Wu Chengwang: The Anti-Witchcraft Movement and Rural Social Transformation in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region
Following the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Communist Party of China (CPC), in order to build stable revolutionary base areas [1] and achieve a greater degree of social mobilization, found it necessary to transform rural society. This involved embedding the ideals of the new society into the hearts of every individual in the countryside, prompting peasants to move out of the private space of the family and toward the public space of rural society, thereby ending the state of "insulation" between the masses of the Border Region [2] and politics or revolution. As remnants of the old society, sorcerers and spirit mediums (wushen) had long been worshipped in the folk culture of Northern Shaanxi. They extracted vast amounts of wealth, threatened the stability of the Border Region regime, functioned as "parasites" of rural society, and acted as "stumbling blocks" to the CPC's efforts in rural transformation and social mobilization. Therefore, to reverse the social atmosphere of the countryside, win the hearts and minds of the people, and better organize the masses, the opposition to and transformation of sorcerers became an inevitable issue for the CPC.
In recent years, research on the anti-sorcery movement has yielded considerable results; however, there remains room for discussion regarding the internal relationship between the anti-sorcery movement and rural social transformation. Consequently, this article uses reports on the anti-sorcery movement in the Liberation Daily (Jiefang Ribao) [3] as its primary source material. It seeks to delve into the historical depths of rural society in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region to explore in detail the origins, paths, and effects of the anti-sorcery movement. By doing so, it demonstrates how, amidst the binary confrontation between tradition and modernity, the CPC permeated the "nerve endings" of rural governance with revolutionary ideology and projected it onto the psychological foundations of the general public. This, in turn, facilitated the Party’s downward reach of power [4] and the reshaping of rural society in the Border Region on a broader scale.
I. The Origins of the Anti-Sorcery Movement in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region
Since ancient times, China has had a tradition of "Wu" (shamanic/sorcerous) culture. This culture is built upon the concept of animism—that "all things have spirits"—and utilizes groups such as sorcerers and mediums to help people achieve certain desires through "supernatural powers" (so-called sorcery). In practice, the sorcerer links gods and humans through sorcery and, via "mythological stories and subjective conjecture, constructs a paradigm for explaining the world, becoming to a certain extent a manipulator of the conceptual world." The Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region categorized sorcerers into seven main types: divine officials (shenguan), female mediums (shīpó), sorcerers (wūshén), ritual masters (fǎshī), dream immortals (mèngxiān), "send-offs" (qiánsòng), and "horse legs" (mǎjiǎo). "Horse legs" generally acted as mouths for divine oracles at temple fairs, while the others basically used deceptive methods to exorcise ghosts and treat illnesses. The tools they used and the nature of their practices varied; generally, the divine officials used goatskin drums, the sorcerers used "three-mountain knives," the female mediums used kitchen knives, and the "send-offs" used rice bowls and incense charts. It is evident that "wushen" can be defined in both narrow and broad senses. In the broad sense, it included not only yinyang masters who read feng shui, but also old-style traditional midwives. In the narrow sense, sorcerers used ghosts and gods as a pretext to dispel disasters and treat illnesses for the purpose of defrauding people of money, while they themselves were completely ignorant of medical knowledge. Given the wide scope of the broad concept, the author primarily focuses on the narrow concept: sorcerers who used "sorcery" to exorcise ghosts and pray for the cure of diseases.
(1) The Masses' Pursuit and Worship of Sorcerers in the Border Region
Sorcerer forces were extremely rampant in the Border Region. According to statistics, there were more than 2,000 sorcerers throughout the region, far outnumbering those engaged in medical and health work. As "preachers" who helped the masses subdue demons and save lives, these sorcerers enjoyed long-standing popularity and worship among the Border Region masses.
