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
official prosecution of soulstealers that ensued, Philip Kuhn
provides an intimate glimpse into the world of eighteenth-century
China.
Kuhn weaves his exploration of the sorcery cases with a survey
of the social and economic history of the era. Drawing on a rich
repository of documents found in the imperial archives, he presents
in detail the harrowing interrogations of the accused--a ragtag
assortment of vagabonds, beggars, and roving clergy--conducted
under torture by provincial magistrates. In tracing the panic's
spread from peasant hut to imperial court, Kuhn unmasks the
political menace lurking behind the queue-clipping scare as well as
the complex of folk beliefs that lay beneath popular fears of
sorcery.
Kuhn shows how the campaign against sorcery provides insight
into the period's social structure and ethnic tensions, the
relationship between monarch and bureaucrat, and the inner workings
of the state. Whatever its intended purposes, the author argues,
the campaign offered Hungli a splendid chance to force his
provincial chiefs to crack down on local officials, to reinforce
his personal supremacy over top bureaucrats, and to restate the
norms of official behavior.
This wide-ranging narrative depicts life in imperial Chinaas it
was actually lived, often in the participants' own words.
"Soulstealers" offers a compelling portrait of the Chinese
people--from peasant to emperor--and of the human condition.
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