Soulstealers: The Chinese Sorcery Scare of 1768 (41 page)

16. On the third-century penal code, see A. F. P. Hulsewe, Remnants of Ch'in Law (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1985). I am indebted to Robin Yates for this
reference.

17. Chao Shu-ch'iao, T'i-lao pei-k'ao (1893), 2.€b.

18. There are stories of anti-Ch'ing resistance fighters cutting off the queues
of peasants who had submitted to the Manchu decree. See Wakeman,
The Great Enterprise, 765n, 807.

19. A modern analogue to the tonsure requirement is the nationwide change
of dress style imposed (by ideological pressure) by the Communist conquerors in 1949. The "Sun Yat-sen jacket" (wrongly called the "Mao
jacket" in the West) and the Russian-style worker's cap were an unmistakable restatement of the idea that the conquered must signify submission by adopting the styles of the conquerors.

20. See Pamela K. Crossley's important study, "Manzhou yuanliu kao and the
Formalization of the Manchu Heritage," Journal of Asian Studies 46.4
(1987): 761-790.

21. Ch'en Tung-lin and Hsu Huai-pao, "Ch'ien-lung-ch'ao i-ch'i t'e-su wen-
tzu-yu: `wei Sun Chia-kan tsou-kao an' k'ao-shu," Ku-kung po-wu-yuan
yuan-k'an, no. 1 (1984): 3-10. Documents on this case are preserved
under various categories in the First Historical Archives, Peking.

22. According to an archival document cited by Ch'en and Hsu, "Ch'ienlung-ch'ao," g.

23. CSL 414.14, CL 17.5.9. Hungli found certain phrasing in Ma Ch'ao-
chu's proclamations to be similar in "spirit and intent" to the Bogus
Memorial.

24. Ch'en and Hsu, "Ch'ien-lung-ch'ao," 4. The notorious case was that of
Tseng Ching, a Hunanese scholar who in 1728 had plotted to overthrow
the regime, was granted amnesty by Hungli's father, but was later put
to death (by slow slicing) by Hungli himself after he ascended the throne.
See Hummel, Eminent Chinese, 747; CSL g.1ob.

25. Suzuki Chusei, "Ch'ien-lung shih-ch'i-nien Ma Ch'ao-chu ti fan-Ch'ing
yun-tung: Chung-kuo min-chung ti wu-t'o-pang yun-tung ti i-li," in
Ming-Ch'ing shih kuo-chi hsueh-shu t'ao-lun-hui lun-wen-chi (Tientsin: Jenmin ch'u-pan-she, 1982), 698-714-

26. Suzuki Chusei pieced this picture together from numerous "confessions,"
now in the Grand Council archives in the National Palace Museum,
Taipei. I have also seen abundant documents on the Ma Ch'ao-chu case
in the First Historical Archives, Peking.

27. CSL 413.19b.

28. CSL 414.2. The magistrate had reported that the group were merely
"poor peasants" trying to make a living in the mountains-an assertion
that we cannot wholly discount, in view of the methods by which "confessions" were constructed; more on this later.

29. In the Peking imperial archives I came across a provincial report to the
Throne, dated seventeen years later, stating that no trace of Ma had yet
been found. Such reports evidently had to be turned in annually. Hsingk'o shih-shu, vol 2771, CL 34.3.5.

30. CPTC 836.1, CL 17.4.8 (Yungcang). Governor-general Yungcang seems to be quoting the confessions directly. Neither the inquisitors nor the
memorialist himself would have had a motive for inserting such wording
into the confessions; on the contrary, the usual pattern was for local
inquisitors to downplay evidence of a direct challenge to Manchu rule.

31. CSL 414.14, CL 17.5-9-

32. Ibid.

33. CSL 413.9-12.

34. Hsiao I-shan, Ch'ing-tai t'ung-shih, 5 vols. (Taipei: Commercial Press,
1967), II, 17-18; the same view is taken by Fang Chao-ying in Hummel,
Eminent Chinese (s.v. O-erh-t'ai).

35. Hu's doom was announced to an extraordinary convocation of high court
officials on April 23, 1755. Hungli's edict (open-channel) is recorded in
CSL 484.17b.

36. Hsiao, Ch'ing-tai t'ung-shih, II, 21.

37. These figures are taken from what must now be considered the authoritative count, from internal Manchu documents. An Shuang-ch'eng,
"Shun-K'ang-Yung san-ch'ao pa-ch'i ting-e chien-hsi," Li-shih tang-an
10.2 (1983): 100-103-

38. Naquin and Rawski, Chinese Society, 141.

39. Mongolian, too, was falling into disuse among bannermen in Peking; by
1765, Hungli was outraged to discover that the "Mongolists" at the
Imperial Academy could not speak the language. CSL 737.18b, CL
30.5.28.

40. Naquin and Rawski, Chinese Society, 18.

41. CSL 664.3, .9 (1762). The chief culprit was stripped of banner status
and sent to slavery in Ili.

42. CSL 685-i b (1763) Hungli was even embarrassed by the "disgraceful"
conduct of members of the Imperial Clan, arrested for drunken brawling
in Peking. CSL 694.16 (1763).

43. CSL 736.3 (1765)•

44. CSL 695.5 (1763)•

45. CSL 734.5b (1765)

46. Hungli related that he had placed great trust in Yang Ying-chu, but saw
discrepancies in his memorials. He feared that Yang's illness had permitted him to be deceived by others. He therefore sent Fulinggan, along
with an imperial physician, to the front to examine Yang's medical
condition. "We issued a decree to Fulinggan to take advantage of being
on the spot to visit the military camps and to report to Us the true state
of affairs." Fulinggan's investigations revealed that Yang had been
deceived by the Burmese, who had thereby advanced into Ch'ing territory; and that Li Shih-sheng's battle reports were completely false. His
suspicions vindicated, Hungli added a colorful touch to downplay the
importance of Fulinggan's spying: Yang's mendacity had been "revealed
to Us by Heaven." No one had previously denounced him. Though
Fulinggan had intended to wait until he returned to the capital to report
in person, "We repeatedly sent decrees questioning him; only then did
he tell all that he knew . . . This was entirely due to the divine protection of the Powers Above, which guided my understanding and enabled me
to have foreknowledge of the truth and falsity of the case ... It was by
no means because of Fulinggan's memorials." Fulinggan's secret memorials, originally written in Manchu, were now to be "translated and sent
to the Grand Secretariat," and then published throughout the empire.
CSL 781. i 8b, CL 32.3.24-

47. For a discussion of the Kiangnan problem in the early Ch'ing, see Frederic Wakeman, Jr., "The Evolution of Local Control in Late Imperial
China," in Wakeman and Grant, eds., Conflict and Control, 9-13.

48. Hungli liked to point out to Kiangnan officials that "previously" they
had been conscientious administrators, until they took office in that
deeply corrupt environment. Even a trusted old servant like G'aojin,
governor-general of Liangkiang, was heaped with such abuse. CSL 751.6
(1766).

49. CSL 670.5 (1762).

50. There remains, of course, the nagging question of Hungli's "real" state
of mind about Han culture. The avid connoisseur of Chinese art, the
prolific composer of Chinese poetry (whether his own or his ghostwriter's
hardly matters), the imitator of Chekiang pavilions, and the patron of
the most recondite of Chinese scholarship: is this the same man who so
scorned the decadence of Kiangnan? Hypocrisy would be an easy answer,
but I think the truth lies elsewhere. Hungli was playing a double role:
as cosmopolitan monarch in the Chinese manner; and as chief of a
minority conquest group. One is reminded of an American presidential
candidate who, upon entering the Oval Office, immediately finds himself
compelled to go beyond the concerns of the faction that got him elected
and appear to be "president of all the people." The rhetoric grows
blander, the images more conventional. Does this mean that the man is
"really" one thing but feigning something else? Or are these roles amalgamated, internalized, as a necessary mental qualification for the job?
He can still shift tactically from one rhetorical context to another, of
course, as the occasion requires.

4. The Crime Defined

1. CSL 812.18, CL 33.6.12. Emphasis added. The letter was actually dispatched on July 26, 1768. On the imperial communication system, see
Chapter 6.

2. We have to assume that Funihan's sources at court sent word to him no
later than July 6 that such information was in Hungli's possession. The
court letter was dated July 25 and actually dispatched July 26. Funihan's
July 24 memorial on the subject was probably not received in Peking
before the twenty-ninth, the day it was seen by Hungli. Sui-shou teng-chi
CL 33.6.16. I have not been able to identify Funihan's informant at
court.

3. See the route of eighteenth-century travelers traced by Tanii, "Kenryo
jidai," 55•

4. The confessions related here were summarized in CPTC 852.1, CL
33.6.11 (Funihan), and supplemented eight days later by transcripts of
further interrogations, CP"I'C 852.6 and LFTC/FLCT CL 33.6.29
(Funihan).

5. The transcripts (kung-tan) of the confessions, originally enclosed with
this memorial, have not been preserved, but I have consulted the transcripts of interrogations made eight days later.

6. CPTC 852.6, CL 33.6.29 (Funihan), enclosed confessions (now filed
separately in LFTC/FLCT, box 51) of Han and the other queue-clippers
discussed below.

7. CSL 813.ib-3, CL 33.6.16.

8. The edition of the Ch'ing Code referred to here is Yao Yii-hsiang, ed.,
Ta-Ch'ing Iii-li hui-t'ung hsin-tsuan. (TCLL) (Peking, 1873; reprint, Taipei:
Wen-hai ch'u-pan-she, 1964). How the state actually applied the Code to
sorcerers is examined through cases in the Conspectus of' Penal Cases
(Hsing-an hui-lan) (HAHL) (Shanghai: T'u-shu chi-ch'eng chii, 1886) and
interpretations in Hsueh Yun-sheng, Tu-Ii ts'un-i (TLTI), ed. Huang
Ching-chia (Taipei: Ch'eng-wen ch'u-pan-she, 1970). Statute and substatute numbers given here are those in TLTI. I shall refer where possible
to the translations of selected cases by Derk Bodde and Clarence Morris
in Law in Imperial China, Exemplified by 19o Ch'ing Dynasty Cases (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1967). An excellent early study
is E. T. Williams, "Witchcraft in the Chinese Penal Code," Journal of the
North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 38 (1907): 61-96.

9. The T'ang Code includes all but "extracting vitality," which was a Ming
addition. In place of "extracting vitality," the T'ang Code forbids "dismemberment" (chih-chieh), a crime against the spirit of the murder victim.
See TLTI 17; Lin Yung-jung, T'ang Ch'ing lu ti pi-chiao chi ch'i fa-than
(Taipei: Kuo-li pien-i-kuan, 1982), 546. J. J. M. de Groot renders yenmei as "spirits in subjection" or "spirits in the power of sorcerers." These
are demons a sorcerer has evoked by "written orders sent into the world
of spirits" (that is, by charms). The Religious System of China, 6 vols.
(Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1892-1910), V, 887, 9o5. On "biodynamic" sorcery,
see Chapter 5-

10. TCLL 15.12, TL"I'I 421; this is a Ming statute, revised in 1727.

11. TCLL 15.12b.

12. HAHL Io.22b-32, HAHL &u-pien 7.1o3.

13. HAHL 1o.22b-23. In neither case was the statute applied analogically.
The second defendant received a reduced sentence because his sexual
"delusion" involved "only it monk" and not a real woman.

14. TCLL 16.31-

15. TLTI 441; 1 have not located the case that gave rise to this substatute.

16. TLTI 567, TCLL 22.10-11. The statute is as historically deep as the
"Ten Abominations," dating back to the seventh century (Lin Yungjung, T'ang Ch'ing Iii, 713). The T'ang penalty, however, is only
strangulation.

17. HAHL 12.21.

18. TCLL 25.68; TLTI 828.

19. In contemporary popular usage in Taiwan, the term jen-yao denotes a
male prostitute. I have not been able to determine whether sexual deviance was its principal content in Ch'ing times.

20. TCLL 25.69; Bodde and Morris, Law in Imperial China, 327-330, overlooks the "extracting vitality" element.

21. TCLL 25.70•

22. TLTI 828.

23. The "Commentary" specifies that inserting slivers of peach and ailanthus
wood into someone's grave in order to spoil its geomantic properties (p'o
feng-shui) should be punished by analogy to clause 3 of this statute
(inflicting curses in order to kill or injure).

24. TCLL 25.72-75.

25. TCLL 16.31-

26. CSL 813. i b-3 (court letters of July 29, 1768).

27. I have not recovered the original report that tells how this was done.

28. CSI. 666. CL 27.71.

29. CPTC 864.11, CL 33.9.1, relating events of early August.

5. The Roots of Sorcery Fear

1. Hsu K'o, Ch'ing-pai lei-ch'ao 73.68.

2. Ibid., 84.29-30.

3. P'u Sung-ling, Liao-chai chih-i, ed. Chang Yu-ho (Shanghai: Ku-chi ch'upan-she, 1978), 663-665-

4. See E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1937).

5. "Religion" is not a unified Chinese concept, either, but that does not
mean it is an unsuitable subject for us to study in a Chinese setting, if
we believe that it is important to our understanding either of China or
of religion. We do, of course, have to be careful not to impose upon it
meanings that do violence to the evidence.

6. The closest is Sawada Mizuho, Chugoku no juho (Tokyo: Hirakawa shup-
pansha, 1984), which organizes a marvelous assemblage of Chinese writings about magic. J. J. M. de Groot, The Religious System of China, 6 vols.
(Leiden: E. J. Brill, 18)2-1910), particularly volumes 5 and 6, contains
a wealth of material based on both fieldwork and Chinese sources.

7. Myron L. Cohen points out that Chinese belief virtually requires a plurality of souls because of the overlap of two views of the dead: the
ancestral cult, and the Buddhist overlay associated with judgment and
reincarnation. "Souls and Salvation: Conflicting Themes in Chinese Popular Religion," in James L. Watson and Evelyn S. Rawski, eds., Death
Ritual in Late Imperial and Modern China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 180-202. Whether one adopts a primarily metaphysical or a social-contextual approach to the "number" question is not
crucial to the discussion here, which deals with the problem of separability, whether of the entire soul or part of it, from the living body.