On the Witch-Hunt in China and the West:A Comparat...
JIANG Yan
Wuhan University
Witch belief and its relating topics have unremittingly been discussed in recent years,among which the prevalent historical phenomena of witch-hunt[1]have aroused great interest in both Chinese and Western academia.[2]Agreeing with most Western scholars in this field,I define witch-hunt in this article as a series of persecution and accusation toward sorcerers and witches,especially those who were believed to have participated in evil sorceries.Much less attention,however,has been attached to studies offering a comparative perspective to look at witch-hunt in Chinese as well as Western histories.This paper will shed light on this interesting point.By comparing the witch-hunts in the 1768 Sorcery Scare in Qing China and witch persecution in early modern Europe,I will discuss their similarities and differences through investigating the socio-cultural backgrounds in which they developed.I will also question what imperatives had contributed to the making of witch-hunt in two distant cultures and what features they commonly or respectively presented.Through this comparative study,I argue that the witch-hunts in the 1768 Sorcery Scare and early modern Europe are noticeably commensurable since they respectively constituted a crucial part of popular beliefs and daily activities in their indigenous social context.This commensurability will better shape our understanding of the socio-cultural resemblance and divergence between China and the West.[3]