Soulstealers: The Chinese Sorcery Scare of 1768

by Philip A. Kuhn

Book Overview

Midway through the reign of the Ch'ien-lung emperor, Hungli, in the most prosperous period of China's last imperial dynasty, mass hysteria broke out among the common people. It was feared that sorcerers were roaming the land, clipping off the ends of men's queues (the braids worn by royal decree), and chanting magical incantations over them in order to steal the souls of their owners. In a fascinating chronicle of this epidemic of fear and the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674821521
• ISBN13: 9780674821521
• Release Date: November 2006
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.03 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A must read to understand traditional Chinese society and its players

The Chinese Sorcery Scare of 1768 was indeed a minor incident during the rule of the famous Emperor Ch'ien-lung of the Qing Dynasty. There are many academic and folk tales of the Emperor written in Chinese, welcoming reading (together with plays and movies) for common Chinese up to the present era. The most famous one is stories related to Ch'ien-lung's private visit to the South, with the usual romance and excitement like many a soap operas. But minor incident of sorcery scare? Absolutely not of a wider popular interest. Yet, the Chinese translation of this book has been quite popular among intellectuals of Greater China. The reason is that issues touched upon in the book reflect the certain aspects of interactions between the Emperor, his bureaucracy, down to the lowest level of common folks; and seemingly with some contemporary significance too. A few issues have been touched upon in the book: 1. During Ch'ien-lung' era, the Qing Dynasty was prosperous; most people (including the majority Hans) supported the Emperor. Yet, he was highly suspicious about any act that might undermine his authoritarian rule. An Emperor never felt safe, irrespective of time or how successful he was, even as able and as famous as Ch'ien'lung. In this case, an (yet) unexplained loss of a shred of hair was construed by the Emperor as a hidden attempt to overthrow the Manchurian regime! 2. Thus Ch'ien-lung had the belief (or personal hunch) that it had to be related to some hidden rebellious Hans-secret-society, a tip of the iceberg that had to be pulled out and destroyed. Because of his belief, his bureaucrats (in order to show loyalty) used torture to force convictions; that further strengthened the Emperor's belief! 3. Such witch-hunt could not be ended until the Emperor ended it himself. 4. Common folks were quite apolitical actually. They didn't want to have too much trouble with the authority. Yet, they were also scared by wandering people (monks, beggers etc) who didn't have a role in society as laid down by the government or tradition (in the present case, these wanderers, without any proof, were blamed for/convicted as soul-stealing). As the book showed, these people showed no mercy towards these suspicious wanderers, and showed no regards for their well being - if the government didn't take care of these suspicious wanderers with torture and killing, they would take the matters in their own hands (needless to say, a sense of legal justice or personal rights of the suspects had not been a part of their folk mentality). People who are interested in Chinese and their livelihood in traditional society will find this book very interesting.

Highly Recommended!

By using his detailed research on the Chinese society of the eighteenth-century, Philip Kuhn wrote this historical book, which was published in 1990. This book brings the readers to see the panic of the popular Chinese culture and the imperial court generated by an outbreak of sorcery rumors. Through the narrative perspective of the book, the author created a compelling study of aroused villagers, wandering beggars or monks, accused suspects, aggravated bureaucrats, and a frustrated emperor. There are ten chapters in the book with the addition of "Notes," which explains the history, the sources, and the background in more details for each chapter. Throughout "Soulstealers: The Chinese Sorcery Scare of 1768," there is an understanding of how the Imperial State handled the sorcery rumors in the middle of the eighteenth-century by looking at how the fears of sorcery came into the minds of the peasants, how the Chinese bureaucrats handled the crisis, and the Ch'ien-lung emperor's role in the crisis. As evident in the first chapter of "Soulstealers," the fears of sorcery began with the story of peasant Shen who wished to have his revenge on his nephews. Determined to get back at his nephews for torturing and harassing him, Shen has heard about the masons who used the names of the living persons on "paper slips," which were to be a spiritual force (p. 3 - 4). While he determined to have his revenge, Shen approached Mason Wu for more information on "soulstealing" but he was arrested and later released after being tortured by the magistrate of the town. From Shen's mistake in approaching Mason Wu and his release, the rumors began to spread little-by-little from village to village with powerful words such as "soulstealing," "sorcerers," and "queue-clipping." Additionally, the most interesting incident that fueled the rumors in which took place in Hsiao-shan county, Chekiang, where two Buddhist monks were accused by the peasants of "soulstealing," and they were harassed (p. 7-22). The peasants in the local area, who heard about the rumors of "soulstealers," tend to believe the rumors in which the peasants would take any actions to save their families and their own lives. Even though it was just a rumor, the peasants would not take any chances. The monks who were accused in Hsiao-shan were not very careful during their travels because they did not keep the active rumors in mind, which would have saved them from the misunderstandings and the harassments. However, it was not a time of understanding in the mid-eighteenth century. The people tended to believe what they have heard and acted upon it, especially anything that dealt with the unknown forces including "soulstealing." Because of the sorcery beliefs that were rooted a century earlier, many stories of "sorcery" grew to the point where people would have believed the stories to be true in nature. In addition to the incidents of the peasant Shen and the Buddhist monks, there were many incidents involving