Soulstealing
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According to Philip Kuhn's Soulstealing: The Chinese Sorcery Scare of 1768, Chinese society in the 18th century seemed to be highly superstitious, causing them to hold beliefs in supernatural happenings of their habitats. These superstitions were supposedly said to stem from "the lower Yangtze area[but, Governor Funihan's findings led him to believe that] All signs pointed to an extra-provincial gang recruiting local people to do its work"(83). That work would be that of queue-clipping or for those who believe in the supernatural soulstealing. Now whether or not the threat of soulstealing was real is a fact that remains to be seen, but Kuhn's analogy makes it clear that the real fear lies in Hungli.
For the sake of making sense out of a somewhat chaotic time period, it is imperative to define the acts of queue-clipping and soulstealing. Queue-clipping is the act of cutting someone's queue off. Soulstealing is the act of using a knife or pair of scissors to cut someone's queue off. Soulstealing is the act of using a knife or pair of scissors to cut someone's queue off after stupefying the subject with a powder substance, after which they would recite incantations in order to take one's soul. Being that the majority of Chinese society was superstitious, the belief was high in that of the latter.
In 18th century China, there was a political meaning attached to a Chinese citizen's hair...