The Anti-Witch-God Movement in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region and the Transformation of Rural Society

After the outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japan, in order to build a stable anti-Japanese base area and achieve a greater degree of social mobilization, the Chinese Communist Party had to transform rural society, penetrating the concepts of the new society into the heart of every individual in the rural areas, prompting peasants to step out of the private sphere of the family and into the public sphere of rural society, and changing the state of the masses in the border region being “insulated” from politics and revolution. The witch-gods, as remnants of the old society, had long been worshipped among the folk of northern Shaanxi, amassing large amounts of wealth and threatening the stability of the border region regime; they were “parasites” of rural society and also “stumbling blocks” for the Chinese Communist Party in carrying out rural social transformation and social mobilization. Therefore, in order to reverse the atmosphere of rural society, win over popular sentiment, and better organize the masses, opposing and transforming the witch-gods became an inevitable issue for the Chinese Communist Party.

抗日战争爆发以后，中国共产党为了打造稳固的抗日根据地，实现更大程度上的社会动员，不得不对乡村社会加以改造，将新社会的理念深入到乡村社会每个个体的心灵之中，促使农民走出家庭私人空间迈向乡村社会公共空间，改变边区群众与政治和革命“绝缘”的状态。而巫神作为旧社会的残留，长期以来受到陕北民间的崇拜，攫取了大量财富，威胁着边区政权的稳定，是乡村社会的“寄生虫”，也是中国共产党开展乡村社会改造和社会动员的“绊脚石”。因此，为了扭转乡村社会的风气，争取社会民心，将群众更好地组织起来，反对和改造巫神成为中国共产党必然面对的问题。

In recent years, research on the anti-witch-god movement has achieved considerable results; however, there is still room for discussion regarding the internal relationship between the anti-witch-god movement and the transformation of rural society. Therefore, this article takes the relevant reports on the anti-witch-god movement in *Liberation Daily* as its primary source material, striving to go deep into the historical depths of the rural society of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, to explore in detail the origins, paths, and effects of the anti-witch-god movement in the border region, and thereby to demonstrate how, under the binary opposition of tradition and modernity, the Chinese Communist Party infiltrated revolutionary ideology into the nerve endings of rural governance and projected it onto the psychological foundations of the general public, thus facilitating the Party’s downward extension of power and the shaping of rural society in the border region over a broader scope.

近年来，对于反巫神运动的研究取得了较为可观的成果，然而就反巫神运动与乡村社会改造的内在关系仍有讨论的空间。因此，本文以《解放日报》中对反巫神运动的相关报道为主要原始资料，力图走向陕甘宁边区乡土社会的历史深处，详细探寻陕甘宁边区反巫神运动的缘起、路径和成效，并以此展现出在传统与现代的二元对峙下，中国共产党如何将革命的意识形态渗透到乡村治理的神经末梢，并投射到一般大众的心理基层，进而便于共产党在更广泛的范围实现权力的下探与边区乡村社会的形塑。

I. The Origins of the Anti-Witch-God Movement in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region

一、陕甘宁边区反巫神运动的缘起

China has had a tradition of “wu” culture since ancient times. “Wu” culture is based on the concept of “all things have spirits,” and through groups such as shamans and witch-priests, it uses certain “supernatural forces” (i.e., so-called witchcraft) to help people realize certain wishes. In fact, witch-gods connect spirits and humans through witchcraft, and “through mythological stories and subjective assumptions, construct a set of paradigms for explaining the world, and to a certain extent become manipulators of the conceptual world.” The Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region mainly divided witch-gods into seven types: “spirit officials, shamanesses (female witches), witch-gods, ritual masters, dream immortals, spirit senders, and horse hooves.” [1]1 “Horse hooves” (majiao) refers to spirit mediums who, at temple fairs, claim to be possessed by a deity and deliver oracles or make vows on behalf of worshippers. Horse hooves generally appear at temple fairs, using the guise of a spirit to make vows on behalf of others; the others basically use deceptive methods to exorcise ghosts and cure illnesses. The tools and nature of their practices vary; generally, spirit officials use sheepskin drums, witch-gods use three-mountain knives, shamanesses use kitchen knives, and spirit senders use rice bowls and incense papers, etc.” It can be seen that witch-gods have narrow and broad definitions. In a broad sense, witch-gods include not only some feng shui practitioners (yinyang masters) but also old-style midwives (old mother-in-laws), etc. In a narrow sense, witch-gods are those who pretend to use ghosts and spirits to avert disasters and cure illnesses for the purpose of swindling money, but they themselves know nothing about medical knowledge. Since the broad concept of witch-gods covers a wide range, the author mainly focuses on witch-gods who use “witchcraft” to exorcise ghosts and ward off illness, i.e., the narrow concept of witch-gods.

