In order to escape the summer heat, Emperor Qianlong set off from Beijing and went to a summer resort to spend the summer. Unlike in the past, a scare of witchcraft originating from the people is spreading from the rich Jiangnan to northern China.
Soon, there were confusing cases in various places, and rumors and fears were rife with them, even sweeping through most of China. Faced with this predicament, Emperor Qianlong, the figure who dominated the prosperity of the empire, couldn't help but be shocked.
This year is the thirty-third year of Qianlong (1768).
Portrait of Emperor Qianlong, source network. The governor of Shandong, Fu Nihan, was anxious to take credit, but his mood of enjoying the summer comfort in Chengde was shattered by a piece of confidential information. Intelligence said that in the fifth month of the lunar calendar, there were several cases of "cutting people with braided hair" in Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province.
In the Qing Dynasty, hair braids were a sensitive political issue, and the Manchu nobles ordered their hair to be cut and braided after they came to the Central Plains, and the braids on the heads of the common people symbolized the legitimacy of the rulers.
Thus, braid-cutting was seen as a provocation to the Manchu dynasty and may have concealed a political conspiracy of rebellion.
In the Qing Dynasty, the braids were symbolic, and the governor of Shandong, Fu Nihan, arrested suspected beggars who had wandered around the country in his jurisdiction, and after interrogation, determined the existence of a demon gang. Fournihon hurriedly reported to the imperial court in an attempt to preemptively make meritorious service, which also attracted the attention of the emperor.
Although Qianlong thought the rumors were absurd, he believed that there might be people who were maliciously spreading rumors. To this end, he ordered university scholars Fu Heng, Liu Tongxun and others to draft an edict and send it down to Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Shandong provinces, demanding that the main culprits and demon parties who spread rumors be severely punished, stabilize the people's hearts, and create an atmosphere in which the imperial court protects the people.
However, after the capture of the demon party in Shandong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu, which are the origins of the soul, have no news for a long time, and Qianlong is very dissatisfied with this. Gao Jin, the governor of Liangjiang, claimed that there was no soul-calling incident in Jiangsu, and the rumors were punished, but Qianlong was not satisfied with this, because there were cases reported in Shandong and all over the country, how could Jiangsu not have it?
Yongde, the governor of Zhejiang, said that there are indeed rumors about calling souls in Zhejiang, but they are all rumors spread by ignorant villagers. However, Qianlong still did not believe this, believing that the officials in Jiangsu and Zhejiang were fooling themselves.
In the end, the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions ** traced down according to the intelligence from Shandong, but did not find the mastermind, Qianlong was very angry about this, because in Zhu Pi wrote: "Ru two provinces are very hateful!" ”
In Deqing County, Huzhou, Zhejiang, there is a farmer named Shen Shiliang. He hired stonemason Wu Dongming and his team to rebuild the water gate and stone bridge on the eastern wall. Shen Shiliang had an unhappy family background, and his two nephews were the sons of his eldest half-brother and were often violent towards Shen Shiliang and his mother.
Shen Shiliang couldn't bear it anymore, and found the mysterious power of the people, and heard that the stonemason would have a soul-calling spell, which could curse the person by writing the person's name on a piece of paper, sticking it on the top of a wooden stake, and then striking it with a sledgehammer.
Shen Shiliang asked Wu Stonemason for help, but Wu Stonemason didn't know about this spell. He was worried that he would get into trouble because of this, so he reported the matter to the Deqing County Ya. Shen Shiliang was arrested by the Deqing County Government and beaten for 25 years, but was eventually released.
Although he did not find a way to punish his nephew, rumors of the soul calling spread among the local people.
Qing Dynasty export paintings depict stonemasons at work, showing the spirit of craftsmen. Source: Internet soul panic has led to violence, and many cases have been caused by rumors. The fabricated rumors have planted the fear of witchcraft in the hearts of the people, and it is difficult to erase them.
In April, four monks from Xiaoshan County met, two of them were in charge of guarding their luggage, and two monks went to Huayuan. On the way, Jucheng was misunderstood by a couple and was escorted to Yamen and imprisoned.
The violence and unrest caused by the Soul Cry spread to other places, and many innocent people were harmed.
The snow scene of Xianghu Lake in Xiaoshan is white and flawless, just like a natural picture. However, a farce played out against this background, and the "chief plaintiff" of the soul-calling case, Emperor Qianlong, had to admit that the whole incident may have been fabricated by conspirators in order to incite the hatred of the people against the imperial court and cause chaos.
However, as the supreme authority of the empire, the Qianlong Emperor would not easily revoke decisions. In the end, the Qianlong Emperor shifted the blame to the administrative bureaucrats, and many local **s, including Gao Jin, Zhangbao, Feng Xuan, and Suerde, were punished, and some of their subordinates were also dismissed.
Among them, Fu Nihan, the governor of Shandong, was demoted to the political envoy of Shanxi. Looking back on this farce, it is actually easy to see the logical chain that has escalated step by step: the supreme Qianlong Emperor passed on the pressure to **, extorted confessions through torture, and used powerless vagrants as scapegoats, and unarmed ordinary people can also accuse others of being soul criminals, putting the hat of the demon party on the object of suspicion.
The farce eventually plunged much of China into a panic.
Xu Yang's "Spring Poems of Beijing Teachers and Students" depicts a vibrant spring scene, full of beauty and hope for life. In his book Soul Calling: The Great Witchcraft Panic of 1768, the American sinologist Philip Kong tells the story of an empire that is swept forward by panic caused by rumors, exposing its fragility and sensitivity.