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Authors: Philip A. Kuhn
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later) for understanding eighteenth-century conditions? Even though economic conditions,
crowding, and social breakdown were much worse a century later,
contemporary perceptions of the growth of a clerical underclass
should at least make us watchful for evidence of an actual increase
of mendicancy in general in the mid-eighteenth century.
The discussion of outward migration in Ch'ing times has largely
concerned movement of people into the relatively underpopulated
borders, into interior uplands, and overseas. Because local officials
had to cope with it, and because the state sometimes encouraged it,
such outward migration shows up readily in state documents. The
extent of downward migration-dropping out of the settled occupations into vagrancy and begging-is harder to estimate. It occasionally became part of the documentary record when beggars were
disorderly: in the little Appalachia of Kuang-te, which I mentioned
earlier, the Prosperous Age of mid-Ch'ien-lung times had produced,
by 1767, gangs of "beggar-bandits" (kai fei), who now roamed the
area, taking what they wanted by force and battling constables with
clubs and brickbats. It turned out that ten of the beggars who were
caught had previously been arrested on the same charges in nearby
Hui-thou and Hsiu-ning but had been let off with beatings. Hungli
now ordered stiffer punishments. The economic problems of Kuangte he did not mention at all.52
Sorcery, Hostility, and Anxiety
Though such information is suggestive, it does not establish that
China's economy by the 176os was already squeezing large numbers
of people into a growing underclass. Yet here is more evidence that
perceptions matter: around the time of the sorcery scare, judicial
records contain some suggestive cases of hostility toward beggars. In
one case, a beggar named Huang comes to the door of householder
Huang (possibly a kinsman, but not within the "five mourning
grades") and demands alms. Householder Huang tells him to come
back later. The hungry beggar tries to push his way in, shouting angrily. Householder Huang beats him with a wooden cudgel,
causing his death. In another case, three beggars accost a group of
neighbors who are sitting around eating and drinking. When given
a handout, they complain loudly that it is too little and begin to smash
the crockery. The neighbors attack and beat them. Two beggars flee,
one is killed. The sentences for the killers in both cases were strangulation, commuted to prison (a common sentence for man-
slaughter).53 If such homicidal hostility could be shown to have grown
over time, it might mean either that the underclass was becoming
more intrusive in community life, or that feelings of obligation toward
the destitute were becoming weaker and more ambivalent.54
Can we explain fears of sorcery by pointing to social or economic
anxieties? Such explanations have been attempted, but I am not
entirely comfortable with them.55 However clear the facts (sorcery
fear, social tension), the connection between them is generally neither
provable nor disprovable. I would love to be able to say that Chinese
of the eighteenth century feared soul-loss because they felt their lives
threatened by unseen ambient forces (overpopulation, perhaps, or
the power of fluctuating market forces to "steal" their livelihoods).
Such an assertion, however bewitching, can certainly never be proved.
Yet the Prosperous Age was clearly capable of arousing some somber
perceptions: if not of invisible economic threats to survival, then
certainly of dangerous strangers on the move. And as the soulstealing
story unfolds, we shall run into some social experiences more palpably linked to sorcery fear. Meanwhile, we must pursue somber perceptions of eighteenth-century life in the sphere of national politics.
CHAPTER 3
Threats Seen
and Unseen
The smile that the middle-aged Hungli offered his portraitist is not
a warm one, nor (I think) one of
crowding, and social breakdown were much worse a century later,
contemporary perceptions of the growth of a clerical underclass
should at least make us watchful for evidence of an actual increase
of mendicancy in general in the mid-eighteenth century.
The discussion of outward migration in Ch'ing times has largely
concerned movement of people into the relatively underpopulated
borders, into interior uplands, and overseas. Because local officials
had to cope with it, and because the state sometimes encouraged it,
such outward migration shows up readily in state documents. The
extent of downward migration-dropping out of the settled occupations into vagrancy and begging-is harder to estimate. It occasionally became part of the documentary record when beggars were
disorderly: in the little Appalachia of Kuang-te, which I mentioned
earlier, the Prosperous Age of mid-Ch'ien-lung times had produced,
by 1767, gangs of "beggar-bandits" (kai fei), who now roamed the
area, taking what they wanted by force and battling constables with
clubs and brickbats. It turned out that ten of the beggars who were
caught had previously been arrested on the same charges in nearby
Hui-thou and Hsiu-ning but had been let off with beatings. Hungli
now ordered stiffer punishments. The economic problems of Kuangte he did not mention at all.52
Sorcery, Hostility, and Anxiety
Though such information is suggestive, it does not establish that
China's economy by the 176os was already squeezing large numbers
of people into a growing underclass. Yet here is more evidence that
perceptions matter: around the time of the sorcery scare, judicial
records contain some suggestive cases of hostility toward beggars. In
one case, a beggar named Huang comes to the door of householder
Huang (possibly a kinsman, but not within the "five mourning
grades") and demands alms. Householder Huang tells him to come
back later. The hungry beggar tries to push his way in, shouting angrily. Householder Huang beats him with a wooden cudgel,
causing his death. In another case, three beggars accost a group of
neighbors who are sitting around eating and drinking. When given
a handout, they complain loudly that it is too little and begin to smash
the crockery. The neighbors attack and beat them. Two beggars flee,
one is killed. The sentences for the killers in both cases were strangulation, commuted to prison (a common sentence for man-
slaughter).53 If such homicidal hostility could be shown to have grown
over time, it might mean either that the underclass was becoming
more intrusive in community life, or that feelings of obligation toward
the destitute were becoming weaker and more ambivalent.54
Can we explain fears of sorcery by pointing to social or economic
anxieties? Such explanations have been attempted, but I am not
entirely comfortable with them.55 However clear the facts (sorcery
fear, social tension), the connection between them is generally neither
provable nor disprovable. I would love to be able to say that Chinese
of the eighteenth century feared soul-loss because they felt their lives
threatened by unseen ambient forces (overpopulation, perhaps, or
the power of fluctuating market forces to "steal" their livelihoods).
Such an assertion, however bewitching, can certainly never be proved.
Yet the Prosperous Age was clearly capable of arousing some somber
perceptions: if not of invisible economic threats to survival, then
certainly of dangerous strangers on the move. And as the soulstealing
story unfolds, we shall run into some social experiences more palpably linked to sorcery fear. Meanwhile, we must pursue somber perceptions of eighteenth-century life in the sphere of national politics.
CHAPTER 3
Threats Seen
and Unseen
The smile that the middle-aged Hungli offered his portraitist is not
a warm one, nor (I think) one of
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