First, long-term poverty and famine caused the masses to place their hopes in tales of ghosts and gods. The Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region was then "the poorest, most backward, and most sparsely populated region in China." Due to the harsh geographical environment and constant warfare, disasters and famines in Northern Shaanxi were severe. According to statistics, "during the Great Famine from 1928 to 1933, hundreds of thousands of people starved to death in Shaanxi province alone. In 1929, the China International Famine Relief Commission estimated that two consecutive years of famine caused 2.5 million deaths, nearly one-third of the total population of Shaanxi; thousands of women and children were sold into slavery." Facing such a world, many Northern Shaanxi people believed that only by relying on ghosts and gods could they be rescued from suffering. Sorcerers, acting as intermediaries between humans and gods, could use "sorcery" to help them "cure illnesses and save people" or avoid disasters. Engels pointed out: "When people despair of physical salvation, they seek instead salvation of the soul—that is, they seek ideological consolation to avoid falling into total despair." Therefore, in essence, the worship of sorcerers and belief in deities implied an escape from the difficulties of reality and a yearning for a better life. Thus, when faced with fear, the unknown, and terrifying events, the traditional "animism" deeply influenced the Border Region masses, leading them to seek help from sorcerers who falsely claimed to possess "divine power."
Second, the long-term state of disorder in Northern Shaanxi provided an opportunity for sorcerers. The Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia area was situated at the junction of three provinces, where the scourges of bandits and warlords were severe. To support the needs of warlord infighting at the time, military taxation throughout Shaanxi reached its maximum capacity. The famous "Local Emperor" warlord of Northern Shaanxi, Jing Yuexiu, levied over forty different types of exorbitant taxes and levies, forcing poor peasants to become bandits or join the army. Some of these individuals picked up bad habits during the periods of chaotic fighting; even after becoming unemployed, these vices persisted, making them a significant source of "idlers" (erliuzi) [5] and sorcerers in the Border Region. Li Wenxiu recalled at the time: "I became an idler because of the habits I formed while serving in the old army. Back then, soldering was very loose; you could extort a lot of money from the common people just by heading out once. Money came easily, and I just turned bad."
Finally, the unhygienic habits of the masses, their lack of scientific knowledge, and the backwardness of medicine and health services were the practical reasons for the public's worship of sorcerers. Ignorance often breeds superstition, and the backwardness of the Border Region masses resulted in a lack of necessary medical and health common sense. According to statistics, the illiteracy rate in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia area reached 99%. Regarding school education, aside from the towns, one could not find a single school within dozens of miles in the scattered rural areas; children of the poor had no way to enroll. Cultural facilities were scarce, and the people lacked a cultural life. Because of the lack of cultural knowledge, the common people "knew nothing of hygiene or medicine except for dancing for sorcerers and worshipping Buddha." The masses retained many phenomena and habits of feudal superstition and poor hygiene, such as not bathing, not washing their faces, not changing clothes frequently, and not seeking a doctor when ill, but instead praying to gods and Buddha for protection. Consequently, although the birth rate was not low, the mortality rate was very high.
Simultaneously, the predicament of lacking doctors and medicine in the Border Region forced some people who wished for hospital treatment to turn to gods and sorcerers. "In the West First District of Zichan, medicine is scarce, there are no pharmacies, and it is not easy to find a good doctor. When people get sick, they must travel dozens of miles to Washi for medical help, which often delays treatment. Poorer families cannot afford the expense and have no choice but to find a sorcerer." The common people did not necessarily believe in sorcerers, but when someone was sick, there was no other way and no doctor to be found. Even if a doctor could be found, there were no pharmacies, so they had to invite divine officials and sorcerers, blindly believing that "spending money can dispel disaster." Although some knew sorcerers could not cure illnesses, in their desperation (illness leads to frantic seeking of any doctor), they felt compelled to entrust and believe in them. Sorcerers used such opportunities to intervene, parasitically living off the folk worship and becoming rats "specializing in eating the blood of peasants."
(2) Sorcerers’ Extraction and Control of Rural Resources
After the CPC Central Committee arrived in Northern Shaanxi, figuring out how to lift peasants out of poverty to support wartime mobilization became a vital measure for the social revolution. Mao Zedong remarked: "Our work is first war, second production, and third culture." Understandably, under the task of everything serving the war, sorcerers extracted and controlled a large amount of resources in rural society, causing significant damage to the construction of the CPC's base areas and wartime mobilization.
First, sorcerers seized a vast amount of wealth from the Border Region masses. Under the grim context of the War of Resistance, the masses' superstition regarding sorcerers wasted large sums of money, placing a huge fiscal burden on the Border Region. When the Sanbian Sub-region [6] calculated the expenses on sorcerers, it mentioned: "The annual superstitious spending of the people in the whole sub-region exceeds 20 million [yuan]; the 300 yinyang masters and sorcerers in the sub-region defraud the masses of 6 million a year, and the masses spend 7 million on burning incense, ritual paper, and oil for honoring gods." Simultaneously, sorcerers seriously restricted the production efficiency of the Border Region. In particular, some sorcerers believed that their non-participation in production—or their delaying of others' production—would not affect their own interests. Driven by this mentality, many sorcerers thought: "Reclamation work is so boring; no matter how they try to make me join production labor happily, I don't need to participate. As long as people still believe in my exorcisms, I can live well."
Second, sorcerers colluded with reactionary organizations, eroding the masses' enthusiasm for resisting Japan. Because of their special status in the folk community, sorcerers easily won the respect and worship of the masses, making them constant targets for recruitment by bandits and other organizations. Furthermore, like "idlers," sorcerers lacked firm political and ideological stances; they were mercenary—whoever fed them was their master—and were easily exploited by saboteurs. "Some joined bandit organizations, others joined traitor and spy organizations, and some became the frequent tools of traitors and spies." Once these sorcerers joined these reactionary organizations, they used their influence to promote feudal superstition and ghost-and-god ideology, slandering and vilifying the CPC and the Eighth Route Army, leading a significant portion of the masses to be utilized by reactionary forces.
(3) Sorcerers are Absolutely Incompatible with New Democratic Society
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance, Mao Zedong pointed out in On New Democracy: "In this new society and new state, there will be not only a new politics and a new economy, but also a new culture." "This New Democratic culture is scientific. It is opposed to all feudal and superstitious ideas, and it stands for seeking truth from facts, for objective truth and for the unity of theory and practice." The scientific nature of New Democratic culture required changing the masses' superstition regarding spirits, transforming the large group of sorcerers in the Border Region, and thereby reshaping the structure of rural society, gradually shaking off the shackles of "theocratic power" [7] over the masses and dissolving their dependence on it. Therefore, at the beginning of the anti-sorcery movement, an editorial in the Liberation Daily clearly stated: "Sorcerers are incompatible with a New Democratic society; in a New Democratic society, the public or secret existence of the profession of sorcery cannot be permitted." Specifically, this incompatibility manifested in two aspects:
First, sorcerers caused the gradual deterioration of the social atmosphere in the countryside. As a group practiced in superstitious professions, they itself—like superstition—endangered the construction of the new society in the Border Region. Mao Zedong once listed superstition, illiteracy, and poor hygiene as the "three great evils" of the Border Region. Sorcerers, who made a living and fortune from superstition, continuously corrupted the social atmosphere, creating an environment where "superstition prevails," harming over 1.5 million people in the Border Region. In fact, many sorcerers knew that superstition was a scourge of the old society, but driven by profit, they stood in confrontation with the nascent regime of the Border Region. At a struggle meeting [8] against sorcerers, 59 sorcerers signed a joint letter to the masses saying: "Superstition is an evil left to us by the old society. Back then we did not engage in production and were idle; seeing that sorcerers could make money by deceiving people, we used the name of gods and ghosts to make a living." This shows that superstition, as a backward and dross culture, used sorcerers as a carrier to continuously accumulate and amplify its harms, radiating them to larger areas. This caused superstition to prevail throughout the base area, making it difficult for scientific and revolutionary concepts to truly take root in the hearts of the people.
Second, witch-mediums [9] interfered with the border region’s populace’s perception of the new society. When individuals perceive and receive information, they not only utilize existing knowledge systems to understand the world, but are also constantly shaped by changes in the external environment. As a "foul" remnant of the old society, witch-mediums possessed a deep social base. When new revolutionary cognitions attempted to penetrate the people’s conceptual world, these mediums used superstitious theology to continuously displace revolutionary ideas and consolidate traditional perceptions in the hearts of the masses, causing many to suffer deeply. "When the government launched hygiene campaigns, some witch-mediums spread rumors about Western medicine, publicly declaring: ‘The needles used by Western doctors are over two feet long; they poke them into your leg and they come out through your stomach.’ They also threatened the public, saying: ‘If any of you report to the government that I am a witch-medium, I will make nine out of ten members of your family die—try me if you don’t believe it.’ Consequently, the general public did not dare participate in the anti-witch-medium movement." Once such perceptions spread through the border region society, they not only created significant resistance to border region construction, but also led many people to join the ranks of the witch-mediums. "Shi Zhengcai was originally a middle peasant who did not need to rely on being a witch-medium to make a living. Later, because his child went blind and he could not find a doctor or medicine, a witch-medium took the opportunity to terrorize him, saying: ‘A White Snake Spirit has come to your house to take a substitute; if you don’t act as its substitute, your whole family will know no peace.’ Shi Zhengcai was terrified and became a witch-medium himself."
In short, within the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, witch-mediums were not only members of rural society but also the concentrated embodiment of superstition and backwardness. They competed with the CPC for the common people in the realms of ideology, economy, and hygiene, extracting vast resources from rural society and obstructing the CPC’s process of rural social transformation. Therefore, to build a stable anti-Japanese base area and strengthen the CPC’s capacity for rural governance and resource extraction, the Party had to criticize and rectify the witch-mediums, gradually dissolving their influence among the people.
II. The Anti-Witch-Medium Movement in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region
Under the harsh social environment of the War of Resistance, implementing effective governance and transformation of witch-mediums was by no means easy. When the ideological consciousness [10] of the masses had not yet been raised, purely administrative measures often backfired and provoked public resentment. Therefore, the Party and government of the border region integrated local realities, using ideological propaganda and "medical encirclement and suppression" [11] as focal points. By launching ideological education, constructing spaces for information flow, and seizing the discourse of rural medicine, they caused the witch-mediums to gradually lose the foundations upon which they survived.
(1) Launching Ideological Education
By launching ideological education and actively spreading scientific knowledge, the CPC shook the ideological foundations of the witch-mediums’ existence. Mao Zedong emphasized: "If we want the common people not to worship gods, there must be the development and popularization of science; if science is not developed and popularized, worshiping gods is entirely necessary for them." The Party and government used the popularization of science and the development of scientific concepts to disseminate basic scientific knowledge into civil society, replacing the backward superstitious thoughts and feudal "loathsome habits" [12] in the minds of the masses with scientific, correct, and new ideologies and ideas.
First, the border region held a series of specialized scientific reports and popular lectures. According to statistics, in the year from April 1941 to April 1942, the Natural Science Research Association organized over 30 important reports, and various professional societies held more than 100 sessions. On September 21, 1941, a solar eclipse occurred in Yan'an; the Natural Science Research Association used this opportunity to conduct a popular lecture on the science of eclipses, using facts to educate the masses and debunking popular superstitious theories such as "the Heavenly Dog eating the sun." The authorities also used the personal experiences of the masses to convert them to scientific knowledge. For example, after explaining the principles of the sky and earth, wind, rain, thunder, and lightning, as well as how to plant crops, farmers not only improved their farming methods but also naturally realized that the so-called "Dragon King" or "Goddess of the Wind" were fakes. After the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art, movements for the popularization of science and the "sending of literature and art to the countryside" were widely implemented. Large quantities of books and propaganda materials were used to promote science and hygiene. Statistics show that between 1942 and 1944, Yan'an scientific and technological workers published 78,200 copies of medical and hygiene readers and propaganda materials, such as Auntie Wang Raises a Fat Baby.
Second, the border region advanced scientific education through school systems. An editorial in the People’s Daily [13] emphasized: "Spread the most basic knowledge among the people... Not only among the general public, but even among general cadres, there is an extreme lack of natural science knowledge. To popularize scientific knowledge, more scientific lectures should be organized, and elementary and intermediate natural science readers should be written." The Central Party School, the Institute of Marxism-Leninism, and the Lu Xun Academy of Arts (Lu Yi) specifically established courses related to natural science. The Central Party School, in particular, improved the scientific outlook of leading cadres at all levels by offering these courses, providing the conditions for them to implement the downward transmission of New Democratic culture. Many students (including numerous cadres) not only increased their scientific knowledge but also promoted the further dissemination of scientific concepts. After graduation, they took advanced scientific concepts deep into the villages to carry out the struggle against rural dregs, superstition, and witch-mediums.
Finally, the border region continuously improved the theoretical level of cadres and the masses through various Marxist study movements. The most powerful and effective critique of "theism" in the border region was the adherence to the positions of dialectical materialism and historical materialism. By carrying out Marxist study movements and the Yan'an Rectification Movement, the border region built scientific concepts of materialism in the minds of cadres and the masses while raising their theoretical level, thereby expelling existing superstitious thoughts.
(2) Constructing Spaces for Information Flow
The launch of ideological education initially shook the foundations of the witch-mediums at the intellectual level. However, to make the masses throughout the border region understand the facts of how witch-mediums deceived and harmed people and to extend the movement's influence, it was necessary to rely on specific spaces for information flow. Lenin believed: "Marxists should provide the people with all kinds of atheistic propaganda materials, tell them facts from all aspects of actual life, approach them in various ways, and pique their interest." It was in the process of disseminating these materials that a unique space for information flow gradually emerged in the rural society of the border region. This space used newspapers as the medium and rural interpersonal networks as links, creating a bidirectional information transmission model of "newspaper—audience" and "interpersonal communication—audience." Consequently, information about the anti-witch-medium movement reached every household and integrated into every corner of the countryside.
Newspapers played an important role in introducing and disseminating the anti-witch-medium movement. In the border region, newspapers were not only important theoretical and propaganda fronts for the Party, but also vital carriers for reflecting rural social life and guiding various construction efforts. Newspapers had long undertaken an important information dissemination function and were viewed by the Party as effective tools for eliminating illiteracy and "changing customs and habits" [14]. "Our newspapers should strive to help Party members and the masses remove the backward states left behind by the pre-revolutionary old system: illiteracy, superstition, and lack of hygiene." After the anti-witch-medium movement began, the border region’s 解放日报 (Jie Fang Ri Bao / Liberation Daily) published a large number of reports on witch-mediums deceiving and harming people (table omitted).
As seen from the above table, to inform the masses of the witch-mediums’ deceptions, Liberation Daily published numerous reports; according to the author’s incomplete statistics, there were nearly 100 such reports. In terms of timing, they were concentrated between February and October 1944. As a powerful weapon for leafleting, organizing the masses, and pushing work forward, the newspaper played a vital role as a mouthpiece in communicating the border region’s policies. Many people only recognized the reality of witch-medium deception after reading these reports. However, the problem was that the illiteracy rate in the border region was over 95%. How could the masses truly understand the specific details of these harms to change their social outlook? This actually illustrates that a one-dimensional, linear "newspaper—audience" transmission path was somewhat decoupled from the revolutionary goals required by the CPC.
The Party and government of the border region were indeed aware of this phenomenon. At the 1944 Culture and Education Conference, Li Zhuoran, Director of the Propaganda Department, summarized: "Over 90% of the common people and the majority of rural cadres are still illiterate and cannot read newspapers, so the connection between the newspaper and the masses is insufficient. The 'Mass Newspaper-Reading Groups,' blackboard newspapers, and worker-peasant correspondents discussed at this conference are intended to solve this problem." To correct the disconnection between news reporting and reality, newspaper-reading groups and blackboard newspapers were gradually integrated with rural social networks, relying on interpersonal networks to achieve a second wave of information dissemination. In fact, interpersonal network transmission systems possess significant value in traditional Chinese agrarian society. Various discourses in the countryside can continuously spread outward through interpersonal networks, breaking through the existing shackles of the border region's cultural barriers, allowing the masses to access information to the greatest extent possible, and ultimately forming a unique arena of folk public opinion.
Taking newspaper-reading groups as an example, through the "reading" of the reader and the "listening" of the audience, these groups effectively realized knowledge sharing and mass interaction. Generally, a newspaper-reading group consisted of three key elements: the newspaper, the reader, and the listeners. During the anti-witch-medium movement, the groups had to select reports from Liberation Daily regarding the harms of witch-mediums, while the readers also had to exercise autonomy—choosing the time, place, and content—to conduct readings based on local realities. The reader and the listener also needed to establish a good emotional interactive relationship so that the audience could both understand and remain interested.
Furthermore, members of the newspaper-reading groups utilized their interpersonal relationships to facilitate multiple transmissions of information, thereby helping more of the masses accept new revolutionary concepts. Rural society is a "society of acquaintances" (shuren shehui). In such a society, a very important method is the supervision and moral condemnation of acquaintances. A party involved in misconduct, and their family, will often suffer varying degrees of condemnation, discrimination, and contempt from acquaintances. During the anti-witch-medium movement, reading groups utilized this characteristic of acquaintance-based society to mobilize the families and relatives of witch-mediums to persuade them to reform.
(3) Seizing the Discourse of Rural Medicine
The anti-witch-medium movement in the border region required not only the impact of scientific concepts and the construction of information flow spaces, but also a substantive "encirclement and suppression" of the witch-mediums. Since witch-mediums often gained broad support from the masses by "treating illnesses and saving lives," the border region government had to strike at their source of livelihood, advance a rural medical revolution, and ultimately seize the discourse of rural medicine to deprive the witch-mediums of their survival field.
The struggle between doctors and witch-mediums had a long history, but due to high costs, the extreme dispersion of health personnel, and the fact that many practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) lacked scientific pharmacology, the results of governance were often unsatisfactory, leaving doctors at a disadvantage. Worse still, "some remote villages didn't even have TCM practitioners; the common people had no habit of seeking early treatment when sick, only looking for help when the illness became severe, sometimes seeking out witch-mediums to perform dances to exorcise ghosts, wasting much money and losing their lives." The masses longed for a large number of doctors to go to the countryside to solve the dilemma of "possessing wealth but lacking healthy people" (cai wang ren bu wang). As the border region’s economy and politics stabilized, and under the advocacy of the hygiene movement, large numbers of medical workers went to the countryside to treat patients and save lives, clearing out many witch-mediums.
Investigating the logic behind doctors going to the countryside to displace witch-mediums, it is not difficult to find that medical costs, medical efficacy, and cooperation between Chinese and Western medicine were the important foundations for the masses' faith in doctors. First, health agencies and public hospitals at all levels in the border region gradually implemented free medical care, greatly alleviating the masses' difficulty in "seeing a doctor." Previously, although there were many TCM practitioners in the border region, their prices were exorbitant and unaffordable for many; mostly only wealthy political and business figures had the conditions to seek medical treatment, while many poor peasants were forced to find witch-mediums. After the CPC arrived in Northern Shaanxi, although this situation improved significantly, it remained common in remote villages. When the Yan'an Cultural and Educational Work Group conducted rural research, they found many families sought medical help indiscriminately, with some spending vast sums—a single dose of Chinese herbal medicine costing 12,000 yuan.
Addressing the issue of expensive medical fees, Fu Lianzhang proposed at a health administration meeting: "Providing medical care to the common people and handling rural hygiene unconditionally is the task of every health unit." For example, the Longdong Sub-region Hospital, from its establishment in the second half of last year to the present, has waived a total of 440,000 yuan in medical fees for the masses. After the majority of medical diagnoses became free, the number of people going to the hospital for treatment continued to increase. Many of the masses, after receiving free treatment, expressed gratitude to the border region government and the hospitals. For example, after Zhang Shengliang’s son was cured by medicine, he appealed at a mass meeting: "The government doctors don't want money, and they even gave their own blood to the child to save his life. Only the Eighth Route Army has such doctors. In the future, if you get sick, don't invite witch-mediums again; it costs money and doesn't work."
Second, medicinal efficacy is the key factor in determining the masses' choices. Generally speaking, curative effect tends to occupy the primary position in the choices made by the people. When doctors go to the countryside to struggle against sorcerers, they must inevitably make "efficacy" their primary selling point. "In the Fengfu District of Yan County, two women fell ill; one was treated to death by a sorcerer, while the other was cured by a doctor. Since then, the masses in that village no longer invite sorcerers to treat illnesses." However, it must also be recognized that, for the masses, medicine and sorcery do not initially appear different; they believe in whichever has the better utility. Efficacy becomes their practical standard of judgment. For example, when seeking medical treatment at temple fairs [15], although some people were exhorted not to be superstitious, many still burned incense with one hand while requesting a local doctor to diagnose their illness with the other. Therefore, doctors in the Border Region should focus on improving medicinal efficacy while simultaneously organizing and conducting mass medical education to deepen the connection and interaction with the people, truly bringing medical and healthcare work to the grassroots.
Third, develop cooperation between Chinese and Western medicine to oppose sorcerers, promote epidemic prevention and hygiene, and ensure "a flourishing of both people and wealth." If the Border Region wishes to compress the living space of sorcerers, it must develop cooperation between Chinese and Western medicine. On the basis of "making Chinese medicine scientific and Sinicizing Western medicine," the region must further transform sorcerers and promote epidemic prevention and hygiene. To implement the policy of close cooperation between Chinese and Western medicine to strike down sorcerers, and while adhering to the principle of "private management with public assistance" [16], the Border Region established health cooperatives and midwifery training classes. Many Chinese and Western medical practitioners used these as platforms to regularly visit the countryside to treat the masses, publicizing common hygiene knowledge and opposing superstition. Simultaneously, the Border Region trained a large number of Chinese and Western medical and health cadres, striving to establish a rural medical clinic in every township. As noted: "Ansai once held a symposium for Chinese practitioners and sorcerers. At that time, the masses said: 'In the past we believed in sorcerers because we had no other way; one must always do what is humanly possible [17], and only then do we believe in ghosts and gods. In the future, if it is truly possible to have one medical clinic per township, who would still believe in gods and ghosts! This task must undoubtedly be borne by the cooperation of Chinese and Western medicine.'"
In short, through the health movement, the Border Region set off a medical revolution in rural society. This not only changed the hygiene habits of the masses and popularized and perfected relevant medical personnel and facilities, but it also used the health movement to launch a further encirclement and suppression of sorcerers. In the gamble between medicine and sorcery, sorcerers were widely questioned by the masses, who gradually established a faith in medicine and doctors.
III. The Anti-Sorcerer Movement in the Border Region and the Reshaping of Rural Society
In the practical operation of the anti-sorcerer movement in the Border Region, the Communist Party of China (CPC) consistently integrated the movement into the transformation of rural society—reshaping "new people" of society, reconstructing mass identity, re-establishing new social customs, and rebuilding social order—thereby giving the rural social landscape a completely new look.
(1) The De-deification of Disease Treatment and Daily Behavior among the Masses
Marx believed that "science is a historically dynamic, revolutionary force." Communists fully inherited the thought of Marxism; during the anti-sorcerer movement in the Border Region, they actively publicized scientific hygiene knowledge, breaking the situation of feudal superstition and the proliferation of sorcerers. Under this scientific influence, many among the masses transformed their superstitious thoughts and belief in sorcerers, achieving "de-deification" in both disease treatment and daily life.
First, "de-deification" in disease treatment. During the anti-sorcerer movement, doctors in the Border Region gradually gained the discourse power over rural medical treatment, steadily reversing the old concept of "believing in gods but not in medicine." The masses gained a further understanding of and faith in medicine, promoting the de-deification of their medical outlook. Many people began to consciously "expose" the fraudulent activities of sorcerers. There were even cases where members of the masses, unable to stand the sorcerers' deception, beat them. For example, the masses in Washi spontaneously and angrily beat a sorcerer, and the patient Gao Shuan beat the sorcerer An Weilin. Additionally, some among the masses spontaneously established various medical cooperatives and midwifery training classes, which also effectively struck at the prestige of sorcerers. In short, with the rise of the medicinal hygiene movement, the traditional pseudo-medical treatments of the sorcerers were bound to fade away, and scientific faith gradually took root in the hearts of the people.
Second, "de-deification" of daily behavioral activities. Beyond not seeking sorcerers when ill, the masses also reduced the many "ghost and god-worshiping" activities in their daily lives, allowing new scientific customs to gradually be established in the Border Region. After the rise of the anti-sorcerer movement, many people no longer believed in gods or ghosts; the former "Incense Societies" and "Goddess Temples" used for "averting calamity" or "praying for sons" were transformed into "culture sheds" and "culture markets." Some even said: "We will never believe in gods and ghosts again; we poor people are ourselves the God of Wealth." Simultaneously, accompanied by the echoes of slogans like "Life-saving first" and "Prevention first" in the Border Region, many commoners changed their habits of not bathing or washing clothes, and developed good habits such as not drinking unboiled water, building toilets, and cleaning up excrement.
(2) The Revolutionary Writing of the Anti-Sorcerer Movement on Rural Society
Through the large-scale anti-sorcerer movement, the Border Region government broke feudal superstition, reconstructed rural social order, shaped the revolutionary identity of the masses, mobilized their revolutionary passion, and sounded the loud clarion call of rural social revolution.
First, it changed the fragmented state of rural society, and the government achieved effective governance over rural society. As one of the groups that remained in control of certain rural resources after the Land Reform [18], sorcerers were not a hostile force, but they were an unstable factor in rural society. After the anti-sorcerer movement was carried out, the Border Region government gradually occupied the peripheral areas of rural society and swept away this group of defenders of the old order. This allowed all groups in the countryside to be brought within the scope of government mobilization, thereby strongly guaranteeing the survival of the Communist Party and the supplies for the front lines, strengthening the Border Region's governance of grassroots society, and consolidating the stability of the Border Region regime.
Second, rural society cultivated new customs suited to a New Democratic society [19]. In the anti-sorcerer movement, the CPC adhered to the unity of "breaking and establishing," promoting the changing of customs in the rural society of the Border Region through a simultaneous approach. The so-called "breaking" meant breaking down feudal superstition and transforming the sorcerers who used superstition as a means of livelihood. "Establishing" referred to the establishment of many new social customs and fashions during the anti-sorcerer movement. For example, using sorcerer transformation and feudal superstition as themes, many new literary and artistic works appeared. New Yangge [20] plays such as Fortune Telling, The Sacred Insect, A Nurse’s New Year's Visit, The Transformation of Grandma Zhao, and The Repentance of Sorcerer Tian presented superstitious activities in the form of folk opera.
Third, the masses gradually formed an identification with the CPC. Although the anti-sorcerer movement was merely a movement to transform a group of superstitious professionals led by the Party and government of the Border Region, strictly speaking, it contained the CPC's determination to transform the old society and build a new one. It accorded with the peasants' yearning for a new society and chimed with the masses' value judgments regarding the state. The masses saw hope for a new life through the anti-sorcerer movement and gradually formed an identification with the CPC. In particular, by constructing a unique space for the flow of information, the Border Region not only allowed the masses to learn the facts of how sorcerers deceived and harmed people during newspaper-reading sessions but also transmitted the revolutionary ideals of the CPC. That is, as thoroughgoing atheists, the task of the Communists was not to lead people to seek the protection of gods or pray for the afterlife, but to lead them to break the old world and build a new one. The masses also gradually realized that under the leadership of the CPC, their lives were not unchangeable.
Fourth, it mobilized the revolutionary enthusiasm of the masses and achieved effective revolutionary mobilization. On the one hand, after the anti-sorcerer movement was carried out, many people were liberated from superstition and belief in sorcerers, allowing them to put more energy into developing production, which strongly guaranteed the logistics of the Border Region and the War of Resistance at the front. On the other hand, the CPC also educated the masses with Communist ideas, changing their traditional concepts and behaviors. Within the overall situation of the War of Resistance, the anti-sorcerer movement in the Border Region was a "cultural war" for the CPC to publicize the revolution, mobilize the masses to participate in the resistance, and eliminate various potential hostile forces. The CPC spread revolutionary ideas in the anti-sorcerer movement, embedding them deep within the conceptual world of the masses, prompting them to change both their old habits and their "minds." In particular, through the series of rural social changes such as the anti-sorcerer movement, many among the masses strengthened their conviction and power in the ultimate victory of the War of Resistance and the development of production.
In short, as social revolution is an inherent part of the Communist revolution, the Chinese Communists continuously realized their ideals through social revolution and largely gained the identity and support of the masses, thereby providing strong support for the mobilization of the War of Resistance. As an attempt by the CPC to carry out social revolution, the anti-sorcerer movement transformed traditional rural society while washing away feudal superstition. This caused the originally backward and closed rural society to continuously display a new atmosphere. An organized, mutually supportive, lively rural society with revolutionary warmth gradually replaced the traditional state of life characterized by laziness, fragmentation, unrestrained behavior, prevalent superstition, and a lack of ambition.
Conclusion
From transforming individuals to transforming society, from reshaping lives to reshaping the ideal society, and from washing away old ideas to accepting new ones, the CPC allowed the masses of the Border Region to truly feel the enormous changes generated in their society through the anti-sorcerer movement. From a longer-term perspective, the experience of the anti-sorcerer movement in the Border Region is profound and lasting. On one hand, the experience of the Border Region Party and government in transforming sorcerers provided an important reference for transforming various "shady" social groups [21] after the founding of the People's Republic. On the other hand, the experiences reflected in the movement—such as the Party's leadership and sense of responsibility, the emphasis on publicity and education, and the full respect for the subjective will of the masses—can still radiate New Era value after the baptism of time.