The history of document inspection is as long as the crime of using documents. As early as the second century BC, there was a case record in the history books of China that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty examined the silk book hidden in a cow's belly and identified the author of the silk book, so China was one of the first countries in the world to use literature retrieval technology. After the Tang and Song Dynasties, handwriting inspection has been widely used in investigation and judgment, and seal printing and identification of currency authenticity have also appeared.

However, the systematic theoretical research on document inspection is mainly in modern times. First, European and American countries have published a number of monographs on document inspection since the end of 19, such as>, published in19/kloc-0 > France also published Betty Lang's:> and so on, representing the actual level of document inspection at that time.

After 1930s, the Kuomintang Police Department began to study the theory and method of document inspection. 1943 < & lt； Graphology >; & gt It is the first monograph on document inspection in the history of China, written by Feng Yu 1949. Encyclopedia of scientific knowledge of criminal police >:> The revised edition contains all the contents of modern document inspection. However, these books are basically copies of European and American countries, lacking in depth in theoretical research and low in practical level.

The founding of New China opened the history of modern document inspection in China. Since the mid-1950s, China's public security and judicial departments have trained thousands of professional and technical personnel in document retrieval, mainly distributed in public security and judicial organs at or above the county level to carry out document retrieval work. 1974 The Ministry of Public Security 126 Institute was established in Beijing, and its document retrieval laboratory became the national document appraisal and scientific research center. Established in 198 1, China Criminal Police College (formerly known as the Central Police College and the First People's Police School of the Ministry of Public Security) also opened a four-year undergraduate document inspection major, which created the history of higher education of document inspection major in China.

With the continuous expansion of the professional team of document retrieval in China, the theoretical research of document inspection has entered a new era. Academic seminars on document inspection are held regularly, papers and monographs on document inspection have been published one after another, and some new branches of document inspection have emerged continuously. With the joint efforts of the vast number of document retrieval workers, the theory and practice of document inspection have been continuously improved, and a document retrieval discipline system with its own characteristics has gradually formed, which has played an important role in the struggle against the enemy and the whole judicial practice.