Spirit Possession Skill

Lore & Background

The State of Qi had shamans who claimed to be possessed by gods, and they were criticized as heterodox by Confucians. Movements by shamans practicing spiritual possession often led peasant rebellions against the ruling dynasty during Chinese history. The Boxer Rebellion was one of many peasant movements led by shamans who claimed to be possessed by spirits. For the Boxers, spirit possession was used for protective purposes. Larry Clinton Thompson, in his book "William Scott Ament and the Boxer Rebellion: Heroism, Hubris and the 'Ideal Missionary'," describes the spirit possession practiced by Chinese boxers: "... whirling and twirling of swords, violent prostrations, and chanting incantations to Taoist and Buddhist spirits. When the spirit possession had been achieved, the boxers would obtain invulnerability and superhuman skills with swords and lance." Spiritual possession practitioners during the Boxer Rebellion and 20th century warfare claimed that once these incantations were chanted, Chinese deities would descend to offer protection, so that cannon fire or gunshots would not harm the human body.

In Their Own Story

Practices of spirit possession varied among Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist tradition, and the three sects of belief were closely tied to Chinese societal hierarchy. Daoist priests and Buddhist monks who carried out possession rituals were at the top of the hierarchy, followed by a growing group of independent religious and ritual specialists such as lay Daoist exorcists (fashi) and Esoteric Buddhist monks. At the bottom were village spirit-mediums and rural practitioners. Spirit possession was, as Edward Davis puts it, "necessarily a social experience." Denoted by Song dynasty writers as "pingfu," it focuses on the experience of possession of a mortal body by ghosts, gods, or ancestors. In contrast to shamanism, the body or the self is not able to communicate with the entity that is possessing the body. The Yijian Zhi by Hong Mai of the Southern Song dynasty contains almost two hundred accounts of spirit possession. The three main types of accounts included were of 1. village spirit mediums who were possessed by earthly spirits, 2. Child-mediums, employed by Daoist priests and Buddhist monks as a means of exorcism for the possessed, and 3. Funeral rites where relatives could be possessed by the deceased as a form of communication. There were also accounts of non-ritualized possession, where spirits were believed to take over a body and was treated as an illness.

Reader's Guide

Particularly active in the Jiangsu region during the Song Dynasty, the employment of young boys in ritual exorcist practices was common. One account from Hong Mai's Yijian Zhi is the "Rites of the Three Altars." The ritual employs child mediums to identify and deal with malevolent spirits. In one instance, three boys are called upon to identify a water demon. The boys fall into a trance, during which they locate and capture the demon in the form of a large turtle. Another account, "At the Home of an Extended Confucian Family in Zhejiang," documents the young nephew of a possessed woman being summoned to aid with the exorcism. The exorcist Zhao Shandao burned incense, danced the yubu, and asked the children to search for demonic images in the smoke. The nephew identified the spirit to be from a corpse in the village, which consequently was instructed to be burned. He witnessed the descent of a Daoist priest who gave him instructions on how to heal the woman. In contemporary practice, spirit possession in China today is much more subdued. In Wenzhou, most shamans are women and operate in their own homes because the practices are banned at temples. At the national or urban level, shamans could be fined, or even taken to jail if found practicing in public. In Yueqing City, it was documented that village party leaders entered a contract with a shamaness where she would become possessed and communicate on behalf of people in the village. In exchange for letting her practice in the temple, she would give the equivalent of $75,000 USD to the local government out of her lucrative earnings.

Did You Know?

• The Yijian Zhi by Hong Mai of the Southern Song dynasty contains almost two hundred accounts of spirit possession.
• During the Boxer Rebellion, boxers claimed that once incantations were chanted, Chinese deities would descend to offer protection so that cannon fire or gunshots would not harm the human body.
• In Wenzhou, most shamans are women and operate in their own homes because the practices are banned at temples.
• In Yueqing City, a shamaness gave the equivalent of $75,000 USD to the local government out of her lucrative earnings in exchange for permission to practice in a temple.
• A 1993 study of 100 Chinese psychiatric patients found that belief in spirit possession was not related to education status, and more women than men believed in spirit possession.