Chinese sorcery scares refer to a series of moral panics or mass hysteria events in Imperial China, occurring in 1768, 1810, 1876, and 1908. These scares were characterized by widespread fears of sorcery practices, particularly "soul-stealing," a form of alleged magic believed to cause illness or death. Accusations were often targeted at marginalized groups, including transient monks, beggars, and stonemasons, and resulted in interrogations, torture, and executions.
The 1768 scare, under the reign of the Qianlong Emperor, centered on rumors of sorcery involving the cutting of men's queues (a legally mandated braided hairstyle imposed by the Qing dynasty) to steal their souls. Another alleged practice involved attaching papers inscribed with names to concealed locations within the foundations or supports of construction projects, which was believed to enhance the sorcerer's or construction's strength at the cost of the persons named. These acts were perceived as threats to both individuals and imperial authority. The event led to violent mob actions, government investigations, and the scapegoating of religious figures, often Buddhist monks, suspected of supernatural abilities. Despite prolonged investigations, no evidence of an organized sorcery network or "master sorcerers" were ever substantiated, highlighting the role of torture and coerced confessions in perpetuating the panic.
Later scares, such as the 1876 incident in Nanjing, reflected similar themes of sorcery tied to construction, but incorporated evolving rumors, including claims of magically animated "paper men" cutting their hair braids. These fears spread across the Yangtze River Delta, sparking protective rituals and the sale of amulets.
The events of these scares are often compared to other instances of mass hysteria globally, including witch trials in early modern Europe and Ee ja nai ka celebrations in Bakumatsu-era Japan.
Background
Soul-stealing
Beliefs regarding soul-stealing practices rested on the assumption that souls could be detached from a person's body and used to the benefit of a person with the knowledge and skills to steal a person's soul. Soul-stealing was believed to take two general forms: (1) by reciting spells over a physical object connected to the victim of soul-stealing or (2) by hammering a piece of paper with the victims name written on it into the foundations of a construction project. Soul-stealing by pinning paper on the foundation of construction projects refers to the belief that builders such as masons could use sorcery by writing people's names on paper slips and nailing the paper into the poles used to hold up something like a bridge. This practice then granted the builder greater strength by stealing the soul of whoever had been written onto the paper. Soul-stealing by queue-clipping involved the belief that sorcerers with the correct training were capable of stealing a man's soul by cutting off his queue (a Manchu-style braid) and reciting spells over the stolen clipping of hair. Similar to soul-stealing by pinning papers with names inscribed on them to the foundations of masonry projects, soul-stealing by queue-clipping would cause the victim of sorcery to fall ill or die.
The clipping of a man's queue was politically significant in 1768 because the queue hairstyle was the prescribed hairstyle of the ruling Manchu-elite during the Qing period. For a man to cut off his queue or refuse to tonsure his hair in the appropriate style was made illegal by the queue order and could be grounds for execution. To wear the queue was seen as a direct recognition of Qing imperial authority and Philip Kuhn speculates that rumors of queue-cutting sorcerers traversing the Chinese countryside could have been perceived as a threat to the emperor's authority. However, according to Kuhn, government officials never produced any written material that drew a direct line between soul-stealing by queue-clipping and the possible challenge to the Qianlong Emperor's political power. Government records from both the Qianlong Emperor and officials involved in the cases related to queue-clipping in 1768 do not provide any explicit mention to the potential political threat posed by the spread of queue-clipping. It is unclear exactly why the records are silent on this point, but Philip Kuhn argues that government officials' silence over the political implications of queue-cutting might have been due to the emperor's unwillingness to admit any potential threat to his legitimacy. By attributing the 1768 cases of queue-cutting to sorcery, Kuhn suggests that the Qing government could avoid admitting any threat to the emperor's authority.
According to Prasenjit Duara, Chinese religious life under the Qing dynasty was divided between an imperial-centered orthodoxy and a diverse landscape of popular religions. While the imperial orthodoxy and Confucianism was institutionalized as the dominant tradition, the division between imperial tradition and popular religion was not always clear cut and various forms of religious practice were permitted in varying degrees throughout the Qing period in China. However, unrest incited by religious groups and anxiety over unorthodox religions' threat to imperial authority did cause a number of purges aimed at religions or groups associated with certain religious traditions.
According to Philip Kuhn, the targeting of Buddhist monks during the panic incited by rumors of sorcery in 1768 was probably linked to common beliefs that attributed religious figures of Buddhism or Taoism with mystical powers capable of communicating with or manipulating the supernatural. At the time of the 1768 Sorcery Scare, judgement of certain crimes associated with illegal religious practice fell under the Qing Code, which meant that the offense was a capital crime and thus final judgement must be passed by the emperor. In these cases, failure to find the accused guilty meant that the accuser would face punishment instead.
Events of 1768 The first of the sorcery scares occurred during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor. Although the period between the late 17th and early 19th centuries has been called the High Qing era and celebrated as a period of prosperity, historians such as Pamela Crossley argue that wealth was not evenly distributed throughout China during this time. According to historian Philip Kuhn, this unequal distribution of wealth was largely determined by a region's amount of arable land, the frequency of natural disasters and a region's proximity to fertile river deltas. Philip Kuhn argues that because certain areas of China were relatively well off compared to other parts of the country, people migrated frequently in order to gain access to more prosperous regions despite the government's efforts to prevent internal migration.
January–May
Beginning in January 1768, rumors of soul-stealing sorcerers stoked public fear in and around the Yangze river delta. These rumors culminated in court cases and acts of violence against accused sorcerers. The violence targeted at accused sorcerers was carried out during courtroom torture sessions as well as a number of assaults and killings of individuals suspected of soul-stealing. The primary target of these soul-stealing accusations were transient beggar-monks who traveled between villages and were identified as strangers or outsiders because of their dress, behavior and/or accent.
Masons accused of soul-stealing in Hangzhou
In January 1768, a mason named Wu Dunming began work on a broken water-gate and bridge in Zhejiang, when Wu returned home to buy supplies for his workers he discovered that a man named Shen Shiliang had come to his home to ask if Wu would assist Shen in using sorcery against Shen's nephews. Shen had come to Wu because after the water-gate project had started in January, rumors had been circulating that the masons workings on the project were planning to use sorcery to assist them in their efforts to hammer in the poles necessary to rebuild the water gate and bridge. These rumors played upon a belief that masons had magical powers that allowed them to bring illness and death to those who had their names written on slips of paper and nailed into the poles used as foundations for bridges. This practice was termed "soul-stealing" because by taking down the name of someone on a slip of paper and hammering it into a masonry project, the mason was supposedly able to steal the person's soul and strengthen the mason's hammering strength. Despite these rumors, Wu refused to assist Shen and alerted local authorities about Shen's request that Wu commit acts of sorcery. As a result of Shen's actions, the local authorities punished him with twenty-five strokes.
In the spring of 1768, a man named Ji Zhaomei from Deching traveled to Hangzhou and became a beggar. On April 3, a group of locals assaulted Ji and accused him of sorcery and theft. He was then taken to the local headman and interrogated. Under interrogation, Ji admitted that he was a soul-stealer and had been given soul-stealing charms by the mason, Wu Dunming. After this accusation, Wu was brought into the local yamen (county office) for interrogation, but was released after Ji was unable to identify Wu in a lineup. After this, Ji revealed that he had made up the story of soul-stealing in order to ingratiate his interrogators.
Another mason named Guo was also involved in sorcery accusations when a local herbalist attempted to trick Guo into performing an act of sorcery so that the herbalist could gain favor with local authorities by successfully trapping a practitioner of soul-stealing. Guo was not tricked and instead brought the herbalist into the local county office and had him punished for attempting to falsely accuse Guo.
Legal proceedings
As local hysteria over the possibility of soul-stealing rose, local authorities decided to further investigate these three accusations of sorcery and eventually had the herbalist, Ji Zhaomei and Shen Shiliang put in cangues at the entrance to Hangzhou. In April 1768 after the events involving masons in Hangzhou, four traveling Buddhist monks from Hangzhou were accused of soul-stealing in the neighboring city of Xiaoshan as they were traveling through the city and begging. The first of the four monks who were accused were Zhucheng and Jingxin. Zhucheng and Jingxin were begging in villages near Xiaoshan when they entered into conversation with two children and asked for the two children's names. When the children's parents discovered that two strangers had asked for their children's names, the parents assumed that Zhucheng and Jingxin were sorcerers who were gathering people's names so that they could steal their souls. As more villagers gathered around the two monks and heard of the sorcery accusations, the two monks were bound, beaten and threatened with death. The other two Buddhist monks from Hangzhou, Chaofan and Zhengyi, were subjected to a search by a constable named Cai from Xiaoshan city. This constable found scissors and a queue tying cord in Zhucheng's baggage, which Zhengyi was carrying at the time. Villagers witnessing the search believed that the discovery of a queue tying cord and scissors were evidence of sorcery. Chaofan was released because he had the proper documentation to prove his status as a full-fledged Buddhist monk, but Zhengyi was apprehended because as a novice he did not yet have the same certification. Chaofan then went to lodge a complaint with the local yamen (county office) and was also arrested.