Telling Stories: Witchcraft and Scapegoating in Chinese History

By: Ter Haar, Barend

Book Overview

This book analyzes the role of oral stories in Chinese witch-hunts. Successive chapters deal with the implications of Chinese versions of the Little Red Riding Hood story; the use of parts of the adult human body, children and foetuses, to draw out their life-force; attacks by mysterious creatures, causing open wounds, suffocation, the loss of hair and the like; the presence of a Drought Demon in the corpses of recently deceased women; and finally the emperor forcibly recruiting unmarried women for his harem. Of interest to historians and anthropologists working on oral traditions, folklore and witch-hunts (also from a comparative perspective), but also to those working on anti-Christian movements and the intersection of popular fears and political history in China.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9004148442
• ISBN13: 9789004148444
• Release Date: November 2005
• Publisher: Brill
• Length: 382 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.5" x 9.6"