as skilled or as gifted an author that a story such as this required him to be. I am left thinking that Song Ci – as physical and morally courageous an official as one was likely to meet – deserves so much more. Furthermore, though we are told repeatedly about the political and military pressure the Song was under in the 13th Century, first by the Jin and later by the Mongols, and that corruption and injustice was rife, I never really got a sense about what Song Ci felt about the law, about what it really meant to him and the people, other than its application was indifferent throughout the land and that criminal investigations were not exactly performed rigorously. Moreover, we are given no sense of Song Ci’s inner spiritual life. The supernatural seems entirely missing from the novel which, in terms of the Song Dynasty, seems particularly odd. The historical Song Ci would certainly have believed some illnesses to be caused by possession, for instance. Possibly Wang Hongjia avoided themes he thought too difficult to write or perhaps for a novel to succeed in modern China one has to avoid anything that might be considered excess religiosity or superstition. However, my gut feeling is that Wang Hongjia avoided these issues because he isn’t comfortable with them himself. After all, Song Ci, the finest early exponent of forensic medicine, has to be more like a modern man, doesn’t he? Primarily a man of facts, a man of evidence! This, I feel, is a major mistake.
Wang Hongjia has also added what I felt to be some fanciful elements to the story – martial arts, miracle cures from curious exotic medicinal concoctions, discussion of various powerful acupuncture points – which seem to belong in wholly different style of novel, though these are not overly intrusive and I am probably nit-picking.
All in all, this novel took quite an effort to read. I found it best to read it in bursts, taking in one ‘episode’ in Song Ci’s life at a time.
Now, none of this is to say that the novel does not have redeeming qualities. It does. The story, though not sparkling, flows well. And Song Ci’s life is very interesting. And there is lots of history. I just wished that the story of Song Ci had been told with a bit more verve and vitality, and that Song Ci, his family, and the Song Dynasty as a whole had been brought more to life.
Still, I am glad I have the book in my collection. A novel for Chinese history aficionados, I think.
August 11, 2019
The title drew me in - I was intrigued from the get-go. Who was this Chinese CSI, Song Ci? And why had I never heard of him?
I love crime - fiction and non-fiction. I have an entire bookcase dedicated to it - that is, what I personally own. What have I read would take up many, many more. Even more recently, courtesy of Netflix and SBS (in Australia), I have taken a liking to movies depicting historical China, including the highly entertaining "Judge Dee" series. Needless to say, I was eager to get my hands on this book.
The life of Song Ci of Jianyang, is told against the backdrop of historical events shaping the Chinese empire in the 13th century. Song Ci himself, due to his father's illness, was prevented from taking up an official government post; instead finds himself back home, seeking answers in the hopes of healing his father. A series of local murders, disappearances, violence, government corruption and inaction, sees local seeking our Song Ci for assistance. A lack of knowledge of the law is evident, so he goes in search of such knowledge.
As Song Ci is presented a series of "cases" to solve, he make mistakes along the way, goes in search of more knowledge, develops his skills in assessing crime scenes, and ultimately gets there in the end. And as he does, his reputation increases, and he eventually becomes judicial commission aged 53yo.
This is a very different style of writing which also encompasses quite a bit of history - political, social and legal - as well interspersing the cases studies with an ongoing biography of Song Ci. Chinese society was very structured and protocol must be adhered to which sometimes made the process of solving the crimes rather lengthy.
Once you get used to the flow of the story, it becomes quite an easy read. The stories themselves are fascinating as are the methods of investigation - a far cry from our more modern scientific methodologies. This is well worth taking the time out to read.
I love crime - fiction and non-fiction. I have an entire bookcase dedicated to it - that is, what I personally own. What have I read would take up many, many more. Even more recently, courtesy of Netflix and SBS (in Australia), I have taken a liking to movies depicting historical China, including the highly entertaining "Judge Dee" series. Needless to say, I was eager to get my hands on this book.
The life of Song Ci of Jianyang, is told against the backdrop of historical events shaping the Chinese empire in the 13th century. Song Ci himself, due to his father's illness, was prevented from taking up an official government post; instead finds himself back home, seeking answers in the hopes of healing his father. A series of local murders, disappearances, violence, government corruption and inaction, sees local seeking our Song Ci for assistance. A lack of knowledge of the law is evident, so he goes in search of such knowledge.
As Song Ci is presented a series of "cases" to solve, he make mistakes along the way, goes in search of more knowledge, develops his skills in assessing crime scenes, and ultimately gets there in the end. And as he does, his reputation increases, and he eventually becomes judicial commission aged 53yo.
This is a very different style of writing which also encompasses quite a bit of history - political, social and legal - as well interspersing the cases studies with an ongoing biography of Song Ci. Chinese society was very structured and protocol must be adhered to which sometimes made the process of solving the crimes rather lengthy.
Once you get used to the flow of the story, it becomes quite an easy read. The stories themselves are fascinating as are the methods of investigation - a far cry from our more modern scientific methodologies. This is well worth taking the time out to read.
June 10, 2019
This is a strong book that has a great story. It perhaps makes you work a bit harder as the story has a historical element that is educational as to all the dynasties and it takes a moment each time to work out exactly which character is speaking/written about as the names are unfamiliar. But you quickly edit the story as you progress through the book and the result is a fascinating insight into forensics, Chinese culture and links to modern day methods of forensic science as the story is revealed. Thanks to netgalley for giving me the opportunity to review this book.
January 22, 2021
As other reviewers have said, similar to van Gulik's Judge Dee series, based on the imagined life of Song Ci, crime investigator and author of China's first manual of forensic science. I struggled with it first time around – it seemed very slow and circuitous – but enjoyed it for the same reasons on second reading. Could perhaps have used a bit more humour though. Always gaps in meanings when reading things in translation, but this one seemed pretty good to me.
June 19, 2019
I'm a huge fan of Judge Dee and was more than happy when this ARC was approved.
It's a fascinating trip into historical China and a good mystery.
It's not fast paced and sometimes it's a bit confusing but was an enthralling reading experience.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
It's a fascinating trip into historical China and a good mystery.
It's not fast paced and sometimes it's a bit confusing but was an enthralling reading experience.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
February 6, 2021
كتاب مميز وممتع، والترجمة العربية رائعة
March 14, 2025
‘Wang Hongjia's ‘Final Witness’ is a historical detective story that stands out for its setting and its protagonist: Song Ci, a magistrate from ancient imperial China, often considered a kind of Chinese Sherlock Holmes. The novel transports us into a world of rigid hierarchies, court intrigues and meticulous forensic investigations, faithfully restoring the mentality and modus operandi of the Chinese bureaucracy of the time.
One of the most fascinating aspects of the book is precisely the contrast between the Chinese investigative method and the Western one we are more accustomed to: here, the resolution of crimes does not only pass through logical deduction, but is intertwined with Confucian culture, traditional medicine and the complexity of the imperial administrative apparatus. Hongjia writes with a precise and rigorous style, enriching the tale with historical and procedural details that make the investigation even more immersive.
If there is a small limitation, perhaps it lies in the pace: at times the narrative becomes almost more descriptive than narrative, slowing down the plot in favour of accurate historical reconstruction. However, this does not detract from the charm of the book, which turns out to be a sui generis detective story, refined and well documented.
A recommended read for those who love historical detective stories, stories of unconventional investigators and those who want to discover a different approach to crime solving.
One of the most fascinating aspects of the book is precisely the contrast between the Chinese investigative method and the Western one we are more accustomed to: here, the resolution of crimes does not only pass through logical deduction, but is intertwined with Confucian culture, traditional medicine and the complexity of the imperial administrative apparatus. Hongjia writes with a precise and rigorous style, enriching the tale with historical and procedural details that make the investigation even more immersive.
If there is a small limitation, perhaps it lies in the pace: at times the narrative becomes almost more descriptive than narrative, slowing down the plot in favour of accurate historical reconstruction. However, this does not detract from the charm of the book, which turns out to be a sui generis detective story, refined and well documented.
A recommended read for those who love historical detective stories, stories of unconventional investigators and those who want to discover a different approach to crime solving.
July 14, 2025
It was OK. I love me some mysteries set in old times, but reading it was a chore at the beginning and the end. The book is, essentially, a set of episodes in life of a Chinese detective\official, but it is a far cry from episodic stories in fashion of Sherlock Holmes. There is no "traditional" structure in those mysteries, they are frequently solved off screen, the puzzles are often absent.
Instead, you'll read pages upon pages of wuxia-style martial arts fights, laments about Chinese history, Chinese "we did it first" claims, treatises on traditional medicine and acupuncture and LOADS of unneeded characterization of tertiary characters. All of the above is written in very heavy-handed prose. The book is dense, it defies Western approach to novels, it meanders about and, ultimately, has very little payoff at the end of each story.
2 stars instead of 1 because I finished it (though barely).
Instead, you'll read pages upon pages of wuxia-style martial arts fights, laments about Chinese history, Chinese "we did it first" claims, treatises on traditional medicine and acupuncture and LOADS of unneeded characterization of tertiary characters. All of the above is written in very heavy-handed prose. The book is dense, it defies Western approach to novels, it meanders about and, ultimately, has very little payoff at the end of each story.
2 stars instead of 1 because I finished it (though barely).
December 20, 2021
A meticulous history of the thirteenth century figure Song Ci and China during the Song Period. Song Ci was a Sherlockian figure, now mostly forgotten. Wang Hongjia sought to bring him to modern readers and in so doing gives intricate historical histories, political, cultural and artistic. While the book is well written and translated, readers can become lost in the numerous luminary figures of the day and complicated politics. Bearing in mind the author's purpose is to highlight, CSI like, the many interesting legal cases set before Magistrate Song, I found it very interesting.
July 28, 2026
รู้จัก "ซ่งฉือ" จากซีรีส์ฮ่องกง-ทีวีบี เมื่อนานแล้ว พอมีผู้นำมาแปลก็เลยมาอ่าน ทำความรู้จักให้มากขึ้น
ดำเนินเรื่องตามประวัติของท่าน ตั้งแต่สอบได้ รับราชการ จบเจอคดีความมากมาย เมื่อถึงงานแซยิด ฉลอง 60 ปี ก็ตระหนักได้ว่าควรเขียนหนังสือเกี่ยวกับการชันสูตร วิเคราะห์คดี ไว้ให้ข้าราชการตุลาการทั้งหลายได้อ่าน ศึกษาเป็นแนวทาง จึงมาเป็นหนังสือเล่มนี้
ดำเนินเรื่องตามประวัติของท่าน ตั้งแต่สอบได้ รับราชการ จบเจอคดีความมากมาย เมื่อถึงงานแซยิด ฉลอง 60 ปี ก็ตระหนักได้ว่าควรเขียนหนังสือเกี่ยวกับการชันสูตร วิเคราะห์คดี ไว้ให้ข้าราชการตุลาการทั้งหลายได้อ่าน ศึกษาเป็นแนวทาง จึงมาเป็นหนังสือเล่มนี้
June 10, 2019
Final Witness is a interesting historical fiction novel, but it is so slow. The translation may have caused some of the issues. It is a shame it fell short.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews