《和屍體說話的人》
Do you believe in past life, and its strong invisible influence over your present life?
He was the Sherlocks Holmes of Taiwan.
The modern day Justice Pao (現代包青天), known to bring justice to murdered victims.
楊青天大人, he was nicknamed by his countrymen.
I had never heard of 楊日松博士, Dr Yang Jih-sung.
Till I read the story written by my Grandmaster, Living Buddha Lian-Sheng, which I posted two days ago.
That was donkey years back.
In my decade long of mastering Chinese Metaphysics, I have amassed hundreds, if not thousands, of Bazi in my crumpled dog-eared notebooks.
One continuous homework that I have been doing since 2006, is to study the Bazi, faces, bodies and lives of not just famous people, people featured in the newspapers (hit-and-run victims, suicide victims, criminals, scholars, helpful people etc.) but as well as people around me.
Shifu said, the more we study, the better and faster we get at dissecting a person's Bazi and people reading.
The goal is to train our eyes and brain so well that we can see a person naked (figuratively, of course) within one split second.
And when a person walks past, without turning our heads to look, we must be able to tell Shifu the current financial state and luck of the person. #aurareading
Such training was very strenuous in the beginning. When I didn't pass the impromptu tests given by Shifu, I was meted harsh punishment and disallowed further learning, till I passed with flying colours.
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I got curious about Dr Yang about a month ago. He had a very fascinating career history.
What does he have in his Bazi, that determines him to be a righteous and dedicated forensic expert with such top-notch crime-solving skills?
What had he done to be bestowed the divine title of 城隍爺 (City God), after his death?
I read that he allegedly handled more than 30,000 bodies over the course of his 62-year career. I took out my calculator. That worked out to 484 bodies every year. 40.3 bodies every month, which is about 1.34 bodies every day.
While all his classmates went off to become doctors, Dr Yang was the only one from his class to take up forensics. It was a decision he made after his brother was forcefully coerced into a confession by the Japanese that he was a spy and wrongfully jailed, and another friend was unfairly charged of being a thief.
Dr Yang learnt early in his life, that eye witnesses were insufficient to solve a case. There was a pressing need for strong scientific evidence.
What caught my eye about Dr Yang was his utmost respect to the dead bodies.
He would always take a bow to the victim before starting work on the dead body.
Through the decades, he had never wore any protective gear like masks and gloves during autopsies.
In his biography:
"A forensic expert’s job is more than just studying and dissecting the bodies. If necessary, we need to taste the contents of their stomachs and determine the time of death from the acidity. We can also tell from the bitterness whether there was poisoning involved.”
He cites a case where three charred bodies were brought in from the same incident.
“They smelled the same, so I could tell that they were burned at the same time. If I wore a mask, I would not be able to observe this subtle detail,” he says. “And, I believe that wearing a mask is disrespectful toward the deceased.”
Finally, he explains that he “cannot feel the elasticity of the skin” if he has gloves on.
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I don't know if you have ever smelt a corpse. But it is known to be extremely foul.
Especially when the bodies have been thrown into the sea, or buried deep in the soil, before digging out much later.
Dr Yang never feared infection by the bacteria in the corpses.
Those were the days when CSI kind of science did not exist.
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楊日松法醫：「你沒有良心，做不了。」
Dr Yang solved his first case when he was just an intern and still a student at Taipei Medical University in 1949. A pair of university lovers supposedly hung themselves by the Tamsui River, but the man survived. Later on, Dr Yang quickly proved that the noose was too small for two persons to be hung together. The man had murdered his girlfriend and staged a suicide attempt, complete with a forged suicide note, to cover up.
Dr Yang was only 21 years old then. (Jeez...what was I doing at 21?)
He went on to solve many difficult cases, which shocked Taiwan's society. Here are just 3 of them:
1. September 1977. It was Taiwan's 1st dismemberment murder case.
Two plastic bags containing about 6 pieces of body parts were found along the Dahan River.
DNA tests were non-existent then.
Dr Yang was called in, and his examination showed that the body parts belonged to the same person. He also provided the victim's age and possible identity at a reporters' conference, where he displayed the body parts on a table, and listed 10 areas of identification.
Including, the mammary glands were not enlarged, proof that the woman had never been pregnant.
And how the woman was possibly murdered and mutilated.
The police soon tracked the murderer to a ex-convict, who put up a false hiring notice, to trick young ladies.
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2. 1990. The murder of a young Japanese undergraduate.
The body could not be found till a year later.
The young lady came to Taiwan for solo free and easy travel. She got onto a taxi, with a friendly driver who showed her around Taiwan. Iguchi Mariko agreed to staying at the driver's home for the night, when she could not find accommodation.
Her body was mutilated into 100+ parts and buried under a big tree. Her head was thrown into a rubbish bin.
When the police caught the taxi driver, Dr Yang provided scientific evidence that the taxi driver washed his home walls with strong chemicals and the water usage during the month of murder was 5 times the usual amount.
While the bones were too damaged to be tested for DNA, Dr Yang could piece them together that they belonged to the same person.
This case shocked both Taiwan and Japan.
3. 1993. The dead Marine Captain Yin Ching-feng (尹清楓)
The Captain was discovered dead along the coast of Yilan. The military claimed it was suicide by drowning. Dr Yang examined the corpse and discovered many wounds. There was no ocean debris in the lungs or other drowning symptoms.
Dr Yang announced that the Captain was murdered before being disposed into the ocean.
His honest words unscrambled a huge military scandal in Taiwan and caused many high-ranking officials to lose their jobs.
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楊日松法醫：「法醫學是人權保障醫學。」
Dr Yang was also involved in the examination of 17-year-old Bai Hsiao Yen's mauled body. During the examination, Bai Bing Bing, the famous Taiwanese actress, mother of the victim, requested to be present.
Calling Dr Yang a Bodhisattva to the family of the victims, Bai Bing Bing was deeply moved by Dr Yang's comforting words to her:
我只能幫你瞭解真相。我沒有辦法再騰出我的手，再來救一個萬一昏倒的人。妳放心，妳信任我，我等一下一定會給妳最清楚的答案。
(I can only help you find out the truth. I am unable to lend another hand, to save a person who might faint. Don't worry. Trust me. Later I will definitely give you the clearest answer.)
Due to the nature of his work, Dr Yang contracted a skin disease, which caused great itchiness. Two months of seeing the doctor and injections did not help. Eventually, Dr Yang learnt of using rice water to wash his skin. Neighbours and Taiwanese who knew of Dr Yang's condition would bring rice water all the way to his home. It took 6 months before Dr Yang's skin ailment was under control.
#好人有好報
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楊日松法醫：「對屍體要誠實。沒有誠實的人，不要來當。」
There were many cases that Dr Yang solved, with supernatural help.
Once, when he was on a car together with his friends, he spotted a lady sitting beside him. He kept quiet as he assumed she was the friend of one friend. Later on, the car was stopped at a roadblock, where the officer told Dr Yang that he was needed at a crime scene. By then, the lady had mysteriously disappeared.
When Dr Yang reached the scene, he saw that the corpse looked exactly like the lady in the car. He knew immediately it wasn't a suicide case, as seen from the surface.
Another time, Dr Yang was at home when there was a knock on his door. He opened the door and saw a lady in a tracksuit with her head down. The lady sought Dr Yang's help to examine her injury. Dr Yang replied that he didn't have his equipment right now and asked the lady to go to the police station tomorrow. The next morning, during an autopsy, Dr Yang saw a body which didn't have clear facial features, as the body was rescued from the river.
He asked for the police to show him the clothes the body was found in. It was the EXACT same tracksuit as the lady who knocked on his door last night.
One day after work, Dr Yang's car was flagged down by a lady standing by the road. It was pouring heavily. Dr Yang got the chauffeur to stop his car and the lady asked to hitch a ride. Dr Yang agreed. The lady remained silent and kept her head down throughout. Dr Yang found her vaguely familiar.
After she disembarked, for some reason, Dr Yang's chauffeur got lost and could not find his way home. For over an hour, his car kept turning around the same spot.
Feeling something was amiss, Dr Yang headed back to Yilan, and re-examined the corpse. He had initially deduced that the corpse had committed suicide by drinking pesticide. On his 2nd examination, he discovered that the pesticide was found in the lungs. Usually for such suicide case, pesticide would be present in the esophagus. But if one was forced to drink it, the pesticide would leak into the lungs. Dr Yang amended his autopsy conclusion of suicide to murder.
Many supernatural incidents like these had alerted Dr Yang to correcting his initial findings, and solving mysterious cases.
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Yet, there were times when Dr Yang was unable to reach a conclusive result despite many rounds of autopsy.
Then, Dr Yang would pray to the "Floating Head" in his autopsy laboratory. It belonged to a murdered victim, whose case was also resolved by Dr Yang. For some reason, the family/friend didn't want to claim the head. The head had been preserved in a glass container of formalin for 50 over years and its hair and moustache would grow. It was the Guardian Protector of Dr Yang and his team.
Each time after Dr Yang prayed to it, he would gain new insights into the case on hand.
During the Hungry Ghosts' Festival, Dr Yang would lead his entire team to pray to the "good brothers" and made many offerings. He had never missed a year of prayers.
While most educated people turn their noses up at the talk of ghosts and gods, this is one Doctor who will bow humbly before them and ingrain into his team the importance of respect.
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Dr Yang told my Grandmaster that in his past life, he was the confidential secretary to the King of Hades. Hence in this lifetime, he took on the role of a forensic expert, helping murdered victims to redress the injustice they suffered.
Dr Yang's Bazi was an interesting revelation to his life and character, and why his occupation suited his Bazi to a T.
During his time, there were less than 10 forensic experts in the whole of Taiwan.
His integrity, courage, care to minute details, diligence, quest to find the truth and dedication are qualities I deeply admired. The same qualities my Shifu had been drilling into me for the past 11 years to be a very competent practitioner.
In this era where most people worship the famous and the rich, it is very rare to find a noble character like Dr Yang, who also respected the spiritual world.
Before he passed on due to colon caner, Dr Yang had expressed no regret over his career choice. The only thing he felt bad about was not being to provide more for his children, as public servants in Taiwan earned much less than doctors.
But Dr Yang, your heroic legacy is one that your children and descendants can speak proudly of for decades. The merits you left for them can guarantee them a better life than money ever can buy.
Dr Yang was born on 23 November, 1927. He passed away on the same day, in 2011.
I wanted to post this article yesterday, on his birthday and death anniversary. I took too long to write and am a day late. But I still wish to share Dr Yang's great life story with you.
Congratulations on your promotion to be the righteous City God. You totally earned it. 🙏
城隍境主楊日松法醫，Happy Belated Birthday, Dr Yang. 🙇🏻♀️
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Photo credit to Apple Daily, TVBS Taiwan, and respective owners.
You can learn more about Dr Yang and his work on Youtube by searching for "楊日松".
To read my post where I posted my Grandmaster's article on Dr Yang, link in comment.
