Revealing Secrets: Talismans, Healthcare and the Market of the Occult in Early Twentieth-century China

Abstract

This article analyses the place and value of occult arts in the healthcare market of Republican China (1912–1949). Medical historiography has long neglected the resilience of such occult arts as talismans, astrology and divination in the context of China’s search for modernity. Focusing on the production, trade, and consumption of goods and services related to talismanic healing, I give voice to Chinese occultists by investigating the formation of a ‘market of the occult’ in the Republican era. I adopt a global perspective to clarify the changes that occult healing underwent following the popularisation of new printing technologies, mass media and transnational spiritualism in early twentieth-century China. Erstwhile embraced in secrecy, the occult was now being made public. Cheap manuals, wide-circulation newspapers and book catalogues reveal that in contrast to past studies that herald the disenchantment of the world as the hallmark of Chinese modernity, occult healing did not simply survive but thrived in the face of modern science and technology.

The power within: Mass media, scientific entertainment, and the introduction of psychical research into China, 1900–1920

“…Following the consolidation of Spiritual Science in the early 1920s, the number of newspaper articles and advertisements for hypnotism and psychic abilities would increase exponentially in the Chinese press, promising from self-healing and the correction of bad habits to the cultivation of exceptional powers and the craft of an "ideal citizen." Just as it did in Japan (Yoshinaga, 2007), Spiritual Science also prompted a revival of occult arts in Republican China (Junqueira, 2021), traditional methods whose efficacy could be now clarified through the "latest science of psychical research." Contrary to studies focused on the Euro-American context, still little is known about the broader impact of psychical research in the making of modern China.…”

“…Wide‐circulation newspapers and popular manuals reached a vast lay audience still unfamiliar with the principles and methods of psychical research. Following the consolidation of Spiritual Science in the early 1920s, the number of newspaper articles and advertisements for hypnotism and psychic abilities would increase exponentially in the Chinese press, promising from self‐healing and the correction of bad habits to the cultivation of exceptional powers and the craft of an “ideal citizen.” Just as it did in Japan (Yoshinaga, 2007), Spiritual Science also prompted a revival of occult arts in Republican China (Junqueira, 2021), traditional methods whose efficacy could be now clarified through the “latest science of psychical research.” Contrary to studies focused on the Euro‐American context, still little is known about the broader impact of psychical research in the making of modern China. It is clear, however, that it would become a catalyst for the dissemination of psychotherapy and mind‐cure across the country, with spiritual scientists being particularly interested in criminal and crowd psychology.…”

“…In 1917, the magazine Damask devoted not less than three pages to describing the latest performances of Chen Yanxiang in Shanghai (Bao et al, 1917). A Chinese doctor "who has studied hypnotism for years," Chen was "a specialist in healing diseases that medicinal drugs and acupuncture cannot treat"-a common saying among traditional talismanic healers as well (Junqueira, 2021(Junqueira, , 2022. The demonstrations included healing, entertainment, and psychic effects like hallucination, illusion, and multiple personalities.…”

Investigating the history of folk Taoism: the concept of magic in the study of zhuyou rituals

“…Strickmann 2002;Cho 2005;Reiter 2007;Mollier 2008;Drexler 1994). Sometimes the variant terms 'demonic magic' (see, for example, Yue 2014), 'astral magic' (Kotyk 2017) 3 and 'occult' (Junqueira 2021) are also used. Besides, the use of the term 'folk religion' (synonymous with 'popular religion') as an equivalent of 'magic' should also be noted (see Hu 2012;Yang, Hu 2012).…”