Politics and Magic in Contemporary China

Author(s): Ann S. Anagnost

Source: Modern China, Vol. 13, No. 1, Symposium on Hegemony and Chinese Folk Ideologies,
Part I (Jan., 1987), pp. 41-61
Published by: Sage Publications, Inc.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/189146
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40 MODERN CHINA / JANUARY1987

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MODERN CHINA, Vol. 13 No. 1, January 1987 40-61

? 1987 Sage Publications, Inc.
 Politics and Magic in
Contemporary China
ANN S. ANAGNOST
University of Illinois at Champaign- Urbana

In contemporary Chinese political culture, the advance of

"socialist spiritual civilization" presupposes a "disenchanted"
world in which magical belief appears to be a misguided
understanding of reality. Yet, despite attempts to expose magical
belief as a "false science," hereticalpractice continues to challenge
the official construction of the world while at the same time
providing material against which the official order defines itself.
Official discourse on magical belief and practice provides an
interesting perspective from which to consider the interonen-
tation of official political culture and popular practice.
The concern of the modernChinesestate over folk religious prac-
tice is most evident in newspaperaccounts that appear in the main-
land press. These accounts take such forms as letters to the editor,
ideological stories, editorials, and reportage on specific incidents.
All of these accounts refer to a common category labeled "feudal
superstition." Although this material is interesting in what it
reveals about contemporary popular practice, this illumination
must be treated with considerable reservation, since it is light shed
from texts produced by the state. With this in mind, it might
prove useful to investigate how this category of feudal super-
stition is in fact constituted by the state, how the state defines
itself against the negative values it associaties with feudal super-
stition, and how at times this category may be manipulated to
address other more elusive areas of ideological concern.
The material used in this article to pursue such questions is
drawn from the Chinese press of the last three or four years.1

41
42 MODERN CHINA / JANUARY 1987

Although these accounts may appear simple at first glance, they

are in fact often meaningful at several levels and in certain cases
one level of discourse may be framed by another. Despite the fact
that such accounts may consciously deny the social-relational
aspects of magical belief, in certain contexts the dim shadow of
another reality peeps through, as will be demonstrated below
The appearance of this other reality within the text appears to
contradict the state's explanation of feudal superstition as wrong
practice incited by bad elements in pursuit of individual self
interest. It is tempting to assume that these stories do in fact
reflect a social reality that the state has unwittingly let through.
On a further remove, however, the texts that are so suggestive in
this regard are not really about feudal superstition at all but are
playing on the negative imagery of this category to project other
messages of concern. The social-relational aspects of magical
belief are therefore allowed a very controlled appearance in
certain texts that are really about other issues in contemporary
social life that the state has difficulty in addressing, such as
economic policy, birth policy, intrafamilial relations, and the like.
The material on feudal superstition therefore can be divided
into two categories. On the one hand we have accounts that
dismiss magical belief as a "false science" with harmful effects on
all levels-economic, political, personal well-being, and so forth.
On the other hand are a number of accounts that allow feudal
superstition to be expressive of other tensions in contemporary
society but that also contain a clear message that once these
tensions have been resolved, feudal superstition will evaporate as
if "by magic."
The following pages will deal with the representation of
magical belief on two levels that may differ in the degree of
immanence they attain in the text. The first of these is the
representation of magical belief as a competing belief system, one
that is negatively defined against a belief in science and dialectical
materialism. The confrontation between science and magic is
essentially reductive at this level. Scientific explanation is meant
to subjugate magical belief through its ability to reduce magical
experience to material cause. On a second level, feudal super-
 Anagnost / POLITICS AND MAGIC 43

stition is represented as an unfortunate side effect of other

problems, and as such it is acknowledged by the state to be
expressive of certain tensions in social life or negative attitudes
persisting in the unenlightened individual consciousness.
There is possibly yet a third level of representation that is most
likely unintentional but that can be interpreted largely through
inference informed, to some degree, by anthropological specu-
lation on the nature of magical belief. On this level, feudal
superstition becomes expressive of a subaltern worldview in its
ability to focus local sentiment in ways the state may regard as
potentially counterhegemonlc.

THE DEFINITION OF FEUDAL SUPERSTITION

Feudal superstition is in a sense a residual category. The

modern state in China regards all religious belief as superstition,
and yet it does make distinctions within that category (Wu, 1982:
36). Religions associated with the so-called great traditions (in
that they have served at some time or place as state religions),
such as Islam, Buddhism, and Christianity, are allowed a certain
freedom of expression within an institutional structure under the
close scrutiny of the state. This is called religious superstition
(zongjiao mixin) and, although it is legal, it remains a suspect
activity in which Party members and cadres are discouraged, if
not forbidden, to participate.
Individual practices of folk religious worship are called,
simply, superstition (yiban mixin). This category includes ances-
tor worship insofar as it is contained within the household. These
practices are too trivial or perhaps too difficult to control in any
comprehensive way Although they too may be an area of concern
for the state, accounts of these practices are not as well
represented in the press and they may in fact be perceived as less
threatening.
Everything else in the area that we would call folk religion
comprises the category of feudal superstition (fengjian mixin).
This includes temple cults, magical healing, exorcism, divination
44 MODERN CHINA / JANUARY1987

(in all its multifarious forms), geomancy and the like (as well as
elements of the "great religions" practiced outside the official or-
thodoxy). The practice of feudal superstition does not refer to a
fixed body of religious dogma but a rather diffuse belief system
that may become crystallized through charismatic performance.
The lack of formal organization, the fluid nature of its belief
system and the charismatic nature of its authority make the
activities constituted within this category resistent to state
control. The state in turn regardsthese activities with suspicion as
a reservoir of latent counterhegemonic elements.
Feudal superstition is quite actively posed as a negative
category against which the state defines itself. Its constitution is
highly charged with negative images and values. It is associated
with, among other things, economic backwardness, low political
consciousness, crime, the old society, evil, lack of virtue, irratio-
nality, the market, and women. The language used to describe its
activity borrows from a number of realms of discourse all of
which are negatively valued: the supernatural, the market, and
the "language of the rivers and lakes" (/ianghu hua).
The language of the supernatural is turned back upon itself.
Feudal superstition is represented in the text as a spectral
presence. Images of untamed nature and of unnatural growth are
evoked. Feudal superstition is said to be "rampant"(changjue), it
"raises its head" (tai tou) it "blows in as a heretical wind"(waifeng
xieqi), and "stirs up a pestilential atmosphere"(wuyan zhangqi).
A "folk" expression from the Suzhou area is often quoted: "The
shiniang [witch] is both shaman and devil"(you zuo shiniang, you
zuo gui) (Wu, 1982: 13). Magical belief itself becomes an evil to be
exorcized through science and ideological work.
Market imagery focuses on the economic self-interest of the
practitionersof magic: shamans, spirit mediums, diviners, glypho-
mancers, physiognomists, and others.2Social recognition of their
role, in the gathering of a following, is referredto as "the market
for feudal superstition." Money and valuables, as remuneration
for services rendered or as magical collateral in charms to ward
off evil spirits (with which the shaman in these stories invariably
disappears), are important elements in tales of imposture. The
story genre in which the magical practitioner appears as a wily
 Anagnost / POLITICS AND MAGIC 45

trickster invariably contains the stock phrase, "cheating the

people and taking their money" (zhapian qiancai). Male sha-
mans are called shenkun ("divine rascals")in Fujian newspapers,
a name that in Taiwan connotes urban shamans who demand
cash for trance performance (Jordan, 1972: 74).
The "language of the rivers and lakes" is traditionally asso-
ciated with the lumpenproletariat of traditional China: transport
workers, river pirates, and the like. It is also employed to discredit
these practitioners, invoking the image of itinerant persons of
unknown origin (and hence, outside village morality) and the
criminal underworld. The characterization of these individuals as
transient is central. Practitioners of magic are represented as
tricksters who strike and move on before the anger of the people
catches up with them. A stock phrase of newspaper accounts which
expresses the itinerant nature of these people is zoucun chuanjia
("going from house to house and village to village").
Perhaps the most important realm of discourse lies within the
label itself. It would be natural to expect that the state, in defining
itself against feudal superstition, would employ its most impor-
tant hegemonic idiom: that of class struggle. Feudal superstition
is characterized as a residue of the old society that the controlling
classes used as a means of oppressing the people (Wu, 1982:8). Its
expression by the people is therefore an expression of a "false
consciousness" in the struggle between classes. This false con-
sciousness persists as an unhealthy residue in the present and its
potential for counterrevolutionary expression is recognized in the
legal code.3

THE MISREADING OF MAGICAL BELIEF

A major weapon that the state uses in battling feudal super-

stition is science. A recent policy pronouncement prescribed
scientific explanation as an effective means of carrying out
ideological work:

It is necessaryto use the basic knowledgeof naturaland social

sciences to make easy-to-understand explanations of feudal
46 MODERN CHINA / JANUARY 1987

superstitions and to use typical cases to expose the fraudulent

nature, harm, and destructiveness of feudal superstitions [Banyue
tan, December 25, 1982, reprintedin China Daily Report, January
17, 1983: K17].

The confrontation of magic and science has been played out in

other times and places and it has been replayed in Western
thought through anthropological speculation on the structure of
magical belief. Levi-Strauss in his classic essay "The Sorcerer and
His Magic" contemplates the perverse way in which magic does
indeed seem to work in certain cases described in the ethno-
graphic literature (Levi-Strauss, 1967). Although it would be
possible to generate a material explanation for the effectiveness of
magic, this sort of explanation is reductive and shuts out a
significant world of value. The dilemma that the anthropologist
faces in the contemplation of the relationship between magic and
science mirrors in some ways the dilemma of the "primitive"
skeptic in societies where there may be competing schools of
magical practice. Levi-Strauss poses this dilemma as follows:

Two systems which we know to be inadequate present (with

respect to each other) a different validity, from both a logical and
an empirical perspective. From which frame of reference shall we
judge them? On the level of fact, where they merge, or on their own
level, where they take on different values, both theoretically and
empirically? [Levi-Strauss 1967- 171]

In China, magic coexists with science as a valid system of

meaning. However, by insisting on explanation through material
cause, the state is forcing the discourse in an attempt to impose
one system of meaning over another. It does this not only through
reducing the meaningfulness of the event to material cause, but
also through attaching negative values to magical practice. These
negative values are a code that justifies a "misreading" of the
"magical situation." This misreading empowers the language of
the state to subjugate other meanings, other languages. Roland
Barthes (1974: 154-155) has described this battle of ideological
systems through strokes of meaning:
 Anagnost / POLITICS AND MAGIC 47

The force of meaningdependson its degreeof systemization:the

strongestmeaningis the one whosesystemizationincludesa large
number of elements, to the point where it appearsto include
everythingnoteworthyin the world. A societyawareof the-in
some sense-linguistic natureof the world believingthat it is
not the truth which brings an end to the confrontation of
languages[for instance,scienceandmagic]butmerelytheforceof
one of them, can then, in a ludic spirit, attemptto encode this
force, to endowit with a protocolof results.

The result is to close off the dialogue and bring to an end the
"interplay of languages." The speculations of Levi-Strauss on the
structure of magical belief can perhaps offer us a base point with
which to compare the misreading by the state of the "magical
situation" as they appear in these texts. The social-relational
aspects of magic that Levi-Strauss describes are very close to
some of the meanings and values that the state is anxious to deny.
Ironically, it is precisely these aspects that allow Levi-Strauss to
attempt a scientific explanation of how magic does work.
The effectiveness of magical healing he found to be predicated
on a "gravitational"field that exists within a social consensus on a
belief in magic. It is in this social field of "faith and expectations"
of the group that the shaman's belief in his own methods and the
faith of the individual in the power of the shaman is grounded.
These complementary aspects of magical belief are the precon-
ditions necessary to set in motion the psychosomatic responses
that result in an improvement of the objective well-being of the
patient (Levi-Strauss, 1967- 162).
In the press campaign against feudal superstition, much effort
is made to break up this gravitational field of belief by demon-
strating the imposture of magical practitioners. Among these
stories are accounts by former shamans (wu) and diviners who
have undergone reeducation and who are now willing to reveal
the tricks of their trade. These confessions of the shaman's own
bag of tricks is an important part of shaman reeducation and are
not only a part of the process in raising their own political
consciousness, but they also provide material for antisuperstition
propaganda. The collection of these depositions is a venerable
48 MODERN CHINA / JANUARY1987

institution of the antisuperstition policy of the Party, beginning

with the antiwitchcraft campaign in the Yan'an period and
possibly before, when mass meetings of 50 or more shamans (wu)
were gathered for the purpose of reforming them.4
An important element in these depositions is an explanation of
the apparent preternatural ability of these practitioners to "see"
not only the specific conditions surrounding the household
requiring their services but also the drift of public opinion. Just as
Kwakiutl shamans employ the use of "dreamers," spies who
collect information about the origins and symptoms of the ills of
their clients (Levi-Strauss, 1967:169), so do Chinese shamans rely
on information gathered by accomplices. The time between when
the shaman is first summoned and his or her arrival at the patient's
home is spent by the shaman or these helpers in gathering rele-
vant information. Jiang Yunxian, a reformed shaman, describes
the sort of delaying tactics she used:

A man came to ask her to expel a devil from the body of his wife
and cure her of sickness. This woman's symptoms were headache,
fever, lack of appetite and inability to rise from her bed. She [Jiang
Yunxian] told the husband to returnhome and sprinkle four bowls
of water on all four sides of the room in which his wife lay Then he
was to sprinkle three more bowls of water in the courtyard outside.
She would rely on her spiritual power to investigate what was
wrong and would not need to go to the house where the sick
woman lay By the time he had returned from carrying out these
orders, Jiang said that her spirit had already visited his home to
investigate and had returned. She lit some incense and began to
sing:
"Rising by the ladder of clouds, paving the road of clouds You
had an ancestor who owned a lumber yard. He felled a Huai tree
[Chinese scholar tree] and injured the Huai spirit. That tree
remains desolate in your courtyard. When my spirit went to
investigate, the Huai spirit claimed your wife was careless and
should not have hung diapers[menstrual rags?] on him. He made
your wife ill and plans further misfortune. I urged him to cease his
harming of people and he has promised to stop. He has gone far
away and your wife will recover."
When the man returned home, he saw a rope tied to the Huai tree
in his courtyard on which clothes and rags were hanging. On
 Anagnost / POLITICS AND MAGIC 49

seeingthis, he believedthe wordsof the shamancompletely The

fact was,thatwhenhe hadfirstaskedfor herhelp,she had bought
timefor herselfby orderinghimto returnhometo sprinklewater.
She thensentsomeoneto supplyherwithdetailsof the household
[Wu, 1982:12-13;for a condensedversionof the same story, see
Xinhuaribao,January27, 1983].

