Rumors always seem to fall from the sky and then start to breed and spread. And soon formed a trend that a single spark can start a prairie fire.
The appearance of rumors
/kloc-at the beginning of 0/768, the east wall of Deqing County, Zhejiang Province collapsed, and the local county magistrate hired a stonemason named Wu Dongming to lead his construction team to repair the wall. Two months after the project started, as a foreman, he found that the rice reserve could not support the end of the project and rushed to his hometown more than 30 miles away from Deqing County? Renhe county buys rice.
As soon as Wu Dongming got home, a local named Shen Shiliang asked him for help. Shen Shiliang complained that he was abused by his nephew for many years and could do nothing. Later, it was suggested that he could use the power of magic to get back at them.
The man told him that some masons would write the names of living people on pieces of paper, stick them on the top of wooden stakes, and beat wooden stakes with sledgehammers, bringing mysterious power to curse those whose names were written (folk call it? Summon the soul? ), the result is that those people are either sick or dead.
This time, Shen Shiliang came to Wu Dongming and asked him if he had such a spell to realize his wish. Wu Dongming was frightened to disgrace after hearing this. Although he doesn't understand the witchcraft that Shen Shiliang said, he knows that in the impression of ordinary people, masons do have the magic to curse others.
However, Wu Dongming knew that once he and? Summon the soul? Such troubles are intertwined and cannot be washed away by jumping into the Yellow River. He immediately recruited local Bao Zheng and sent Shen Shiliang to the county government in Deqing County. Deqing county magistrate ordered Shen Shiliang to be released after hitting him 25 times.
Although Wu Dongming proved his innocence and was exempted from punishment, the last thing he wanted to see happened. It has been rumored that someone did it in the process of repairing the bridge in Deqing County? Summon the soul? Commercial activities, followed by a variety of? Summon the soul? However, the rumors with this as the core content spread all over Zhejiang in an unstoppable way.
A Deqing man named Ji left his hometown to make a living in Hangzhou. 1On the evening of April 3, 768, when Ji came to Jingci Temple near the West Lake, his accent caused panic among the local people. Someone asked him if he came to Hangzhou to build a bridge in Deqing to summon souls.
Ji Zhaomei firmly denied that he had come to summon the soul. After being severely beaten, he was sent to his local home in Bao Zheng. Bao Zheng threatened to torture him if he didn't tell the truth. Finally, Ji Zhaomei, who was scarred, had to admit against her will that she really came to summon the soul and had killed two children with two paper spells (the names of the children were all made up by him).
Finally, Ji handed it over to Qiantang County. However, due to the defects in Ji's confession during the trial, the county official found that the so-called evocation was completely false and finally released him.
In the next few months, Wu Dongming's deputy Guo Tingxiu, Youfang monk Cheng Ju, beggar Qiu Yongnian, Jingzhuang monk and others were all involved in the so-called? Summon the soul? In the incident, the incident occurred mainly from Zhejiang Province to Jiangsu and Shandong. Anhui and other provinces spread.
Although these cases later proved that fighting was just catching shadows, the public panic spread to the whole country at the speed of explosion, and the sense of security of ordinary people was almost lost.
With the increasing number of such cases, the rumors about soul calling are gradually divorced from the original background? Deqing county, and after people's constant deduction, began to have a relatively independent story model. The * * * sexual elements of such stories mainly include:
It is generally believed that the soul can be separated from the body under certain conditions; If a person has mastered another person's soul, he can use it to seek specific interests for himself; Mastering other people's souls is achieved by casting spells (summoning souls). The methods of casting spells include reciting the physical objects on the victim (usually cut braids) or burying the victim's name on paper, and then reading the victim's name. People called souls will soon get sick or die.
Every stage of the spread of rumors seems to be full of uncontrollable. Summon the soul? The repeated appearance of braids in the story caused greater panic in the ruling authorities.
Political taboo of braid
For Ganlong, a minority, he is worried about more than just? Summon the soul? The social disorder caused by rumors also includes whether there is a bigger conspiracy behind this rumor? Anybody borrow it? Summon the soul? The frequent braid problem in the incident evokes the painful memories of the Han people, and then provokes ethnic conflicts? This is a problem that must be highly guarded against in fact, but it cannot be explained publicly in official language.
Summon the soul? At the time of the case, the Manchu rule had lasted for more than a hundred years, and the bloody haircut order became a distant memory, but this calm seemed to be suddenly broken by the rumors flying all over the sky. The braid problem has repeatedly become the center of public topic, which worries officials.
In the first few weeks when rumors spread, both Qianlong and local bureaucrats tended to treat the case as an ordinary criminal case, but with the increasing spread of rumors, the sensitive nerves hidden in the emperor's heart were finally touched.
He suspects that there may be a well-organized network behind this and manipulates the course of the incident. The ultimate goal is to provoke the hatred of the Han people by cutting braids so as to fish in troubled waters.
With the development of the situation, Ganlong finally became convinced of his own judgment. He decided to start the bureaucratic machine in an all-round way and launch a large-scale counterattack against the increasingly rampant witchcraft rumors.
Who made the rumor?
Fu hanni, governor of Shandong province, was the first person to report to the emperor? Summon the soul? The government official of the incident, did you get the case? Breakthrough? Progress also began with him.
In a letter to Gan Long at the end of July, Funihan reported that things had gone beyond the stage of simply spreading rumors, and some ignorant people were really tempted to try witchcraft.
In Shandong, a group of criminals engaged in braid activities were arrested, and the confessions of two beggars, Cai and Jin Guanzi, attracted his attention.
According to their confession, both of them were instructed to cut their braids. Their modus operandi is to throw ecstasy on the victim's face and cut off his braid in order to be used by others when the victim is unconscious.
It is said that a great magician who is proficient in magic can take a person's soul by saying a spell in the cut braid, and then tie the cut braid with soul essence to a paper horse, so that he can use them to obtain other people's property.
They heard that there is a monk in Zhejiang and Anhui provinces? Woyuan and Emerald? He is proficient in this kind of magic, and has recruited many disciples. His power is already quite great. Funihan reminded Gan Long that although witchcraft originated in Zhejiang and Anhui, it may have originated from the same source. These artists send their people everywhere to confuse people to cut their braids, perhaps not just for money.
Gan Long very much agrees with Funihan. On July 29th, he issued an urgent imperial edict to provincial governors, announcing that several criminals had been arrested in Shandong, but the mastermind behind the scenes was still at large. He ordered all localities to do their best to arrest those great craftsmen.
However, things didn't go as smoothly as expected. In mid-August, AG, Governor of Liangjiang, Zhang Bao, Governor of Jiangsu and Yongqing, Governor of Zhejiang, reported to Emperor Qianlong that according to the clues provided by Shandong, the great craftsman Wu Yuanhe Yu was not caught. Although Shandong has arrested many suspects, several provinces in the south of the Yangtze River, the birthplace of rumors, have found nothing.
Moreover, in the next few weeks, witchcraft activities spread to Zhili and Beijing, which finally made Qianlong intolerable to the whole bureaucracy and its performance.
On September 7, he sent an imperial edict to the governors of seven provinces, and finally linked braiding with sensitive hairstyles. At this time, these government officials finally understood the seriousness of the problem in the eyes of the emperor.
Therefore, no matter what happens, even for your own career, you must make a difference in this political movement. Capture? . Thus, in the next month or so, the whole of China became an unjust prison factory.
Under the guidance of the idea of "abolishing without being vertical", hundreds of people engaged in witchcraft activities were arrested in various provinces? Suspect? Some of these people were taken to Beijing, and some were sent to Chengde, where they were directly tried by emperors and military ministers who spent the summer.
However, the final result still disappointed the emperor himself. These arrested kings were either beaten to confession by local officials, framed by others, or engaged in braiding in ignorance, which has nothing to do with the suspected rebel network, but the legendary culprit? Still no news of the master.
By the end of 10, the three-month exorcism movement had exhausted the bureaucracy. Although on the surface, Gan Long himself still asks the provinces not to slack off, in fact, he also has doubts about whether he can finally catch the demon head.
The military affairs minister, who knew the emperor's psychology, took the opportunity to suggest stopping the exorcism farce, but in order to give the embarrassed emperor a step, the military affairs department blamed the delay in catching the principal offender on the negligence of local officials and perfunctory the court's orders.