At the end of the 18th century, the small-scale peasant economy during the period of China's feudal society reached its peak, and history called this period "Kangqian's prosperous era", which was also the last sunset of feudal society.
In 1768, Deqing County in the Jiangnan region was repairing the gates of the Sewer City, led by a stonemason named Wu Dongming, whose tiring and heavy work made the stonemasons feel very hard. Just when everything was ready and Wu Dongming was about to put the stake into the water, an old man stopped him, pulled him aside, and stuffed him with a note.
Stills of the Qianlong Emperor
It turned out that the old man's name was Shen Shiliang, an authentic old farmer, and he begged Wu Dongming to paste the note with two names written on the tip of the wooden stake, but as for what purpose, Shen Shiliang did not tell Wu Dongming. As a stonemason who traveled south and north, Wu Dongming was well-informed, and he vaguely felt that this was a way to curse others, so he pointed to the name on the note and asked Shen Shiliang who the name on the note was.
Shen Shiliang had to tell him that these two people were his nephews, and not only were they not filial to him, but they often beat himself, so Shen Shiliang wanted the two nephews to die early. Wu Dongming did not agree to Shen Shiliang's request, but twisted him to the official palace, and after a round of interrogation, Zhixian saw that Shen Shiliang was old and sick, and moreover, he listened to the evil magic and cursed others, which was an attempted murder. The kind ZhiXian did not strictly investigate Shen Shiliang, but only ordered his subordinates to hit the board a few times. Wu Dongming thought that he had done a great thing, and he preached his merits to everyone, saying that he had saved the lives of two people, but what he did not expect was that it was his mouth that pushed him into the abyss.
Qing Dynasty Zhixian stills
There is a Huixiang Temple in Deqing County, where the monks do not receive incense money for many years, and their lives are poor and lonely, and they are hungry. To their displeasure, the monk of a nearby Temple of Guanyin was rosy-faced and full of food all day. The monks of Huixiang Temple started the idea of the Guanyin Hall, so they adapted and distorted the story of Wu Stonemason, spreading a rumor that the stonemason was buried near the Guanyin Hall.
Rumors spread quickly, and stonemasons, including Wu stonemasons, were arrested and arrested by the government as "soul-calling criminals", and there was no news of the rest of the matter. When the local people heard this, they were afraid that their names would be written by the enemy family, and then they cursed themselves, so they treated others kindly and made fewer enemies, so that they would not be assassinated by the practice. The "soul calling case" in Deqing County has just subsided, and then another "braid-cutting case" has occurred in Xiaoshan County, Zhejiang Province, which has just calmed down in the Jiangnan region into panic.
Four monks in Xiaoshan County, Zhejiang Province, cut their hair in pigtails, and one of the monks' luggage was found to be hairy, and the four were taken into custody by the government. The informant of the case, a ten-year-old child, accused several beggars of stealing others' braids, and it turned out that the beggars were four monks.
The people of Xukou Town, Jiangsu Province, were angry with all the monks, and the Jingzhuang monk of Fayun'an and seven of his companions were seriously injured on the grounds that they were monks, and the monks were most likely to cut their braids because they did not have braids. After the incident in the Jiangnan region called soul-cutting braids, several similar cases occurred in Shandong Zhili, where a beggar named Cai Tingzhang confessed that he had colluded with a monk named Tongyuan, and the two had committed adultery and secretly cut other people's braids.
There was also a beggar surnamed Chen, begging a fortune teller named Zhang Siru, and as a result, Zhang Siru used clever words to encourage him not to ask for food along the street anymore, and to follow the jade monk to learn the spell of cutting people's hair braids. In order to be able to obtain rich money, the beggar desperately tried to cut people's hair in braids, but his first "cast" was caught on the spot. In just four months, the "soul calling case" and the "braid-cutting case" occurred in the rich Jiangnan region and the direct subordinates near Gyeonggi, and the news finally reached the ears of the Inspector of Shandong.
Stills of Qing dynasty officials
The inspector of Shandong, fearing that he would harm himself, hurriedly told the Qianlong Emperor the truth about these cases, and these unbelievable cases provoked the qianlong emperor's anger, and on the spot ordered the provinces to strictly investigate and arrest all these suspicious people. In fact, calling the soul is just a superstitious way of folk, and the reason why it has evolved so much is the fear and avoidance of the people for calling the soul.