This grace period for the gathering of information also

provides an opportunity for the shaman to get out of attempting
a cure in obviously hopeless cases:

Once when a woman from a neighboringvillage asked Jiang

Yunxianto cureherhusband,Jianglearnedthatthe sick manwas
already feverish and raving incoherently She was afraid to
attempta cureforfearshewouldfailandbe revealedas a fraud.She
refusedto go, sayingthat she was "unclean"and her spiritwould
not come to her that day and that another shaman should be
sought[Wu, 1982:13].

Diviners, who are often blind, also have means of gathering

information, either by sensory impression other than sight or with
the help of assistants called dihuang who act as their eyes in
moving from place to place, in assessing the relative wealth of
their clients and communicating visual clues to their condition.
These clues may be communicated by means of professional code
words:

If theypasseda wealthyhouse,he [the dihuang]wouldsay huoya

("fireyamen")or a poor house,jiya("hungryyamen").If a person
was in mourning,he would call out piaoyin ("floatingsilver")
[Xinhuaribao, February3, 1983].

With the aid of these clues, the diviner would attempt to compose
a divination that related to what the diviner knew about the client
while remaining "noncommittal."
In similar ways shamans and diviners must also be aware of the
drift of public opinion. This is illustrated in the following story
from the Sichuan ribao (January 31, 1983). A man had his pig
stolen and gossip directed suspicion at another team member, a
50 MODERN CHINA / JANUARY1987

man named Huang. The suspected thief asked a shaman from

another team in the same brigade to determine the real culprit.
She went into trance and said that the deity Guanyin had named
Huang as the thief. This only confirmed public suspicion. The
shaman forced a confession by taking two bamboo rods bound
together crosswise and said that this was a "spirit cangue" as she
pressed it into his throat. Huang confessed under duress and the
injured party demanded compensation for his pig. Depressed,
Huang later attempted suicide but was saved by a neighbor.
Finally the case was solved in Huang's favor by the county
authorities.
The aim of these stories is to discredit the claims of shamans
and diviners to supernatural sight by showing the worldly ways in
which they gain access to the details that ground their oracles in
everyday reality What the state refuses to acknowledge in these
cases is that these facts are only of secondary importance
regardless of how they are "known."It is the ability to imbue these
"facts" of illness and misfortune with meaning for those who
suffer from them that constitutes the shaman's special contri-
bution, and it is on this level of meaning that the challenge must
be met.
Another class of stories that often appears in the press are those
featuring zealous ideological workers who set traps for unwary
shamans in order publicly to expose them and educate the public.
In one case, the trap was set in the insufficient knowledge the
shaman had about her "client." An itinerant spirit medium
arrived in Dongtai County (Jiangsu) and was going from house to
house claiming to be able to visit the spirit world and raise souls.
This she called "going on a dark errand" (chu yinchai); for 20
yuan she would seek out the dead relatives of her clients. A young
woman Youth League member and militiawoman named Hang
Kuanlian decided that she would expose the imposture of this
woman. She asked the medium to raise the spirit of her dead
father. Hang asked the spirit if he knew the well-being of her
siblings. Her "father" proceeded to tell her and the audience
began to laugh. The joke was that Hang was an only child. Her
imposture revealed,the medium snapped out of her trance and was
 Anagnost / POLITICSAND MAGIC 51

taken to the brigade office where she was reprimanded and

required to do a self criticism. She then was forced to return the
money she had swindled and left the area (Xinhua ribao,
November 1, 1982: 4).
A similar case was reported from Puyang County (Henan)
where a young shaman named Qi had, by the age of 25, already
gathered a sizeable following and claimed up to 1000 cures. One
day, an old cadre named Ding from the commune broadcasting
station entered the home where she was engaged in a trance
performance. With him was a man seeking a cure for his legs that
he said were badly ulcerated. The shaman burned incense and
invoked her spirit. She began to sing, saying that the man was
pestered by a frog spirit (hamajing). The spirit ordered him to set
out a table of offerings: five chi of red cloth and five chi of blue,
two yuan of money (and other things). Before she could continue
Ding ordered her to stop and revealed that the "patient" was a
cadre from the people's militia and his bandages were removed to
show healthy legs. The shaman was forced by this exposure to
write a confession and cease her activities (Zhongguo nongmin
bao, June 3, 1982).
In this case as well, exposure results from the shaman's
insufficient knowledge of the real-life situations of her clients.
Caught in a public exposure, she is not only forced to confess her
imposture but the public nature of her humiliation serves as an
object lesson for her audience. The implicit assumption of these
stories is that the exposure of one shaman discredits all shamans,
and in this respect they betray a tone of almost unanswerable
complacency 5
However, proof of imposture and belief in magic need not be
mutually exclusive. Magical belief does not preclude critical
judgment in distinguishing a "false supernatural" from the
"true."The consensual nature of the "magical situation" contains
a complex balance of credulity and skepticism. The disappear-
ance of the social consensus on the shaman's ability to heal and its
recreation around another is what makes or breaks a shaman, as
Levi-Strauss illustrates in the competition between Kwakiutl
shamans (Levi-Strauss, 1967: 174-175). Hence the discrediting of
52 MODERN CHINA / JANUARY1987

a shaman does not exclude magical belief and does not necessarily
ensure the intrusion of a belief in science into the resulting void.
At times this social consensus of belief may even precede the
shamans' own knowledge of their ability to cure. In fact, it may be
the force that propels potential curers into their roles, often
overcoming their initial reluctance to perform,their discomfort in
assuming the role and their own intellectual skepticism about the
effectiveness of magic. The idea that magical healers may indeed
be social creations directly confronts the state's attribution to
them of motivated self-interest: the evocation of the market as a
negative value.
The faith of the group can therefore create a "gravitational
field" within which the shaman assumes his or her role. This
aspect of belief is illustrated in the deposition of a woman healer
named Zhu Guiying of Dongtai County (Jiangsu), which ap-
peared in the Xinhua ribao (January 24, 1982). Her story begins
in the period of economic hardship following the Great Leap
Forward during which she suffered a decline in health. This
decline led to a spell of incomprehensible raving after which the
word spreadthat she had been possessedby a spirit.People beganto
seek her out for curing. At first she resisted, but gradually she
gave in to the social pressure that was slowly pushing her toward
the role of healer:

I finally got up my nerve to go and see him [the patient]. I had no

technique at all but pretended to rave and rubbed his legs with
maochang paper [spirit money9]. I had him ketou a few times.
Sometimes his symptoms would let up a bit. When this
happened he attributed it to my skill.6

Although she assumed this role awkwardlyat first, as time passed

she was able to elaborate her methods to attain a certain level of
competence in performance:

To speak truthfully, at that time my [political?] consciousness was

low Many people sought me out and I would often go and
simulate trance to drive out devils. Although I could not ask for
 Anagnost / POLITICS AND MAGIC 53

money for my services,believerswould not fail to treatme well.

They would inviteme to eat and give me smallgifts. At first I felt
reluctant, but after a time I felt more comfortable about it.
Although I had no teacher, I gradually became an adept. In
addition to offeringincense and burningpaper money, I would
also pretendto go in searchof "magicalmedicines"(xianfang).

This story is suggestive at a number of levels about the structure

uf magical belief in China today and the ways in which it enters
into the discourse of the state. Zhu Guiying was an ordinary
peasant woman, who, through emotional suffering, experienced
an initiation "sickness" the meaning of which was not immedi-
ately apparent to her or to her fellow villagers. The idea that she
had been possessed by a spirit began as ajoke that later took on a
more serious quality. The meaning of her sickness was revealed
when her neighbor fell ill with a nervous derangement. The
commune doctor came to see him and the man improved.7 The
cure, however, was not attributed to the medical expertise of the
doctor (in the direct confrontation between science and magic)
but to Zhu Guiying who, in her neighborly solicitude, went
several times to visit the sick man during his illness. This incident
set up the social expectations that began to push her into the role
of healer. To refuse this role would have been tantamount to a
denial of social ties and the forms of reciprocity and obligation
that bound the community together.
As her reputation for being an effective healer grew, her ease in
assuming the role increased and she attained a competency in
performance that reinforced the faith of her public. She was able
to do this without the aid of a teacher, as the elements of the role
were already in the public imagination. She was not a swindler,
unknown by the community, hawking her skills in the market-
place, although such shamans undoubtedly exist and have for a
long time. She was an integral member of the community, one of
their own who had, through the force of circumstance, assumed a
role available to any one of them. This was expressed in the nature
of remuneration. The idiom of the gift was employed in recog-
nition of the reciprocal obligation between shaman and client.
She was regarded with respect and, one suspects, with a certain
 54 MODERN CHINA / JANUARY1987

amount of awe. Market exchange as "payment"for her services

would have been highly inappropriate in this context of social
relations.

THE "FRAMED " STOR Y

The story of Zhu Guiying has an atypical transparency that

allows us to see through the category of superstitious practitioner,
as it has been represented by the state, to another level where we
can see it in terms of social relations. At a further remove,
however, we find that her story has been framed by a discourse of
another order, the message of which is not immediately obvious.
Her story begins with her illness during the three years of
economic hardship that followed the Great Leap Forward.8 It
ends with a recital of the ways in which the recent agricultural
policy has improved her life. The closure of the story thus com-
plements its opening in which economic hardship is associated
with the policies of agrarian radicalism represented here by the
Great Leap. The political message of her story therefore goes
beyond the mere unmasking of a practitioner of feudal super-
stition to become an encomium on the current agriculturalpolicy
and a repudiation of the leftist tendencies that resulted in her
pursuit of wrong practices through material need.
The structure of the story has a curious shifting of material and
emotional terms. Zhu's disturbance began in a period of eco-
nomic hardship expressed through a condition of psychic deficit.
Her spontaneous recovery suggested to her fellow villagers that
she had the ability to cure others. She took no fee for this service
outside of the small gifts and the sharing of a meal, which
constituted the norms of village reciprocity With the new
agricultural policy, she was enjoined by the commune leadership
to cease her activities on the grounds that such behavior was
"lacking in virtue" (que de). The idiom employed here is
Confucian (and by extension pertains to the state). This exhor-
tation caused Zhu Guiying to feel shame, which she claimed made
her unable to face her neighbors. This was the mirrorimage of her
 Anagnost / POLITICS AND MAGIC 55

shame in not responding to the expectations of her fellow

villagers that first caused her to take up the role of healer. The
superior claim of the state over the social consensus that
supported her shamanism was expressed in the "raising"of her
political consciousness. The conflict we see Zhu Guiying repre-
senting here is one that lies between competing moralities, one
that derives from the local community and one that derives from
the state.
In the end, the story concludes that through her increased
effort in labor her material condition had improved to the point
where she no longer had to engage in magical practices to ensure
a secure livelihood. On the contrary, Zhu avowed that to continue
her shamanic role would have made her "evasive and afraid."
Money earned in labor was honestly gained, money (or material
security) earned through trickery was lacking in virtue. Although
the text had already stated her reluctance to accept monetary
compensation for her services, the end of the story has curiously
reduced the custom of village reciprocity to market terms.
But this is beside point: The message of the story is not really
"about" feudal superstition, but a pointed comparison of the
present agricultural policy against agrarian radicalism. Feudal
superstition becomes in this context merely an epiphenomenon of
a misguided leftist policy that resulted in the pursuit of such
practices through material need. The real message of the story is
that the eradication of the material conditions that give rise to such
negatively valued activities will in turn cause them to disappear.
A curious twist is given to this combination of other political
meanings with the social creation of, in this case, a diviner in a
playlet entitled Suanmmng("Fortune-telling"), which appeared in
the Xinhua ribao (January 22, 1983). The play requires a cast of
two: Blind Wang, a peasant of 50-odd years and a 30-year-old
peasant woman who is pregnant. Already the mother of a baby
girl, the woman is in a torment of indecision about whether she
should comply with the birth policy and have an abortion or have
the child because she hopes for a son. Aware that the old man has
a reputation for the telling of fortunes, she pesters him to tell her
the sex of her unborn child. Old Wang refuses her request but the
56 MODERN CHINA / JANUARY1987

woman is insistent. She offers him money and he refuses again.

She pleads with him on the basis of their being fellow villagers but
he is resolute. She grabs his walking stick so he is helpless to leave
and he finally agrees to her request. But next we discover that the
old man has been reeducated and is now a propagandist for not
only the antisuperstition campaign but for the birth control
policy as well. In telling the woman her "fortune," he convinces
her that to have the child would be bad for the country, and what
is bad for the country is bad for the individual. The woman is
convinced of the negative consequences of having the baby and
agrees to terminate the pregnancy.
Although the play is ostensibly about feudal superstition, in
case there is any doubt as to the hierarchical ordering of the
messages in the text, there is a song accompanying it that extolls
the birth policy One bad practice is harnessed for service in
addressing another. Another ploy of the story is a misrepre-
sentation of the environment of choice in which the woman
makes her decision to abort. By confining the story to the
interaction between diviner and client, important dramatis
personae remain unrepresented here, namely the woman's hus-
band and mother-in-law whose expectation might make this
decision so acutely agonizing for her. Their reaction is not
portrayed, thus ignoring a major element of the drama present in
real life.
One final example of a framed text leads us into another elusive
area of concern: intrafamilial relations. In a story that appeared
in Zhongguo nongmin bao (August 26, 1982) Yang Zhanhua, a
young militiawoman, entered her husband's home as a new bride,
only to discover that the soul of her ailing mother-in-law had
become possessed by a supernatural being called the "Yellow
Celestial" (Huangxian). The woman had built a temple to this
spirit and would frequently go into trance during which she would
dance and speak. Yang diagnosed her mother-in-law'sproblem as
hysteria brought on by worry and overwork, which had deprived
her of sleep. The source of her worry was the fear that now her son
was married, he and his new bride would want to divide the
 Anagnost / POLITICS AND MAGIC 57

household (fenjia). A division of households would leave her and

her husband, both ailing and burdened with a retarded older son,
in a difficult economic situation as Yang and her husband were
the only ablebodied workers in the household.
Once the younger woman determined the true cause of her
mother-in-law's possession, she set herself to soothing the older
woman's fears and in the process convince her of the futility of
magical belief. After secretly tearing down the temple, Yang
embarked on a course of action to allow her mother-in-law to
regain her health and her senses. She began by taking on more of
the household responsibilities. Assuming the role of the ideal
daughter-in-law, "she was the first to rise in the morning and the
last to sleep at night." Each task would be finished before her
mother-in-law became conscious it needed doing. Yang secretly
administered sleeping medicines to the older woman to ensure
that she slept well. She also gave her frequent verbal assurances
that they were indeed one family and would never part. The fears
of, her mother-in-law were gradually allayed and she no longer
experienced trance possession.
This story, although it is accompanied by the slogan "eradicate
feudal superstition," is again not really about feudal superstition
but is another version of the "good daughter-in-law" (hao xifu)
genre of ideological stories that appear quite often in the press in
connection with the "five-good" family campaign. The mirror
image of this is, of course, the "good mother-in-law" (hao popo)
stories. The frequency of stories about the ideal relations between
these two leads one to suspect that this is a line of serious strain in
the modern Chinese family and indeed plenty of negative
examples are supplied.
In this case, the issue is care of the aged, the responsibility for
which still falls largely on the immediate family A household of
five of which three of the members are disabled puts a consider-
able burden on the young couple. The mother-in-law has
sufficient cause for concern. The happy resolution is, of course,
the taking up of her traditional role by what is represented here as
a very modern young woman. This is "modern" in the positive
58 MODERN CHINA / JANUARY1987

sense: She makes a scientifically "accurate" diagnosis of her

mother-in-law's problem (hysteria versus possession by spirits);
she is against feudal superstition; she is a militiawoman; she is
strong willed. She takes issue with her husband and father-in-law,
who both believe in the older woman's possession. The likelihood
of a modern and independent young woman throwing herself into
her traditional role is assumed. Whether or not such a resolution
is "realistic"is never questioned. This is a representation of ideal
behavior.
The manner of presentation also has the readerundecided as to
whether it is a true story, fictional account, or something in
between. We are provided with facts: place names, names and
ages of people, and so on. On the other hand, dialogue is
represented quite literally. This may lend the story an imme-
diacy within the Chinese story-telling tradition, but it only draws
the attention of the reader to the extent to which the story is
highly structured. In conclusion, we see again that the degree to
which magical belief is acknowledged to be expressive of conflicts
in society that concern the state, depends on whether the
resolution is couched in terms the state finds desirable.
Stories about folk religious practice that appear in the Chinese
press are often highly structured. In braiding together several
layers of meaning, these accounts allow the state to address areas
of concern through the negative values it has attached to a
category called feudal superstition. This extension of negative
values to other issues is an attempt to call the people to order
regarding certain goals of state policy. In this context, those
conditions that are seen to give rise to feudal superstition are
guilty by association because they result in negatively valued
practices and are therefore encouraged to disappear through the
prescription of ideal behavior. The danger for the state in such a
prescription may well be that in making folk religious practice a
negatively defined category that can be so manipulated, it has also
invested feudal superstition with a more potent means of
expressing counterhegemony, a subaltern conception of the
world, or system of value.
 Anagnost / POLITICS AND MAGIC 59

NOTES

1. This article uses accounts from several Chinese newspapers, including the following
provincial newspapers: Sichuan ribao (Sichuan), Xinhua ribao (Jiangsu), and Fujian
ribao (Fujian). Other papers such as Guangming ribao and the Zhongguo nongmin bao
(Chinese Peasant Gazette) are directed toward specific subgroups in the Chinese
population, intellectuals, and peasants, respectively. All of these sources are state
controlled and represent official policy.
2. The use of the term "shaman" in the context of modern China is somewhat
problematic if one accepts the limitations imposed by Eliade's (1964) classic definition of
the shaman as one capable of soul flight and of inducing trance at will. I prefer Kendall's
(1983: 173) more liberal definition of the shaman as one who "actively engages the
supernatural." Such a definition would certainly include the magical healers and spirit
mediums that inhabit these newspaper accounts and who are still active throughout
China. My own understanding of the difference between what Eliade calls the "true
shaman" and the spirit mediums of East Asia, is predicated on the political transformation
of these roles with the rise of a state organization. Whereas Eliade's true shamans may
have existed as charismatic leaders in ritual and political spheres in prestate China, these
practitioners were cast out of the ritual bureaucracyof an emerging state religion, a process
largely completed by mid-Han. Despite their disenfranchisement they did not disappear
but persisted as heterodox practitioners, outlawed by the state and practicing under-
ground. This political transformation was accompanied by a similar transformation in the
image realm of these practices in which shamans became the passive mediums for
possessing spirits. Similarly, ideas about ritual purity gave way to promiscuous contact
with the polluting spirits of the dead. The placement of these changes within the context of
a political economy makes them more interesting than a vague idea of devolution. The
literature on Chinese shamanism is thin, but there are some good studies. See, for instance,
DeGroot (1967), Elliott (1955), and Potter (1974).
3. The "Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China" reads as follows: (Article 99)
"Those organizing and using feudal superstitious beliefs, superstitious sects and secret
societies to carry out counterrevolutionary activities will be sentenced to imprisonment of
not less than five years. In less serious cases they will be sentenced to imprisonment,
detention, surveillance or deprivation of political rights for not more than five years."
(Article 165) "Sorcerers and witches, who perform superstitious acts for the purpose of
spreading rumors or swindling people out of money and property, will be sentenced to
imprisonment for not more than two years, detention and surveillance. In grave cases, the
offender will be sentenced to imprisonment for not less than two and not more than seven
years." These items were cited in an article on feudal superstition appearing in the
periodical Banyue tan (December 25, 1982). It was translated in the China Daily Report,
(January 17, 1983: K18). This identification of feudal superstition with a ruling-class
ideology is counter to a long history of Confucian disapproval of heterodox practices. For
an example of bureaucratic suppression, see Ebrey (1981: 202-203).
4. For an example of propaganda materials based on these depositions and used in the
liberated base areas, see Zhankaifandui wushen de douzheng (Carry Out the Struggle
Against Shamans) (Yan'an, 1944). For a contemporary account of a shaman reeducation
meeting in the liberated areas, see Jiefang ribao (July 21, 1944). Evidence for an earlier
antisuperstition campaign in the Jiangxi Soviet exists in the form of a discussion protocol,
 60 MODERN CHINA / JANUARY1987

Dapo mixin taolun ligang (Outline for Discussion on the Eradication of Superstition)
(Gongnong, 1932). For a description of a more recentantisuperstitioncampaign, see Chan
et al. (1984: 87-91).
5. It is difficult for us to assess how representative of contemporary magical practices
these accounts may indeed be. It must be assumed, however, that it is in the best interest of
the state to present these stories "objectively." In other words, in order to make them
useful for didactic purposes, they must touch on the experience of the reader. Exceptions
to this might be those accounts that portray these practitioners as engaging not just in
simple imposture, but in what could be perhaps called the "sensational crime": sexual
depravity and murder. Such stories invariably point out how belief in magic can lead to
excesses that harm innocent people. Perhaps one cannot rule out completely the
possibility of such occurrences. But at the same time, one must be aware of the potent
weapon with which these stories arm the state in its case against magical belief. For this
reason, special care is needed in attempting an interpretation of such accounts.
6. The frontispiece of the article is a cartoon lampooning the sort of talismanic healing
ritual that Zhu Guiying was attempting here. Incense and paper money are being burned
as the woman shaman wields a magic sword to deflect demons. The paper that has been
fixed to the sword is no doubt afu, a magical inscription often written in the shaman's own
blood. Her right hand is gesturing with a demon-deflecting mudra. I am convinced that
this mudra is here quite intentionally represented with the wrong hand (the right hand). I
am gratefulto Judy Boltz for pointing this out. See Liangand Shapiro (1984:194-196) for an
account of a similar healing ritual.
7. With the breakdown of the collective economy, basic level health care is in many
cases no longer provided free to members. For instance, in Chen Village many enterprises
previously run by the collective were contracted out to individual management. The
village health clinic was "snapped up" by the local barefoot doctor who immediately raised
the price of an injection to more than a yuan. This had the effect of alienating many patients
(Chan et al., 1984: 273). Given the choice between paying for medical care or going to a
magical practitioner (which may also cost money), the choice is not as clear as when health
care was provided free. However, even with the collective health-care system, there were
those who mistrusted medical science and still preferred the services of a magical
practitioner. A good part of the reason may have been that science has not always fulfilled
its promise. For instance, given the insensitive treatment of women's health problems, one
could well understand the hesitation in going to the local clinic. Liang and Shapiro (1984:
193) describe the case of a peasant woman who could not have her IUD removed by the
local doctor even though she was wracked with pain. It would have been counter to the
birth policy. Although the distinction between magic and science is made to appear very
clear in the definition of "feudal superstition," it is somewhat less clear in other areas. For
instance, the elevation of herbal medicine as a "folk" science comes dangerously near to
the realm of magical practice. This has led to serious efforts to "disenchant"it through
scientific explanation. I am grateful to Norma Diamond for pointing this out.
8. The Great Leap Forward, which began in 1958, was an attempt to speed up the
march toward socialism with the forming of the rural communes and an increased
emphasis on moral over material incentives to increase production. In addition to the
immense organizational difficulties encountered in its implementation, the Great Leap
also foundered due to bad weather and crop failures that created serious deprivation in
some rural areas. It was the "three hard years" (sannianjingji kunnan de nei yi zhenzi),
 Anagnost / POLITICS AND MAGIC 61

which lasted from 1959 to 1962, which broke the health of Zhu Guiying and started her on
the path to becoming a magical healer.

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BARTHES, ROLAND (1974) S/Z: An essay. Richard Miller (trans.). New York:
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DeGROOT, J.J.M. (1967) The Religious System of China, Vol. 6 ("The Priesthood of
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ELIADE, MIRCEA (1964) Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy. New York:
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ELLIOTT, ALAN J. A. (1955) Chinese Spirit Medium Cults in Singapore. London: LSE
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Gongnong hongzhun xuexiao zhengji bu (1932) Dapo mixin taolun tigang (Outline for
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POTTER, JACK M. (1974) "Cantonese Shamanism," pp. 207-231 in Arthur Wolf (ed.)
Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press.
Shaan Gan Ning Bianqu zhengfu bangongting (1944) Zhankal fandui wushen de
douzheng (Carry Out the Struggle Against Shamans). Yan'an
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Ann S. Anagnost is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of

Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Her current research interests focus on various
aspects of the relationship between political culture and popular practice in the
post-Mao period.