How many types of witchcraft are there in China? What are they? How does it work? Which is the most poisonous?

1. What is witchcraft?

Witchcraft is the practice of influencing or exercising control over certain people or things with the help of supernatural and mysterious powers. In ancient times, the female name of the caster was the witch, and the name of the man was the witch.

2. Classification of witchcraft

From the perspective of the nature of witchcraft, witchcraft can be divided into black witchcraft and white witchcraft. Black witchcraft refers to witchcraft used when blaming someone else; White witchcraft is the witchcraft used when praying for good fortune, so it is also called auspicious witchcraft.

From the perspective of the means of performing witchcraft, witchcraft can be divided into two categories, one is imitation witchcraft, and the other is contact witchcraft.

Imitation witchcraft is a form of witchcraft that uses similar things as a substitute for good fortune or disaster. If you hate someone, you will take the form of a human and write the date of birth of that person, or burn them with fire, throw them into water, or slash them with a needle or a bayonet, so that they will die. By nature, this is black witchcraft. Another example is that children often fall into the well, in order to avoid disasters, often make a puppet instead of children into the well, this behavior is called disaster breaking. In ancient production customs, rice flowers began, and men and women met in the field to promote rice earing. If a person has sores, he can draw them on plant leaves or yellow paper to remove the disease, which is also called imitation witchcraft. Tied dolls in Baiyun Temple, folk "stealing melons", etc

Prayer customs.

Contact Witchcraft: It is a method of witchcraft that uses a part of a thing or an item associated with a time to seek good fortune. This kind of witchcraft can serve its purpose as long as it comes into contact with a part of someone's human body or a person's utensils. If a person is sick, he puts a coin or something more valuable in the sick person's pain and throws it on the road for others to pick up, so that the sick person is transferred to the person who picked it up. Put the bowl, Jiang Yuan's traces of the ancestors of Zhou are all in contact with witchcraft. In the past, the dark arts used to collect the hair, beard, nails, and beloved objects of the discordant in case they were harming the other person. The child's name cannot be told casually

others, otherwise they will be subject to others.

In the Liangshan Yi tribe, the slave owner found that the slave had escaped, in addition to sending people to find it, but also asked the wizard to perform witchcraft, by summoning the rags left by the slave and grinding it in the stone mill, because the cloth was not easy to grind down, it was thought that the slave must also go around in the mountains and could not find a way to escape; In order to escape from the tiger's mouth, the slave also fights with witchcraft, and generally when escaping, he carries a small stone mill on his back and puts it on his head, so that the cloth milled by the slave owner will fall off quickly, and he can escape successfully.

3. The application of witchcraft

1. Asking for help: It refers to people in a certain way to deceive natural forces or ghosts and spirits to help them achieve a certain goal. For example, the Han people beg for rain, worship the dragon king more, and when the worship fails, they will perform witchcraft to force the dragon king to rain. Such as carrying the dragon king through the streets, exposing the dragon king, digging up the well water and so on.

2. Conjuring: Use witchcraft to bring back lost souls. It is not limited to people themselves, but also applies to animals and plants. For example, the Kino people summon the soul of the god of grain, the Miao people summon the soul of the cow, and the Han children are sick and often think that the soul is lost outside the village, and the mother will take the child's clothes and go to the village to call the child's name and summon the soul for him. There are also Yi people who have been away for many years or have died in a foreign land

The custom of the elders to summon spirits. Presided over by shamans, they often stand on high mountains, look in the direction of the deceased's departure, call the deceased's name, and use twine to feint the soul of the deceased to return. Zhuang, Maonan and other ethnic groups also have witchcraft to summon the spirits of the dead and lovers. Usually the young man invited the witch, the wizard covered his head with a sheet, asked the god to possess the body, and soon she entered a coma, announcing that the soul had been possessed, so the witch represented the man's lover, and sang to the man, pouring out her heartfelt feelings.