中国自古以来就有“巫”文化的传统，“巫”文化是建立在“万物有神”的观念的基础之上，并通过巫师、巫觋一类的群体，运用某些“超自然力量”（即所谓的巫术）来帮助人们实现某种愿望。实际上，巫神就是通过巫术勾连着神与人，并通过“神话故事和主观臆断，建构起一套解释世界的范式，并在一定程度上成为了观念世界的操纵者”。陕甘宁边区将巫神主要划分为七种类型，分别是“神官、师婆（女巫）、巫神、法师、梦仙、迁送和马脚”。马脚一般是在庙会上，假借神的面目出口传愿，其他基本上以骗人的方法驱鬼治病。他们所使用的器具和性质各不相同，一般来说神官用羊皮鼓、巫神用三山刀、师婆用菜刀、迁送用米盅香表等。”由此可见，巫神有狭义和广义划分，广义上的巫神不仅囊括了一些看风水的阴阳先生，也包括了旧式接生的老娘婆等。狭义的巫神则是假借鬼神消灾治病，以骗取钱财为目的，但他们自身对医药知识一窍不通。由于广义巫神的概念范围涉及广泛，因此笔者主要集中探讨利用“巫术”驱鬼禳病的巫神，即狭义上的巫神概念。

(1) The Border Region Masses’ Pursuit and Worship of Witch-Gods

（一）边区群众对巫神的追捧与崇拜

In the border region, the power of witch-gods was extremely rampant. According to statistics, there were over 2,000 witch-gods in the entire border region, far more than the number of people engaged in medical and health work. [2]2 The figure of over 2,000 witch-gods is cited from contemporary reports; the border region’s medical personnel at the time were far fewer. These witch-gods, as “preachers” who helped the masses vanquish demons, eliminate evils, cure illnesses, and save people, were long pursued and worshipped by the border region masses.

在边区，巫神势力极为猖獗。据统计，全边区巫神多达2000余人，远多于从事医疗卫生工作的人数。而这些巫神作为帮助群众降妖除魔，治病救人的“布道者”，长期受到边区群众的追捧与崇拜。

First, long-term poverty and famine led the masses to place their hopes in the theory of ghosts and spirits. The Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region was at that time “the most impoverished, long-term backward, and sparsely populated area in China.” [3]3 This description of the border region’s poverty is a standard characterization in CCP historical accounts. Due to the harsh geographical environment coupled with continuous warfare, disasters and famines in northern Shaanxi were very severe. According to statistics, “during the great famine from 1928 to 1933, hundreds 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 entire population of Shaanxi, and thousands of women and children were sold into slavery.” [4]4 The 1928–1933 famine in northern China, particularly severe in Shaanxi, was a major humanitarian crisis; the cited estimate of 2.5 million deaths comes from a contemporary relief commission report. Faced with such a world, many people in northern Shaanxi believed that only by placing their hopes in ghosts and spirits could they be rescued from suffering. The witch-gods, as intermediaries between humans and spirits, could help them “cure illnesses and save people” and escape disasters through “witchcraft.” Engels pointed out: “Since people despaired of material salvation, they sought spiritual salvation instead, that is, they sought ideological comfort to avoid falling into complete despair.” [5]5 This quotation is from Engels’s *On the History of Early Christianity* (1894), discussing the psychological appeal of religion in times of material despair. Therefore, in essence, worshipping witch-gods and believing in spirits implies people’s escape from the difficulties of real life and their寄托 of hope for a better life. So when people faced many fears, unknowns, and terrible things, the traditional “all things have spirits” theory deeply influenced the border region masses, leading them to seek help from witch-gods who falsely claimed to possess “divine power.”

首先，长期的贫困和饥荒让群众寄托于鬼神之说。陕甘宁边区是当时“中国最贫瘠、长期落后而且人口稀少的地区。”由于恶劣的地理环境加上战乱不断，陕北地区灾荒和饥荒十分严重。据统计，“1928年至1933年大灾荒期间，单单陕西省就有数百人饿死，1929年中国国际饥荒救济委员会估计，连续两年灾荒造成了250万人死亡，几乎占全陕西人口的1/3，数千妇女儿童被卖身为奴”。面对这样的世界，许多陕北群众认为只有寄托于鬼神才能救助他们逃脱苦难。而作为沟通人与神的巫神通过“巫术”可以帮助他们“治病救人”，逃灾避难。恩格斯指出：“人们既然对物质上的得救感到绝望，就去追寻灵魂得救来代替，即追寻思想上的安慰，以免陷入彻底绝望的境地。”因此，从本质上说，崇拜巫神，信仰神灵隐含着人们对于现实困难生活的逃避和对美好生活的寄托。所以人们在面临许多恐惧、未知和可怕的事物之时，传统的“万物有神论”深刻影响到边区群众，导致他们去求助于妄称掌握“神力”的巫神。

Second, the long-term state of disorder in northern Shaanxi provided opportunities for witch-gods. The Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia region, located at the junction of three provinces, suffered heavily from banditry and warlordism. At that time, to support the needs of warlord conflicts, military taxes in various parts of Shaanxi reached their maximum limits. The famous “local emperor” warlord of northern Shaanxi, Jing Yuexiu, [6]6 Jing Yuexiu (1879–1936) was a warlord who controlled northern Shaanxi from the 1910s until his death, known for heavy taxation and brutal rule. levied over forty different kinds of exorbitant taxes and levies on the people, forcing poor peasants to become bandits or join the army. Some of these people, during the chaotic period, acquired bad habits, and the bad habits of those who became unemployed afterward still influenced them, becoming an important source of border region loafers and witch-gods. Li Wenxiu [7]7 Li Wenxiu was a former soldier and later a reformed “loafer” (erliuzi) in the border region, whose testimony was used in CCP propaganda to illustrate the corrupting influence of the old society. recalled at the time: “The reason I became this loafer is because I developed it when I was a soldier in the old army. Because being a soldier was very casual back then, every time we went out on a mission we could extort a lot of money from the common people. Money came easily, so I (myself) turned bad.” [8]8 This quotation is from a contemporary interview or confession, typical of the “speak bitterness” (suku) campaigns used to raise class consciousness.

其次，陕北地区长期的无秩序状态，为巫神提供了可乘之机。陕甘宁地区地处三省交界地带，土匪之祸和军阀之患甚重。当时为了支撑军阀混战的需要，陕西各地军事税收达到了最大限度。陕北著名的“土皇帝”军阀井岳秀，向人们征收四十多种不同的苛捐杂税，迫使可怜的农民不得已去当土匪和参军，其中一些人在混战时期便染上了不良风气，这些人失业以后产生的不良风气仍然影响着他们，成为边区二流子和巫神的重要来源。李文秀当时回忆说：“我这个二流子啊，就是因为我过去在旧军队那当兵养成的，因为那个时候当兵很随便，出发一次就可以搜刮老百姓很多钱，来钱很容易啊，自家（我）就变坏了。”

