Andre’s Reviews > The Fear of Witchcraft and Witches in Imperial China: Figurines, Familiars and Demons > Status Update

wow, that aging emperor must have been quite paranoid if he thought his officials practiced gu to harm him.

There was a witchcraft scandal when emperor AI reigned? Never heard of that.

Spitting as part of an exorcist ritual ... hm, I wonder how long that lasted.

Interesting thought: Less written about witchcraft at court because court and officialdom were so seperated that they had n o interest and so did not write anything down. And too bad that the author had no sufficient competence in the Manchu language. So we won't get anything form the qing court.

So throught history chinese officials have become increasingly intolerant towards local religious culture and their attempts to sanitize local practive regularly led to the repression of specialists in communication with the dead or with the divine world.

So in 1368, the founder of the Ming dynasty was so paranoid that a leaking hall made him want to arrest and execute all the wood and mason craftsmen. Luckily one official had the courage to point out killing so many was ot a good idea, so possibly thousands were spared. Still some must have lost their lives anyhow

hm, I can see as to why the role of carpenters in placing protective amulets etc into a building could convince people that thereby they would be able to harm someone with their craft.

not sure what is more odd for me, this spell to undress women or the women hanging themselves because they were undressed. I mean is it really so bad to be undressed in front of your husband?

I wonder why by the 17th century persecution became less likely but in the 18th and 19th century there were several mass panics regarding witchcraft.

If the fear of witchcraft was so prevalent back then, I do wonder why so many magistrates felt so uneasy with the topic and did not want to persecute. Skepticism of the accuser probably did exist but was it so common or was there some other element?