Wizard: The devil of the human world

Author: Lu Qihong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-09-01
Features: Writing this book was influenced by two works. One is "The Specter of Specters: A Social History of Chinese Witchcraft and Superstition in the Late Eighteenth Century" by the American sinologist Philip A. Kuhn, and the other is "Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error, 1294–1324" by the French Annales School scholar Lucien Febvre. In "The Specter of Specters," Kuhn analyzes the political system of China during the Qianlong era of the Qing Dynasty through a case of witchcraft, revealing a chronic ailment in the Chinese political system—the conflict between the emperor and the bureaucracy. In "Montaillou," Febvre portrays the daily life of a mountain village in southern France between 1294 and 1324 by analyzing the interrogation records of the Inquisition. It was under the influence of these two books that I became dedicated to studying and researching the witchcraft panic in Western Europe, and I attempted to apply new literary methods, hoping that through the analysis of the issue of "witch hunts," a new perspective could be provided for understanding the history of Western Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries.