The Book Prize Index

Soulstealers: The Chinese Sorcery Scare of 1768

Philip A. Kuhn

Midway through the reign of the Ch'ien-lung emperor, Hungli, mass hysteria broke out among the common people. It was feared that sorcerers were roaming the land, clipping off the ends of men's queues (the braids worn by royal decree) and chanting magical incantations over them in order to steal the souls of their owners. In a fascinating chronicle of this epidemic of fear and the official prosecution of soulstealers that ensued, Philip Kuhn opens a window on the world of eighteenth-century China.

HistoryWorld History · medium confidenceWorld History81 signalsLlm Classifier: World History -> World HistoryTopic Classifier: Literature & Writers -> Arts & CriticismKeyword Classifier: World History -> World HistoryLiterature & Writers

Award History

0 wins · 1 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History1991FinalistSecondary source
View all award history (1)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  2. 02 Central places

    • China90%

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    No argument inferred with sufficient confidence.

    This suggestion did not meet the normal display threshold and is more likely to be wrong.

    The 1768 “soulstealers” hysteria reflects widespread fear that sorcerers were stealing souls by clipping queues, prompting official prosecutions.

    Model confidence 48%

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    66 / 100 academic

    Academic

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 62%.