Finally, the border region masses’ unhygienic habits, lack of scientific knowledge, and backwardness in medicine and health were the practical reasons for the people’s worship of witch-gods. Ignorance often breeds superstition. The backwardness and ignorance of the border region masses led to a lack of necessary medical and health knowledge among the people. According to statistics, the illiteracy rate in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia region reached 99%. Apart from towns, in scattered rural areas, no schools could be found for dozens of miles, and the children of the poor had no way to enter school; cultural facilities were very scarce, and the people were extremely lacking in cultural life. [9]9 The 99% illiteracy rate is a commonly cited statistic in CCP histories of the border region, emphasizing the scale of the educational challenge. Because of the lack of cultural knowledge, the common people “knew nothing about health and medicine except for jumping and worshipping Buddhas.” [10]10 This phrase reflects the CCP’s characterization of local religious practices as ignorant and superstitious. The masses retained many feudal superstitious and unhygienic phenomena and habits, such as not bathing regularly, not washing their faces, not changing clothes often, and when ill, not seeing a doctor but praying to gods and Buddhas, begging for the protection of the God of Heaven, so that although the birth rate was not low, the mortality rate was also very high.

最后，边区群众不卫生的习惯、缺乏科学知识、以及医药卫生的落后是民众崇拜巫神的现实原因。无知往往催生迷信，边区群众的愚昧落后导致民众缺乏必要的医药卫生常识。据统计，陕甘宁地区文盲率达99%，学校教育，除城镇外，在分散的农村，方圆几十里找不到一所学校，穷人子弟入学无门；文化设施很缺，人民十分缺乏文化生活。老百姓因文化知识缺乏，“除跳巫拜佛外，从不知道卫生医药何事。” 群众残留了许多封建迷信和不卫生的现象与习惯，如平时不洗澡，不洗脸，不常换衣服，有了病也不找医生看，而是求神拜佛，求老天爷保佑，以致人口的出生率虽然不低，但死亡率也很大。

At the same time, the shortage of medicine and doctors in the border region led some masses who tried to seek hospital treatment to have to pray to gods and Buddhas and turn to witch-gods. “In the western first district of Zichang, medicine was lacking, there were no pharmacies, and it was not easy to find a good doctor. When someone fell ill, the people had to travel dozens of miles to Wayaobao to seek medical help, often delaying the patient. Poorer families could not afford this expense and had to turn to witch-gods.” [11]11 Wayaobao (also known as Zichang) was a key town in the border region; the quotation illustrates the practical barriers to medical access. The common people did not necessarily believe in witch-gods, but when a person was ill, there was no other way; they could not find a doctor. Even if they found a doctor, there was no pharmacy, so they had to resort to spirit officials and witch-gods, blindly believing that “losing money can avert disaster.” Although some people knew that witch-gods could not cure illness, under the psychology of turning to any remedy in desperation, they had to entrust themselves to witch-gods and believe in them. The witch-god ilk then took the opportunity to infiltrate, parasitizing among the people by relying on the masses’ worship of them, becoming “rats that feed exclusively on the blood of peasants.” [12]12 The metaphor of witch-gods as “rats” feeding on peasants is a typical CCP rhetorical device to delegitimize them as social parasites.

与此同时，由于边区缺医少药的困境导致一些力图希望去医院治疗的群众不得不求神拜佛，求助于巫神。“子长西一区医药缺乏，没有药铺，也不容易请到好医生，有了病人，人民必须跑到几十里以外的瓦市求医，常常耽误了病人，穷一点的人家更费不起这钱，只好找到巫神。”老百姓并不一定相信巫神，但人病了，没有法子，请不到医生。就是请到医生，也没有药店，只好请神官巫神，妄信“退财可以消灾”。尽管有些人知道巫神治不好病，但在病急乱求医的心理之下，不得不拜托巫神，相信巫神，巫神之流便借机趁虚而入，凭借群众对他们的崇拜而寄生于民间，成为“专吃农民血”的耗子。

(2) The Extraction and Control of Rural Resources by Witch-Gods

（二）巫神对乡村资源的汲取与控制

After the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party arrived in northern Shaanxi, how to lift peasants out of poverty to support the war mobilization during the War of Resistance became an important measure for the CCP to carry out social revolution. Mao Zedong said of this: “Our work is first war, second production, and third culture.” [13]13 This quotation is from Mao Zedong’s 1942 speech “Economic and Financial Problems during the Anti-Japanese War,” outlining the priority order of tasks for the base areas. It is conceivable that, under the task of everything serving the war, witch-gods extracted and controlled a large number of resources in rural society, bringing much destruction to the construction of the CCP’s base areas and the mobilization for the War of Resistance.

中共中央到达陕北以后，如何使农民摆脱贫困状态，以支持抗战时期的战争动员成为中共开展社会革命的重要举措。毛泽东对此言道：“我们的工作首先是战争，其次是生产，其次是文化。”可想而知，在一切服务于战争的任务之下，巫神汲取和控制了乡村社会大量资源，给中国共产党根据地的建设和抗战动员带来了诸多破坏。

First, witches and sorcerers seized a large amount of wealth from the masses in the Border Region. Against the grim backdrop of the War of Resistance, the masses’ superstitious belief in witches and sorcerers wasted a great deal of money, imposing a heavy financial burden on the Border Region’s finances. When the Three Border Subregion [14]14 The Three Border Subregion (三边分区) refers to the area comprising Dingbian, Jingbian, and Yanchi counties in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region. counted the expenditures on witches and sorcerers, it noted: “The annual superstitious spending of the people in the entire subregion exceeds 20 million yuan; the more than 300 yin-yang masters and witches and sorcerers in the subregion swindle 6 million yuan from the masses each year, and the masses spend 7 million yuan on incense, paper money, and lamp oil for worshipping the gods.” At the same time, witches and sorcerers severely limited the Border Region’s production efficiency. In particular, some witches and sorcerers believed that their non-participation in production, or their hindering of others’ production, would not affect their own interests. Driven by this mentality, many witches and sorcerers thought: “How boring is the work of opening up wasteland; no matter how cheerfully they try to get me to join in productive labor, I don’t need to take part. As long as people still believe I can drive away ghosts and exorcise monsters, I can live well.”

一是，巫神攫取了边区群众大量的财富。在抗战严峻背景之下，群众迷信巫神，浪费了大量的钱财，给边区财政带来了巨额负担。三边分区当时在统计巫神的花费时提到：“全分区人们每年的迷信花费在2000万以上，全分区300个阴阳巫神骗取群众的钱每年都有600万，群众用烧香、裱纸和敬神的灯油要费700万元”。与此同时，巫神也严重限制了边区的生产效率。尤其是一些巫神认为他们不参与生产，或是耽误别人生产并不会影响他自身的利益。所以，在这种心态趋势之下，许多巫神就认为：“开垦的工作多无聊，无论他们让我如何愉快去加入生产劳动，我也用不着去参加，只要人们还相信我驱鬼逐怪，我便能活得好”。

Second, witches and sorcerers colluded with reactionary organizations, dampening the masses’ enthusiasm for resisting Japan. Because of their special status among the people, witches and sorcerers easily gained the respect and worship of the masses, making them a constant target of recruitment by bandit groups and other organizations. Moreover, like loafers, witches and sorcerers were politically and ideologically unsteady, motivated solely by profit, and easily exploited by saboteurs. “Some joined bandit organizations, some joined traitor and spy organizations, and some became regular targets of use by traitors and spies.” After joining these reactionary organizations, these witches and sorcerers used their influence to vigorously propagate feudal superstition and ideas of ghosts and gods, slandering and defaming the Chinese Communist Party and the Eighth Route Army, causing a considerable portion of the masses to be exploited by reactionary organizations.

二是，巫神同反动组织相互勾结，化解了群众抗日的积极性。巫神由于民间的特殊地位，容易获得群众的尊重与崇拜，所以一直都是土匪等组织拉拢的对象。再加上巫神同二流子一样，政治和思想立场不坚定，唯利是图，有奶便是娘，极易被破坏分子利用。“有的加入了土匪组织，有的加入了汉奸特务组织，有的成为了汉奸特务所常利用的对象”。这些巫神加入这些反动组织后，就运用自身的影响力，大肆宣传封建迷信和鬼神思想，污蔑和诋毁中国共产党和八路军，使相当一部分群众被反动组织所利用。

(3) Witches and Sorcerers Are Absolutely Incompatible with the New Democratic Society

（三）巫神与新民主主义社会绝不相容

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 new politics and new economy, but also new culture.” “This new democratic culture is scientific. It opposes all feudal and superstitious ideas, advocates seeking truth from facts, advocates objective truth, and advocates the unity of theory and practice.” The scientific nature of new democratic culture required changing the phenomenon of the masses’ superstitious belief in gods in the Border Region, transforming the large number of witches and sorcerers existing there, and thereby reshaping the structure of rural society in the Border Region, gradually breaking the shackles of “divine authority” over the masses and dissolving their dependence on it. Therefore, at the beginning of the anti-witchcraft movement, the editorial in *Liberation Daily* [15]15 *Liberation Daily* (《解放日报》) was the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee, published in Yan’an from 1941 to 1947. clearly stated: “Witches and sorcerers are incompatible with new democratic society; in new democratic society, the occupation of witch or sorcerer cannot be allowed to exist openly or secretly.” Specifically, this incompatibility was reflected in two aspects:

抗战爆发后，毛泽东在《新民主主义论》中指出：“在这个新社会和新国家中，不但有新政治、新经济，而且有新文化”。“这种新民主主义的文化是科学的。它是反对一切封建思想和迷信思想，主张实事求是，主张客观真理，主张理论和实践一致的”。新民主主义文化的科学性，就要求改变边区群众迷信神灵的现象，改造边区存在的大批巫神群体，进而重塑边区乡村社会的结构，逐步摆脱“神权”对于边区群众的枷锁，消解群众对于“神权”的依附。因此，在反巫神运动伊始，《解放日报》社论中就明确提出：“巫神与新民主主义的社会是不能相容的，在新民主主义社会里，不能容许巫神这种职业公开或秘密的存在”。具体而言，这种不相容体现在两个方面：

First, witches and sorcerers caused the gradual deterioration of rural social customs. As a superstitious occupational group, witches and sorcerers themselves, like superstition, harmed the construction of the new society in the Border Region, leading to the gradual deterioration of rural social customs. Mao Zedong once listed superstition, illiteracy, and lack of hygiene as three major scourges of the Border Region. Witches and sorcerers, who used superstition as a means to make a living and get rich, constantly corrupted the social atmosphere of the Border Region, creating an environment where “superstition prevailed,” harming more than 1.5 million people in the Border Region. In fact, many witches and sorcerers knew that superstition was a harm left over from the old society, but driven by profit, they confronted the new-born political power of the Border Region. At a mass meeting to combat witches and sorcerers, 59 of them jointly wrote a letter to the masses saying: “Superstition is a scourge left to us by the old society. At that time, none of us engaged in production; we were idle and lazy. Seeing that witches and sorcerers could make money by deceiving people, we used the names of gods and ghosts to get by.” It can be seen that superstition, as a backward and dregs-like culture, used witches and sorcerers as its vehicle to continuously concentrate and amplify its harm, transmitting and radiating it to a wider area, so that superstition prevailed throughout the base area, and scientific and revolutionary ideas found it difficult to truly take root in people’s hearts.

一是，巫神导致乡村社会风气逐渐恶化。巫神作为迷信职业群体，他们本身就同迷信一样，危害着边区新社会的建设，导致乡村社会风气的逐渐恶化。毛泽东曾将迷信、不识字与不讲卫生作为边区的三大害之一。以迷信作为穿吃发财的巫神不断败坏着边区社会的风气，塑造出一种“迷信盛行”的氛围，危害边区150多万的群众。其实，许多巫神都知道迷信是旧社会的危害，但在利益的驱使之下与边区新生政权展开了对峙。在一次反巫神斗争大会上，59名巫神联名给群众写信说：“迷信是旧社会留给我们的祸害，那时我们都不务生产，游手好闲，看见巫神骗人能够赚钱，于是我们就借神鬼的名义来混饭吃”。可见，迷信作为一种落后糟粕的文化，凭借巫神作为载体，不断集聚和放大迷信的危害，并将其传递和辐射到更大范围的区域，从而使整个根据地迷信盛行，科学观念和革命观念难以真正深入人心。

Second, witches and sorcerers interfered with the masses’ understanding of the new society in the Border Region. When people perceive and receive information, they not only use their existing knowledge systems to understand the world, but changes in the external environment also continuously shape their cognition. As a “filthy” part of the old society, witches and sorcerers had a deep social foundation. When new revolutionary cognition penetrated the conceptual world of the masses, witches and sorcerers used superstitious theology to continuously drive out revolutionary cognition and consolidate the masses’ traditional cognition, causing many people to suffer deeply as a result. “At the time when the government was carrying out the health campaign, some witches and sorcerers spread rumors about Western medicine, openly declaring: ‘Western medicine needles are more than two feet long; they go in through the leg and come out through the stomach.’ They also threatened the people, saying: ‘If any of you reports to the government that I am a witch or sorcerer, I will make nine out of ten people in your family die; just try it and see.’ So ordinary people dared not participate in the anti-witchcraft movement.” Once this kind of cognition spread in Border Region society, it not only brought many obstacles to the Border Region’s construction, but also caused many people to possibly join the ranks of witches and sorcerers. “Shi Zhengcai was originally a middle peasant who did not need to rely on being a witch or sorcerer to make a living. Later, because his child went blind and he could not find a doctor or medicine, a witch or sorcerer took the opportunity to intimidate him, saying: ‘The White Snake Spirit has come to your house to take over! If you don’t take over for it, it will make your whole family restless.’ Shi Zhengcai was very frightened and also became a witch or sorcerer.”

二是，巫神干扰了边区群众对于新社会的认知。人在感知和接收信息时不仅会利用既有的知识系统来认知世界，同时外部的环境变迁也在不断塑造着人的认知。巫神作为旧社会的“污浊”部分，具有浓厚的社会基础，在新的革命认知深入到群众观念世界时，巫神通过迷信神学不断驱逐着革命认知，巩固着群众内心的传统认知，许多群众由都此深受其害。“当时在政府开展卫生运动时，一些巫神就散播西医的谣言，并公开宣称道：‘西医的针有二尺多长，从腿子里打进去，从肚子里出来’。同时还威胁民众说：‘你们谁要向政府报告我是巫神，我就叫谁家十口人死九口，不信试试看。所以一般民众都不敢参加反巫神运动’”。这种认知一旦在边区社会蔓延，不仅给边区建设带来了诸多阻力，而且许多人可能因此加入巫神行列之中。“史正才原是一个中农不必靠巫神过日子，后来因为孩子眼睛瞎了找不到郎中和药，巫神趁机恐吓他说：“白蛇精到你家来顶替啦，你要不顶替他，便会闹得你全家不安”，史正才很害怕，也做起巫神来了。”

In summary, in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, witches and sorcerers were not only members of rural society but also a concentrated embodiment of superstition and backwardness. They competed with the Chinese Communist Party for ordinary people in the ideological, economic, and health fields, siphoned off a large amount of resources from rural society, and obstructed the Chinese Communist Party’s process of transforming rural society. Therefore, in order to build a stable anti-Japanese base area and strengthen the Chinese Communist Party’s ability to govern rural society and extract resources, the Chinese Communist Party had to criticize and rectify witches and sorcerers, gradually dissolving their influence among the people.

总之，在陕甘宁边区，巫神不仅是乡村社会中的一员，还是迷信落后的集中体现。他们与中共在意识形态、经济和卫生等领域争夺普通群众，汲取了乡村社会大量资源，阻挠了中国共产党开展乡村社会改造的进程。因此，为了打造稳固的抗日根据地，强化中国共产党对于乡村社会的治理能力和资源汲取能力，中国共产党就必须要批判和整治巫神，逐步消解巫神在民间的影响力。

II. The Anti-Witchcraft Movement in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region

二、陕甘宁边区的反巫神运动

Under the harsh social conditions of the War of Resistance, effectively governing and transforming witches and sorcerers was no easy task. When the masses’ ideological consciousness had not yet been raised, purely administrative measures often backfired, arousing their resentment. Therefore, the Party and government of the Border Region, based on local conditions, focused on ideological propaganda and medical encirclement. By launching ideological education, constructing spaces for information flow, and competing for discursive power in rural healthcare, they gradually stripped witches and sorcerers of the foundation for their survival.

