Soulstealers : The Chinese Sorcery Scare of 1768

基本信息

Author: Philip A. Kuhn

Format: Paperback | 320 pages

Publisher HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS

ISBN10 0674821521

ISBN13 9780674821521

Publication 02 Nov 1992

Dimensions: 156 x 235 x 21mm | 408g

页面参数仅供参考，具体以实物为准

书籍介绍

在中国最后一个帝国王朝最繁荣的鼎盛时期，乾隆皇帝匈奴时期中期，普通百姓中爆发了群体性的歇斯底里。人们担心会有巫师在这片土地上游荡，剪下男人皇家法令中佩戴的辫子，对他们念诵魔法咒语，以偷走他们主人的灵魂。在这本引人入胜的纪事书中，菲利普•库恩向读者展示了18世纪中国的私密世界。

库恩在对巫术案件的探索中，穿插了对那个时代社会和经济史的调查。他从皇家档案中找到了大量的文件，并详细地展示了由地方长官在酷刑下对被告进行审讯的惨状——被告是一群乱七八糟的流浪汉、乞丐和四处游荡的神职人员。在追踪这场恐慌从农家小屋蔓延到宫廷的过程中，库恩揭露了隐藏在排队恐慌背后的政治威胁，以及隐藏在对巫术普遍恐惧之下的复杂的民间信仰。

库恩展示了反对巫术的运动如何提供了洞察这个时期的社会结构和种族紧张关系，君主和官僚之间的关系，以及国家的内部运作。作者认为，无论其目的是什么，这场运动给洪利提供了一个极好的机会，迫使他的省级领导打击地方官员，加强他对高级官员的个人权威，重申官员行为规范。

这段内容广泛的叙述描述了当时中华帝国的真实生活，通常是参与者自己的语言。《偷魂者》生动地描绘了中国人民——从农民到皇帝——以及人类的生存状况。

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 China as 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.

作者简介

菲利普·库恩是弗朗西斯·李·希金森哈佛大学东亚语言和文明历史学教授。

Philip A. Kuhn was Francis Lee Higginson Professor of History and of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University.