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Description
Title查王秀年跳樓自殺
Short title王秀年跳樓自殺案
archiveID175
DateSaturday 23 December 1944
Year1944
Author上海特別市第一警察局老閘分局; 真心臨時時疫醫院; 上海地方檢察署
Role (author of)Police investigation; reporting of non-natural death; medical certification; witness interrogation; judicial inquest; medico-legal examination
Series Number/IDShanghai Municipal Archives
Box numberR44-2
File numberR44-2-4818
Number of pages28
Abstract

Dossier concerning Wang Xiunian (王秀年), a 28-year-old woman from Huzhou (湖州), whose death in Shanghai in December 1944 was investigated as suicide by jumping from a building. Wang was a patient at Zhenxin Hospital (真心醫院) on Tianjin Road. A hospital certificate dated 23 December 1944 explicitly records that she had jumped from the building with suicidal intent (跳樓自殺) that morning. Medical documentation also records her age and hospitalization.

The police investigation reconstructed Wang's medical history and the circumstances immediately preceding the incident. Statements from hospital personnel indicate that she had been receiving treatment for a serious pulmonary illness, described in the interrogation material as 第三期肺結核 (third-stage pulmonary tuberculosis). Witnesses were questioned about her behavior, mental condition, relations with other patients and hospital staff, and whether anything unusual had occurred before the jump. The evidence generally indicates no immediately preceding quarrel or external act of violence.

The dossier contains extensive witness interrogations involving hospital personnel, relatives, and persons acquainted with Wang, followed by prosecutorial documentation and a formal medico-legal examination. Family testimony suggests that her prolonged illness and failure to recover may have contributed to the suicide, although witnesses did not claim definite knowledge of her motive. The final forensic documentation records the bodily injuries produced by the fall and concludes that Wang died from injuries sustained in the fall (跌傷身死).

Comment

Predominantly handwritten Chinese documents on printed police and judicial forms, supplemented by medical records from 真心醫院 and related medical institutions. The case is particularly valuable because the surviving documentation provides substantial evidence concerning the deceased's physical illness and hospitalization before the suicide. Hospital and witness records indicate that Wang suffered from advanced pulmonary tuberculosis and had been undergoing treatment for some time. This medical condition should be retained as an important documented circumstance surrounding her death, while avoiding treating illness as a definitively proven single motive.

Witnesses generally reported no significant abnormal behavior, conflict, or suspicious circumstances immediately before the incident. One family account nevertheless suggested that 久病不愈 (prolonged illness without recovery) was a possible explanation for Wang's decision to take her life. The distinction between documented medical condition and inferred motive is therefore important. The hospital documentation establishes the act as 跳樓自殺, whereas the final medico-legal examination establishes the physiological cause of death more narrowly as injuries resulting from the fall.

Keywords (en)suicide; suicide by jumping; fall from building; fall injuries; pulmonary tuberculosis; tuberculosis; chronic illness; prolonged illness; hospital patient; women; hospital treatment; death investigation; witness testimony; inquest; corpse examination; for
Keywords (fr)suicide; suicide par saut d'un bâtiment; chute d'un bâtiment; blessures dues à une chute; tuberculose pulmonaire; tuberculose; maladie chronique; maladie prolongée; patiente hospitalisée; femmes; traitement hospitalier; enquête sur un décès; témo
SubjectSuicide; suicide by jumping; pulmonary tuberculosis; chronic illness; hospital patients; death investigation; forensic examination
Place of eventShanghai 上海
Year of event1944
LanguageChinese
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