12/29/2015
Came across this incredible story on a China News Program, allegedly happened circa the Qing Dynasty in the Zhejiang, De Qing Province.
 |
| Source: Emperor Epochtimes |
During the 33rd year reign of Emperor Qianlong, official imperial historical records had revealed a strange tale of the "Summon spirit technique (摄魂术)" which had taken our late ancestors' society by storm.
Nestled in the Forbidden City, disturbing reports had been submitted by local officials in the ZheJiang Province Emperor Qianlong. Apparently a criminal investigation was started to examine an occurrence of the "Summon spirit technique".
In a separate but relating report, disarming news emerged that many spiritual mediums had been going around cutting off the pigtails of the peasants!
The Emperor was deeply shaken! Cutting off the pigtails is no laughing matter! For a patriarchal society then, Chinese men were considered prized units of the ancient China society and there was a strict code of governance especially for them.
 |
| Source: Nan@tumblr |
One of citizen codes would include the donning of Pigtails, this was a cultural tradition imposed during the reign of Emperor Shun Zi. In order to unite all citizens during Qing Dynasty i.e. both the Han and Manchurian people must have the signature look of pigtails as a pledge of acceptance and loyalty to the current Qing Emperor and his absolute rule.
In the report submitted to the Emperor: A skilled builder by the name of Mr Wu had been approached by a stranger while constructing a stone bridge. This stranger had requested Mr Wu to place a "Summoning Spirit Tailsman Package" - a piece of paper bearing his enemy's birth year, month, day, hour and also some hair behind one of the bricks. Mr Wu learnt that the enemy had cheated money from the stranger so he wanted revenge.
 |
| Source: Chinascenic |
However Mr Wu was a very stand-up guy and he rejected the stranger to do so. In fact he had decided to stop this malicious practice by making a case with the local magistrate who reported this event to Emperor Qianlong.
Bad news always travel faster than good news, during the half year after this first case of Mr Wu, almost every major city in China started to report of the strange events of monks and spiritual people running around to cut off people's pigtails!
For the local people, apparently there was a tradition for the placement of a red paper bearing the hair, names and birthdays of a few healthy men behind a brick during construction of a structure e.g. a bridge. In the past, without technology and heavy machinery, it was difficult for ancient people to lay the foundation deep into the ground. So somewhere and somehow, someone came up with this "method" to "harness" the soul or energy of a few more men's whose names are placed behind one of the bricks in the structure.
However humans are complicated creatures, slowly this seemingly innocent way of life had mutated to become one of malicious intent, hence the famous "summon spirit technique" as a way of cursing someone.
 |
摄魂术 |
But is the summoning spirit technique real or is it one of another superstitious and amazing tale of the past?
To lend weight for authenticity, according to the news report this record had been first documented in imperial records of Qing Dynasty. Once again according to the source, if something was entered in the government official records then surely it was an actual event that had happened right?
The incredible tale did not stop here.
In the 1990s, an American Historian had came across a entry belonging to a western missionary who was alive in the Qing Dynasty and this entry carried details of the entire account ..... yes of a curious, bizzare and amazing case about the cursed spirit technique which had happened in ancient Hu Bei (about 560 KM away from Zhejiang).
 |
| China |
In this account, there was also a Scholar Wu whom, the missionary noted had previously offended a spiritual medium by openly and explicitly mocking him.
The medium was furious and proceeded to use the same technique on Scholar Wu.
Immediately that night while Scholar Wu was half asleep he was awakened by the howling of wind outside his chambers, like a million dogs crying at the same time. Suddenly the window was blown wide opened by an errie gust of wind and according to the historical records by the Western Scholar, demonic-liked entities appeared!
 |
灵异 |
Scholar Wu forced himself to calm down. Being familiar with I-Ching, the story went on for him to "disperse" and fought off the demonic-liked entities with the Yin Yang Ba Gua (Eight trigrams) symbol in his I-Ching book. The demons lost the battle and transformed into paper figurines.
If you are a man of science, it is a popular knowledge that supernatural phenomenon had been associated with abnormal ESP reading (energy). From the I-Ching, we also read that our world is composed of the 5 elemental energies and it all originated from the Yin Yang Ba Gua so the symbol served as a master reset button of sorts.
So Scholar Wu picked up his "weapon" his I-Ching book and fought the demons who lost and transformed into paper figurines instead.
This happened for 2 nights in a row. In the morning of the 3rd day, Scholar Wu supposedly received an unknown elderly lady who came to his house and pleaded for him to spare the lives of her family.
The elderly lady told him the bewildered tale of what her husband (the spiritual medium) and her sons had done. In the purpose of seeking revenge, the spiritual medium and his sons had somehow sacrificed their own souls and their bodies are all lying at home now, motionless because Scholar Wu had kept the "paper figurines" after the fight.
The record by the western missionary went on to say that out of compassion, Scholar Wu released the smallest paper figurines - bearing the soul of her youngest son in order for their family to carry on the bloodline.
But he kept and burnt the rest of the figurines, as Scholar Wu was determined to punish this act of gross immorality. The ancient incredible story ended with the only youngest son woke up from his deep sleep while the rest of the bodies of her husband and two oldest son were buried.
Yeap. Total bullshit. It is not illogical for anyone to feel the same way.
However shockingly and this case recorded by the western missionary was independently verified by the well and alive descendants from the families of both Scholar Wu and the spiritual medium. Allegedly, both families were aware of this curious case which had happened to their ancestors a couple of hundred years ago during the time of Emperor Qianlong! You can even find this book bearing this account in Amazon if you are interested.
I am not entirely convinced by this account as a search on google had also revealed a few different versions of the "summon spirit technique."
However for me, this story suggested that the symbol of Ba Qua was somehow effective in dispersing a concentration of energy - aka apparitions and demons.
The Yin Yang symbol is always introduced in our Chinese metaphysics class as the originator of all the 相 in the world.
As a student of Chinese metaphysics, I will explore if the Ba Qua is more effective than the 6 metal coins to cure flying stars 2 and 5.