There is such a superstition in the folk saying that there is a soul that represents the spirit and a spirit that represents the body, and the separation of the two will make people comatose and sick, and even lead to death. The occurrence of the soul calling case caused panic among the people, and people with bad intentions would threaten the victims with the "soul calling method", and the ancient people were more or less superstitious, not to mention the Qianlong Emperor who was respected by the Ninth Five. As the supreme ruler, the Qianlong Emperor valued life far beyond ordinary people, and if someone used the method of "calling the soul" to harm him, it would not be a great rebellion. What the Qianlong Emperor could not bear the most was the successive "braid-cutting cases", which should be known as a symbol of the Qing Dynasty and a symbol of the rule of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.
On the surface, the people were forced to accept shaving and braiding, but which of the displaced people's uprisings that have broken out in recent years is not under the name of "opposing shaving and braiding"? The shangguan of Shandong touched the sensitive nerves of the Qianlong Emperor, who on the one hand said absurdity, and on the other hand, he was really afraid that the country and mountains were not solid, which undoubtedly shook the foundation of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. The Qianlong Emperor's order was simple and clear, and all those involved in this case were strictly dealt with, from the provincial capital directly under the province to the prefectures, counties, and villages, and all those who talked about these evil words and deceived the public were all pulled out. In feudal society, the emperor's words weighed a thousand pounds, and the officials who received orders strictly investigated the "soul calling case", and all parts of the country began to investigate the "soul calling criminals", which was also destined to kill many innocent people.
The above order was quickly issued, and the officials at the bottom felt quite helpless about it, and the fictitious things actually provoked the emperor's anger, but this was no longer something they had to care about, what they wanted to solve was to catch the soul criminals, even if there were clues, they had to investigate thoroughly to the end. The target of the soul prisoner is first and foremost the beggar, and the wandering beggar is the potential candidate for the soul prisoner, and they meet the conditions of the weak and are suitable for arrest. There are also poor monks who have to go in and out of temples in search of food and travel all over the country. The most important thing is that monks chanting the scriptures every day are the closest professions to demonic theory, and if you want to wrongfully accuse a person of demonizing and confusing the public, the identity of a monk will have a great effect.
As a large number of beggar monks were arrested, local officials played one after another, the Qianlong Emperor smiled silently, and the officials also understood a truth, and the number of people they arrested had not yet reached the expectations of the Qianlong Emperor. Soon the candidates for soul criminals were no longer just beggar monks, the common people were targeted by the government, and some people who had grievances with others did not hesitate to falsely accuse others of being soul callers in order to vent their anger, and the people reported each other, and the prison was overcrowded.
Stills of Liu Tongxun
It was only when the innocent people came back to God that they cried out one after another, but at this time the officials no longer listened to their explanations, and went through the court trial over and over again, beating the innocent people into confession. The scope of the soul-calling case spread from the Jiangnan region to the northern and Sichuan-Shaanxi regions, and a large number of beggar monks were tortured to death, and their grievances went straight up into the sky. In October of the same year, Liu Tongxun, a scholar of the Imperial Court University, discovered that if the so-called soul-calling criminals were really huge, then the world would not be peaceful for a long time. He sincerely persuaded the Qianlong Emperor to stop investigating and handling the soul-calling case. At this time, the Qianlong Emperor seemed to understand something, and he admitted that his nerves were too sensitive, but what he didn't know was that because of his temporary sensitivity, how many innocent monks had been tortured to death.
The Qianlong Emperor accepted the advice of the scholar Liu Tongxun, and although he verbally urged the officials to investigate and deal with them seriously, he also expressed doubts about the confessions of the suspects and asked the officials not to indiscriminately punish them when handling the case. Soon after, all but those who died of torture and those who died of illness in prison were acquitted. The sensational soul-calling case ended with the Qianlong Emperor's obstruction. Several cases of insignificant importance evolved into this, not only the responsibility of the Qianlong Emperor, but also the inaction of these feudal officials, resulting in unjust cases.
Reference: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty