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Description
Title查咸陽路六○六號同泰紙行棧樓徐欽璋懸樑自殺身死
Short title徐欽璋懸樑自殺案
archiveID187
DateThursday 21 June 1945
Year1945
Author上海特別市警察局常熟路分局; 上海地方檢察署
Role (author of)Police investigation; reporting of non-natural death; witness interrogation; judicial inquest; medico-legal examination
Series Number/IDShanghai Municipal Archives
Box numberR44-2
File numberR44-2-5788
Number of pages22
Abstract

Dossier concerning Xu Qinzhang (徐欽璋), a 29-year-old man from Zhejiang, recorded as a paper-crafts worker (紙紮工人) and resident at No. 606, Xianyang Road (咸陽路六○六號), whose death in Shanghai on 21 June 1945 was investigated as suicide by hanging. The police non-natural death report places the incident in the upper storage or lodging area of the Tongtai Paper Shop (同泰紙行棧樓) at the same address.

Witness testimony reconstructs the discovery of the body. On the morning of 21 June, at approximately 8 a.m., Xu Yuanlin (徐元林) found Xu Qinzhang hanging inside the shop premises from a wooden beam with a coarse hemp rope (木樑粗麻繩); the body was already stiff. The police were then informed and began questioning persons associated with the deceased and the paper shop.

The interrogations provide substantial information concerning Xu's circumstances before his death. Witnesses described him as capable in his work but repeatedly characterized him as fond of gambling and visiting prostitutes (嫖賭). The investigation also discusses debts accumulated outside the workplace and indicates that the management of the paper shop had ceased to trust him and had dismissed him because of his conduct, although he continued to be allowed to lodge on the premises. The dossier subsequently passed to the prosecutorial authorities for a formal judicial examination. The corpse examination records a characteristic ligature mark around the neck consistent with hanging, and the final medico-legal conclusion identifies the death as 自縊身死—death by hanging.

Comment

Predominantly handwritten Chinese documents on printed police and judicial forms. This dossier is comparatively detailed regarding the deceased's social and occupational circumstances. The witness interrogations on pages 7–12 repeatedly address Xu Qinzhang's gambling, sexual behavior, indebtedness, relations with his employer, and the reasons he had lost his position at the paper shop. These are therefore significant documented circumstances surrounding the suicide, but they derive largely from employer and coworker testimony and should not be reduced to a single conclusively established motive.

The mechanism of death, by contrast, is well documented. The discovery testimony on page 9 describes Xu hanging from a wooden beam by a coarse hemp rope, while the medico-legal examination on pages 19–22 records the neck findings and concludes that he died by hanging. The file therefore provides a useful combination of workplace testimony, investigation of possible social and economic pressures, and formal forensic confirmation of suicide.

 

Keywords (en)suicide; hanging; suicide by hanging; self-hanging; ligature; hemp rope; wooden beam; gambling; prostitution; debts; indebtedness; dismissal; employment; paper crafts worker; paper shop; men; witness testimony; death investigation; judicial inquest; corps
Keywords (fr)suicide; pendaison; suicide par pendaison; auto-pendaison; ligature; corde de chanvre; poutre; jeu; prostitution; dettes; endettement; licenciement; emploi; artisan en papier; commerce de papier; hommes; témoignage; enquête sur un décès; enquête judi
SubjectSuicide; hanging; gambling; indebtedness; employment loss; death investigation; forensic examination
Place of eventShanghai 上海
Year of event1945
LanguageChinese
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