Revealing Secrets: Talismanic Healing and Print Culture in the Late Qing and Republican China

Abstract

From the Sui to the Qing dynasties (581-1644), talismans formed an imperially-sponsored medical discipline, after which they were permanently forsaken by the court. However, despite subsequent condemnation by institutions and certain elites, talismanic healing continued to enjoy enormous popularity throughout Chinese society until the first half of the twentieth century. This can be attested, for example, by the unprecedented wave of cheap almanacs and manuals of talismanic healing produced in China between the 1870s and 1940s. Created by the combination of Chinese characters and symbols, talismans are written on paper, body parts, or particular objects for both healing and apotropaic purposes. To be effective, talismans should be written in proper fashion by qualified individuals and accompanied by spoken spells and secret incantations. It should be noted, however, that talismanic healing was traditionally considered a secret art transmitted through master-disciple relationships, divine inspiration, or the study of esoteric manuscripts. Within the context of China’s search for modernity, I will examine the impact that these printed texts had on the everyday practice of talismanic healers in Republican China, as they made secret knowledge public. Analyzing these printed texts as textual knowledge, material artifacts, and social practice, I will investigate their context of production, their relationship with manuscript culture, and how their advent changed the learning, practice, and transmission of talismanic healing knowledge in twentieth-century China. In sum, my presentation is driven by three main questions: 1. What were the causes and impact of the sudden mass production of almanacs, printed handbooks, and cheap manuals of talismanic healing in late nineteenth- and mid-twentieth century China? What happens with the living quality and efficacy of a talisman when it is printed? How does a print culture approach to talismanic texts help us better understand the healthcare market of Republican China?