Last night I finished reading Religions of China Volume 5 by J. M. M. DeGroot. I started the book a few months ago but didn't get very far due to essays and exams. So it was very nice to go back and read the last few hundred pages. Volume 5 looked at Demonology and Sorcery. The first part of the book looked at different types of demons, mostly animal demons. This is the part I read awhile ago and so don't remember much. It was interesting to see though how he'd class different types of "spirits" as demons. The next part addressed different types of ghosts as well as touching on Chinese Vampires. The stories of spectres was most interesting to me. I just love ghost stories! It was a very interesting mixture of primary source material, spanning across the history of Chinese literature.
The chapter on sorcery was most interesting. He translated huge passages from the history of the Han about the sorcery accusations amongst the palace women. It was interesting to read, the stories were all much longer and much more detailed than the other stories which contained more of a folk tale style. This was dynastic history at it's most sordid. I remember my history professor complaining that not enough research had been done on the sorcery accusations amongst women in history. This was a very interesting example as it resulted in the deaths of thousands of people, and whole families lost their lives and positions of power. It is interesting to see the effects of the politics of the inner palace having such far reaching effects. It was also interesting to read the different ways sorcery was used, how accepted practitioners, did unacceptable things. It seemed like the Wu women shamanesses, were used in these instances. During the Han the Wu started as legitimate religious practitioners to the Imperial state, but lost their power and influence as the dynasty continued. I have to ask if this loss of influence could be partly the result of their participation in the sorcery scandals, and they lost some of their trust and credibility. De Groot also looked in quite a great deal of detail about the sorceress poison used by the Ku and how to treat it. It was very interesting and something that I had not come across before. One thing I had read about was the black disasters and the scare of sorcerers, men and women, using paper men to steal men's souls, through stealing part of their bodies. I was previously only aware of these accusations as they related to the early days of the Qing dynasty. Books I read talked of queue clipping, and paper men, that they put down to anti-manchu sentiments and the fear of loosing the queue as a political fear. It was interesting to see that this tradition was much older than the previous authors I have read had hinted at. I don't know if they were aware of the tradition or not. There was also one very interesting story about an independent single women of the Tang dynasty who lived alone, and ran a successful restaurant and hotel. In the story she turned out to be a powerful sorcerer who used paper men/demons to subjugate her guests and turn them into donkeys. She herself was tricked by one of her customers and turned into a donkey by him and taken on a long journey only to be released at the end. It was a fascinating story, there is so much that can be seen about the different gender relations at work in it. As well interesting supernatural beliefs.
I really like De groot's work. At times he is rather prejudicial in his comments on the work he is studying. But at the same time it is such a wonderful wealth of source material, and it's so great to have it with both the English and the Chinese next to each other. I think I shall have to return to the library and get volume 6.
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