Soulstealers: The Chinese Sorcery Scare of 1768 by Philip A. KuhnMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I expected this to be a book on a very esoteric subject, which it was, but it was interesting to read how it tied into the Qing dynasty (during the reign of Qianlong) and everything going on during that time, from the economy in general, to the poorest strata of society, up to the very top (the emperor himself).
Anyway, this is a great overview of how court cases were dealt with, how confessions under torture worked, how bureaucracy worked during this time, how the emperor dealt with his subordinates, as well as how the sorcery scare happened and progressed. Very interesting to see what perfect targets itinerant buddhist and taoist monks were, since they were anti-confucian (leaving their family and not having children), were outsiders, and were "well-versed" in sorcery and spells. The emperor ended up taken it very seriously, since one of the acts they were accused of doing was cutting off peoples' queues, which could be seen as subversive to the Manchu dynasty and an act of rebellion.
All in all a very thorough look into an interesting time of the Qing dynasty. I agree with the reviewer who said it seems inspired by Jonathan Spence (or something like that. I can't find the review anymore). It's in the same vein, trying to make serious, scholarly work more interesting to the general public.
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