Movatterモバイル変換

[0]ホーム
URL:

Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
Thehttps:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

NIH NLM Logo
Log inShow account info
Access keysNCBI HomepageMyNCBI HomepageMain ContentMain Navigation
pubmed logo
Advanced Clipboard
User Guide

Full text links

Silverchair Information Systems full text link Silverchair Information Systems Free PMC article
Full text links

Actions

.2021 Jun 8;34(4):1068-1093.
doi: 10.1093/shm/hkab035. eCollection 2021 Nov.

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

Affiliations

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

Luis Fernando Bernardi Junqueira. Soc Hist Med..

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.

Keywords: Chinese medicine; modern China; occult; magic; spiritualism.

© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for the Social History of Medicine.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Example of three sets of three ‘secret characters’ for (from right to left) breast boils, snake bites and dog bites. The first set (right) must be burned to ashes and ingested with wine. The second set (middle) should be pasted onto the injured area, burned to ashes and then taken with realgar wine. The third set (left) can be pasted onto the injured area or ingested, and if the victim is a child, it is effective to carry it along with him or her for prevention. Extracted from Yu Zhefu,Compendium of Secret Talismans, 1922, II, 22
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Example of an ‘elaborated talisman’ for red eyes. The talisman, which should be burned to ashes, mixed with water and used to wash the eyes, is accompanied by a verbal spell for activation. Extracted from Yu Zhefu,Compendium of Secret Talismans, 1922, II, 30
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Eight ‘elaborated talismans’ for inducing hypnosis. Extracted from Huang Feng,Collection of Global Hypnosis, 1940, 24–25
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources

Full text links
Silverchair Information Systems full text link Silverchair Information Systems Free PMC article
Cite
Send To

NCBI Literature Resources

MeSHPMCBookshelfDisclaimer

The PubMed wordmark and PubMed logo are registered trademarks of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Unauthorized use of these marks is strictly prohibited.

[8]ページ先頭
©2009-2026 Movatter.jp