Law And Restrictions On Sorcery During The Song Dynasty

During the early time of human society, sorcery appeared and had a profound influence upon people’s daily life. Not only was sorcery a kind of curse at other people, but also a magic affect for goodness. Additionally, sorcery had some connection with science and folk belief.In ancient China, some specific kinds of sorcery were allowed while others became illegal and were forbidden by law. This thesis aims to distinguish permissible and lawful types of sorcery from illegal ones.The thesis is divided into four chapters. The first chapter is about basic concepts of sorcery. The second chapter discusses illegal temple. During the Song Dynasty, illegal temple was ubiquitous, characteristic of its rite, divinity, certain function and so on. These features of illegal temple helped the government officials make the judgments. The third chapter describes the cult in the Song Dynasty. Sometimes the definition of cult was ambiguous in legal documents. Thus, the principle of discretion the government officials adopted became the law. The last chapter concludes by briefly analyzing the legislation and judicature of sorcery during the Song Dynasty.