3. Curse: It is to use the magic of language to achieve the purpose of harming the other party. The most common form is face-to-face curses, not being able to die well, a thousand cuts, and so on. More often than not, the purpose of witchcraft is achieved by cursing each other's names. The Dai people have a kind of "Fangluo" witchcraft, the purpose of which is to provoke the relationship between other people's husbands and wives and get involved themselves. The method is taken from the fence of the graveyard of the couple's house

Two pieces of bamboo, engraved: "You have long thorns on your chest, you can't hug each other, you can only look at each other like across the river", and then put it under the other party's bamboo building, thinking that the husband and wife will fall out of harmony within three days. In the Han and Manchu areas of Northeast China, there used to be a curse of steaming cats, if the lost found that someone had stolen their property and did not admit it, the lost person would write the thief's birth date and name on a piece of paper, and put it in the steamer with a cat to cook, the cat struggled and screamed in the cage, and the lost person cursed the thief to be like a cat, and could not die well.

4. Exorcism: It is an offensive witchcraft performed on ghosts. It is often used in production, house building, treatment, and funeral. This is the main job of a folk shaman. When Bi Mo of the Yi nationality in Liangshan treated the patient, he asked the patient to sit at the door with a bamboo dustpan on his head, and Bi Mo shouted "Catch the evil ghost, catch him quickly", and at the same time ordered the helper to hold a shovel to scatter the ashes of the fire pit on the patient's head, and use the ashes to drive the ghost away. Another sorcerer of the Yi nationality, Suni, when he was exorcising ghosts, placed many branches and tributes by the fire pond, and he walked around the fire pond, beating the sheepskin drum while inviting the gods of the mountains to come, and then suddenly opened the mouth of a clay pot and said, "Catch the ghosts."

Hurry up and put it in a clay pot", immediately sealed his mouth after speaking, and shouted: "Evil ghost, I will burn you!" After saying that, Suni poured the ghost into the clay pot into the fire pit and said, "Ghost, you wait, and when the bamboo basket can hold water, you will come back." "Also: paper boats are lit up with candles, the bride is shot with arrows at weddings, and the brazier is drunk, etc., and many of the Han people's exorcism and witchcraft have been adopted by Taoism

Inherit it. Talismans, swords, seals, and mirrors are the main tools used by Taoist priests to exorcise ghosts. Exorcism is also applied to the murderous. The Li people are the most fearful of the murderous dead, and the funeral must carry out complicated rituals: the soul of the murderer must be walked on a winding road, so that the soul of the murderer cannot return, and the body must be crushed with a boulder, or the corpse is nailed with a wooden stake, so that the soul of the murderer can never return to his homeland, otherwise it will disturb the family.

5. Ward off evil spirits: It is the use of certain objects to prevent evil spirits from committing crimes, which is a kind of negative witchcraft. Evil spirits are generally decorated on buildings, vehicles and production tools, and some are worn on the body. The Pumi people have many lime handprints on the door and wall, and it is said that this is a posture to fight various ghosts, and the ghosts are afraid when they see them. Hanging knives, swords, saws, and horns on the lintel can also ward off evil spirits. The Oroqen people hang wild boar teeth and bear noses on the "immortal pillars; The Dong people hang a dog's head on the door to protect their home with a dog. The Miao people hang rice sieves and fishing nets on the door, believing that the rice sieve symbolizes many eyes and can see through the whereabouts of ghosts, and the fishing nets are tools for catching ghosts, and ghosts will avoid them when they see them. The totem is also a kind of evil spirit, and the Yi people mostly draw a tiger on the door. Horseshoes are often hung in the northwest of our country and in Europe. The amulets of the Han people, the sword of the door god and the town house are all evil things. Fourth, let go of Gu witchcraft

1. What is Gu: It is a kind of witchcraft that uses poisonous insects as a haunt to harm people. It is a relatively ancient mysterious, terrifying witchcraft, which is mainly popular in various parts of southern China and some ethnic minorities. Gu, from the glyph, is to put many insects in one container. Kong Yingda's "Commentary on the Thirteen Classics" said: "Those who use poison to medicine people, and people don't know it, are called Gu poison in today's law." "Compendium of Materia Medica, Insect Part IV" is explained as a kind of poisonous insect fed by people, "take a hundred insects into Weng, after years of opening, there will be a worm to eat all the insects, this is called Gu." ”

2. The production and type of Gu: Most of the Gu accumulators are women, which is a woman's specialty. "Yunnan Magazine": "Yunnan people are accumulating Gu... People fight for hiding, children worry about what they eat, and Gu keepers don't be a secret room, so that the woman feeds it, and when she sees a man, she will be defeated, and she will be gathered by pure yin. Zhou Qufei's "Lingwai Answer": Gu poison is "a woman's hair-shaped night sacrifice", and "Yunnan Xinyu": It is pleasing to Yi women. There are many types of Gu, usually including: Golden Silkworm Gu, Chancre Gu, Mad Gu, Swollen Gu, Loach Gu, Stone Gu, Slice Gu, Snake Gu, and so on. Among them, the Golden Silkworm Gu was the most vicious. In the old days, in some counties and townships in Fujian, the superstitious activities of raising golden silkworms were more prevalent. It is said that the golden silkworm is an invisible insect spirit, it can do things for people, the most diligent in hygiene, and the people who are very clean in the room are considered to be the people who raise the golden silkworms. The production method of the golden silkworm is to select 12 kinds of poisonous insects such as snakes and centipedes, bury them at the crossroads, and take them out and store them in the incense burner after 49 days (or another mysterious day) to become a golden silkworm. In the minds of those who believe in the golden silkworm, the golden silkworm is spiritual, which can make the breeder rich, but the owner of the rich family must also tell the golden silkworm how much it owes, otherwise the golden silkworm will ask to spend money to buy people to eat it, otherwise it will be troublesome. If the family who raises the golden silkworm does not want to raise it anymore, they can pass it on, called "marrying the golden silkworm", the method is to use the silver tael, pollen and incense ash (on behalf of the golden silkworm), put it on the road, and the greedy will naturally pick it up. The golden silkworm can cause death to the enemy, usually by abdominal swelling and bleeding from the seven orifices. Chancre Gu, also known as "laying eggs, putting chancre, and putting bees", is popular among the people in Guangdong and Guangxi. The preparation method is to catch centipedes, small snakes, worms, ants, poisonous bees, cicadas, earthworms, etc. on the Dragon Boat Festival day and add hair, dry and grind into powder, enshrine in front of the statue of the plague god, become a Gu for a long time, and can poison people in the diet. Epilepsy is popular among the Dong people, and snakes are mostly buried in the soil with postbiotic fungi to harm people into madness; Swollen Gu makes the abdomen swollen; Loach Gu is soaked in loaches with Gu powder and bamboo leaves to eat with people to poison them; As for the stone Gu and the sliced Gu are all brewed with Gu medicine, they are placed in the middle of the road to harm people, and it is said that they can enter the human body and cause evil diseases.

3. The method of applying Gu is mostly to put it in food. Gu girl Shi Gu is mostly placed in meals, "Chiya": "Gu Cheng is put in the food first, and the flavor increases a hundred times", and it is mostly placed on the first piece of food. Some of the lower Gu are the worms themselves, the advantages are the feces of the worms, and some are saliva foam. Sometimes Gu can also be applied without food. Liu Nan's "Miao Huang Xiaoji": "Miao's Gu poison is terrifying, and its Gu release does not need special food, and anyone who shushes it with anger and looks at it can pass its poison to others; Those who use food, and those who use Gu are also. ”

4. Symptoms and verification methods of Gu patients: Liu Xifan "Those who are in Gu are swollen or have a swollen throat and cannot swallow it; or the face is green and yellow, and the day is barren; or there is a buildup in the chest, coughing; or chest and abdomen distension and numbness of the limbs; or a few days, or months." Verification method: It can be made to chew raw soybeans, no fishy smell is in the Gu, in ethnic minority areas is to contain a piece of duck protein in the mouth, insert a silver needle on it, if the duck protein and silver needle turn black, then in the Gu. Methods of prevention and reconciliation of Gu: All cobwebs and dust homes are suspected to be Gu homes, and they should not be contacted; For those who eat such as the master first knocks the cup and bowl with chopsticks, and then serves the rice, it is suspected to be Shi Gu, and you should be especially careful not to eat or break the road; Anyone who goes out to eat, carry garlic with him, can prevent Gu, Gu is difficult to cure when he enters alcohol, and he can prevent Gu if he goes out without drinking. The method of detoxifying Gu and breaking Gu: take realgar, garlic, calamus decoction water, or pomegranate root water, which can be laxative; Youyun golden silkworm is most afraid of hedgehogs, and can be used as medicine to treat Gu. Most of the old medical books have medical Gu home remedies, and there are all kinds of them. The method of breaking the Gu: The road is broken, in the autumn, the Miao women carry cloth bags to sell prickly pears for children to eat, many Gu people, for a long time for the group to see through, when buying, first call and ask: Is there a Gu? Answer: No, it is not harmful. It is then available for purchase. In addition, it is said that Gu is afraid of saying, and it is said to be in the home of raising Gu, and its Gu is immediately captured.

The purpose of releasing Gu is mostly to dissipate grievances, and sometimes it is also used as a protective measure, such as in the Zhuang people, some people are afraid that others will steal food, so they release Gu, and some thieves will be killed immediately, on the contrary, "Those who kill a lot of people will benefit the spirit and the family will benefit the family." ”

"2" Taoist talismans and ancient witchcraft

Taoism was developed from pre-Qin witchcraft, therefore, compared with Buddhism, Taoism pays more attention to "magic", that is, operationality, rather than "reason", unlike Buddhism, which still talks about metaphysics and is aggressive. If Buddhism is audible because of its advanced theories, then Taoism is more visible because of the mysteries of magic. The "technique" of Taoism includes all kinds of rituals and spells, and the Taoist talisman is a kind of spell. Although there was no Taoist talisman in the pre-Qin witchcraft stage, almost all kinds of pre-Qin witchcraft had counterparts in the Dao talisman, which shows that after the witchcraft entered the Tao, it was often manifested in the form of Taoist talismans, and the talisman became the basic form of Taoism. Defined by time, early Taoism refers to the formative period of Taoism during the pre-Qin and Han dynasties. During this period, due to the lack of integration of Taoism, not only the methods were diverse, but even the names were inconsistent, in general, there were the following types:

(1) Party. The formula is the method and the method. Song Yu's "Gao Tang Fu": "People with a way: Xianmen, Gao Luo." "A man with a prescription is a person with a certain skill. "Historical Records Feng Zen Book": "Li Shaojun also sees the ancestral stove, the valley road, and the old party. It travels all over the princes. "Li Shaojun was a famous alchemist during the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and he went to see the emperor with the magic of sacrificing the god of the stove, the art of Bigu, and the magic of immortality, and traveled all over the country of princes with his magic skills. "Historical Records of the First Emperor Benji": "Lu Sheng said that the first emperor said: ... In the square, when the person is the master, it is a micro line, in order to ward off evil ghosts, evil ghosts, and real people. If the lord of man dwells and the man knows it, it is harmful to God. "In the square, that is, in the magic. According to the arts, the emperor must often travel in small clothes to ward off evil spirits, and do not let the ministers know where he lives, otherwise, it will be harmful to the house god. A square is also known as a square number. "Historical Records of Bian Que Canggong Biography", Chun Yu Yiyun: "The ministers are poor, do not cultivate the family, travel to the country, ask the good for the number of people, for a long time, see the number of things, accept their important things, do their best to write the meaning." Or Fang Ji. "On the Void of Heng Dao": "The world has seen the Yellow Emperor's good technique. Fangshu, the industry of immortals, is called the emperor immortal. Fu Yu will check the water, do not patrol hunting, the Yellow Emperor is good at skills, and does not ascend to heaven. In the above, "Fangshu" and "Fangji" are intertextual, and it can be seen that Fangshu is Fangshu. In fact, "Fang" and "Technique" can also be trained. "The Biography of Bian Que in Historical Records": "It is good for the party and multi-skilled." This is the same meaning using different words. According to Liu Xin's "Seven Strategies", there are the following four types of prescription techniques: "There are four schools of prescription techniques, including medical scholars, prescription families, houses in the house, and fairy families. Or strategy. "Historical Records of Huainan Wang An's Biography": "Those who distinguish the strange materials of the wanderers are the strategists, who make false rumors and flatter the king. The "strategy" here is the magic. There is a footnote to this in "On the Void of Heng Dao": "An heir is the king, he hates his father and dies, has a rebellious heart, recruits sorcerers, and wants to do great things." Wu was the genus, filling the hall, making a book of Taoism, and sending strange texts. Wang Chong called the "strategist" a "sorcerer", which shows that the strategy is the art.

(2) Law. The law and the party can train each other, and the "method" is often referred to as "method" in ancient books. "Lü's Spring and Autumn Experience": "Da himself is in charge, there is no way to reward and punish, and he does not use the French style." The upper part is called "Fang", the lower part is called "Law", and it is also intertextual. The law is also the magic of the law, so the exercise of the magic is also called "practice" and "drawing method". "The Revision of the Middle Treatise": "Those who practice filth, people do not make paintings, and there is no experience." The book of Fangshu is also called "Law", "Hanshu Jingfang Biography": "Shangfeng Shi said: "Law" said, the Taoist people go, cold, and water are disasters. Or spells. "Han Feizi's View of Travel": "If you are strong enough to be educated, you can't live forever." The "spell" here refers to the spell of immortality. (3) Surgery. Shushu originally meant the way, and by extension, it was the way to channel the spirits. "On the Balance of the Troubled Dragon": "Lady Li, Emperor Xiaowu." The lady died, and thought about it. The Taoist priest used art as Mrs. Li. "Emperor Xiaowu is Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and the Taoist priest is Li Shaoweng. The "Historical Records and Feng Zen Book" also contains this incident, but Mrs. Li is recorded as Mrs. Wang. Yun: "Madame, the young man will cover the night to Mrs. Wang." "Technique" is a "square", which shows that the technique and the square are connected. Or magic. "Han Shuwu is Biography": "Huainan Wang An is good at learning, and he has attracted hundreds of heroes. The so-called "magic" is the study of magic. Or art. Artist, skill. In ancient times, etiquette, music, archery, royalty, calligraphy, and mathematics were the six arts, and it can be seen that Fangshu is also one of the six arts. "The Biography of Fan Ying in the Later Han Dynasty": "There is a storm, starting from the West." British scholars say that Chengdu is very popular. Because of the water, rinse it in the west, so that the time of the day is remembered. After the guest, there were clouds from Shudu, it was a big fire, there were black clouds, and the pawn started from the east, and it rained heavily, and the fire was extinguished. So the world called it art. “

(4) Number. The original meaning of number is counting, and ancient divination often determines good luck and evil by counting, so number is one of the arts, that is, the number of spells. "Historical Records of Bian Quecang Gong Biography": "Taicang Gong, surnamed Chun Yu, name, little but fond of medical prescriptions. Eight years after high school, he was taught by the same county Yuanli Gong Yangqing. … The light also belongs to Yin, saying: The meaning is good, and the public will encounter it. "The former cloud is full of Yixi medical prescriptions, and the latter clouds are good numbers, and the visible number is "square surgery". Or numeracy. In the "Preface to the Biography of the Later Han Dynasty Books", the number of arts is directly used to represent the magic "the deviation of the master and the object, not without the cover, although the cloud avenue, the reason or the same." If it is the foolishness of the poem, the foolishness of the book; However, the number of tricks is lost, as for the vulgar? The extreme number knows change but is not vulgar, and it is deeper than the number of magicians; Therefore, it is said that if you are not a person, the way is not vain. According to the "Han Shuyi Wenzhi Mathematics Artist", there are the following six categories: the Xingfa family, the miscellaneous Zhan family, the yarrow turtle family, the Five Elements family, the almanac, and the astronomer.

(5) Dao. The Tao is the belief in the Tao, and by extension, it is the method of channeling the gods, so the method of mastering it is called "having the Tao" and "obtaining the Tao", and the person who has the Tao or has obtained the Tao is called "Taoist" and "Taoist". This "Tao" is connected with the "Fang" of Fangshu. "On the Void of Heng Dao": "Shuo has no Shaojun's prescription to be effective, how can the world see it, and it is said to be the way?" Shuo is the Han Dynasty celebrity Dongfang Shuo, Shaojun refers to Li Shaojun, the Han Dynasty Fangshi. In the text, the former "Fangshu", and the second "Dao", are intertextual up and down, and the meaning is the same. Or Taoism. "Preface to the Biography of the Later Han Dynasty": "Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty is quite good at magic, and the people of the world who are cooperating with Taoist artists are all willing to resist the palm of their hands and follow the wind." “

Although the early Taoism did not use the talisman as a form of expression, it became the Zhang Ben of the later Taoist talisman. In other words, almost all Dao talismans can find the fetal marks of early spells.

"Three", shamanic witchcraft in China

distribution

In China, shamanic witchcraft is mainly distributed in ethnic minority areas such as the northeast, northwest, and southwest. There are also Shen Han and Shen Po in the Han region, but their lineage is not stable, and their authenticity and validity are widely questioned.

According to a survey conducted by social science researchers, the following ethnic groups still retain the shamanic tradition of witchcraft are: Mongolian, Manchu, Tajik, Daur, Xibe, Evenki, Oroqen, Tibetan, Lhoba, Naxi, Mosuo, Miao, and so on. theory

Shamanism is a primitive religion that has no systematic doctrines, canons, scriptures, and one can only peek at its theoretical basis from the witchcraft practices of shamans.

The Chinese theory of shamanic witchcraft mainly includes the following:

Animism says. Everything in the world has life, and it is all part of a whole. Animals, plants, and even mountains, rivers, lakes and seas can communicate with people.

The soul said. The soul is the master of man, it can leave the body temporarily or permanently, or it can exist independently. The soul of a wizard can roam the psychedelic world, and the spirit can also attach itself to a wizard and express his will through the body of the wizard. When the soul of a mortal is infested by evil spirits, it causes illness.

The division between man and soul is said. People live in the human world, and spirits live in the spiritual world. Wizards can visit the spirit world and receive guidance and teachings from the spirits.

Genie said. Each tribe has its own protection elves, and each wizard has its own "collaboration" elves. Wizards need the help of elves to do so. The sorcerer needs to sacrifice the relevant elves on time, otherwise it will invite disaster.

peculiarity

Shamanic witchcraft in China has the following characteristics:

Influenced by other religions. In the process of interacting with other religions, the shamanic witchcraft of many peoples has undergone a formal change. For example, Mongolian witchcraft has absorbed elements of Buddhism, Tajik witchcraft has absorbed elements of Islam, Tibetan and Mosuo witchcraft has absorbed elements of Tibetan Buddhism, and Han witchcraft has absorbed elements of Taoism, etc.

There is little government support. Shamanic shamans are psychics. In some historical periods, wizards would have the opportunity to serve as national teachers. But more often than not, witchcraft is ignored and suppressed. As the "true son of heaven", the emperor directly conveyed the will of heaven, without intermediaries, and the sorcerer who was through the gods could only weaken the emperor's authority. At the same time, the government is also worried that shamans' "false promises" will affect social stability. After 1949, witchcraft was regarded as the feudal dregs of idealism and was suppressed.

Emphasis on practicality. The daily work of Chinese shamans includes healing, praying for rain, searching for souls, exorcism, praying for blessings, cursing, etc., all dealing with practical problems. Even if you travel to the spiritual realm, most of them are for the purpose of seeking advice or searching for souls. And the shamans of the Americas had more spiritual pursuits than just these practices.

Discipleship is chosen by providence. A person who has been ill for a long time will be sent to a wizard to be examined to see if he is responsible for passing on the witchcraft. If so, he must become a disciple of a shaman. If he refuses, his health will continue to be poor. As a result, many wizards are simply "at the mercy of heaven" and do not want to be wizards themselves.

status quo

At present, in the aforementioned ethnic minority areas, wizards with greater mana are gradually aging. The few existing wizards are obviously not as good as their predecessors, and there are very few young people who are willing to become wizards. Some peoples, in the process of changing from a safari/nomadic life to a sedentary life, have lost their tribal structure and the inheritance of witchcraft. Many witchcraft paraphernalia and shamanic costumes can now only be found in museums. The shamanic practice of witchcraft in China is in a state of decline.