在抗战严酷的社会环境之下，对巫神展开有效治理和改造绝非易事。在群众思想觉悟尚未提高的情况下，单纯的行政手段往往会适得其反，使群众反感。因此，边区党和政府结合各地实际情况，以思想宣传和医疗围剿为着力点，通过发动思想教育、建构信息流动空间和争夺乡村医疗话语权，使巫神逐步失去了赖以生存的基础。

(1) Launching Ideological Education

（一）发动思想教育

The Chinese Communist Party, by launching ideological education, actively disseminated scientific knowledge and shook the ideological foundation on which witches and sorcerers relied. Mao Zedong emphasized: “For the common people to stop worshipping gods, there must be scientific development and popularization. Without scientific development and popularization, worshipping gods is entirely necessary for them.” The Party and government of the Border Region used scientific education to popularize and develop scientific concepts, spreading basic scientific knowledge among folk society, and replacing the backward superstitious ideas and feudal customs in the masses’ minds with scientific, correct, and new ideology and thought.

中国共产党凭借发动思想教育，积极传播科学知识，动摇巫神赖以存在的思想基础。毛泽东强调：“要老百姓不敬神，就要有科学的发展和普及，科学不发展、不普及，敬神在他们是完全需要的。”边区党和政府利用科学教育普及和发展科学观念，把基本的科学知识散发到民间社会之中，用科学的、正确的、新的意识形态和思想置换存在于群众头脑中的落后迷信思想和封建陋习。

First, the Border Region held a series of special scientific reports and knowledge popularization lectures. According to statistics, from April 1941 to April 1942, the Natural Science Research Society organized more than 30 relatively 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 Society took the opportunity to hold a popular science lecture on solar eclipses, using facts to educate the masses and dispel superstitious sayings popular among them, such as “the heavenly dog eats the sun.” The Party and government of the Border Region also used the masses’ own experiences to make them change their views and believe in scientific knowledge. For example, after teaching peasants about the principles of heaven and earth, wind, rain, thunder, and lightning, as well as how to grow crops, the peasants not only improved their farming methods but also naturally came to realize that so-called “Dragon Kings,” “Wind Goddesses,” and the like were all false. After the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art, the mass science movement and the movement to send literature and art to the countryside were widely carried out. A large number of books, periodicals, and propaganda materials were fully used to promote science and hygiene. According to statistics, from 1942 to 1944, scientific and technological workers in Yan’an published 78,200 copies of medical and health readings and propaganda materials in the Border Region, such as *Aunt Wang Raises a Fat Baby*.

首先，边区举办了一系列的科学专题报告、知识普及讲座等。据统计，从1941年4月到1942年4月的一年间，自然科学研究会组织了比较重要的报告达到30多次，各专业学会办过100余次。1941年9月21日，延安出现了日食现象，自然科学研究会利用机会，开展了日食的科学知识科普讲座，用事实教育群众，破除了群众中流行的“天狗食日”等迷信说法。边区党和政府还利用群众的亲身体验和经历使他们转变和信服科学知识。例如，在给农民讲授天上地下、风雨雷电的道理，以及如何种庄稼等许多内容后，农民不仅可以改进种庄稼的办法，也自然认识到所谓的“龙王爷”“风神娘娘”等都是假的。延安文艺座谈会后，科学大众化运动和文艺下乡运动得到普遍开展。大量书刊和宣传材料被充分用来宣传科学和卫生。据统计，延安科技工作者1942年至1944年在边区出版的《王大娘养胖娃娃》等医药卫生读物和宣传材料就达到7.82万册。

Second, the Border Region also advanced scientific education through schooling. The *Liberation Daily* editorial stressed: “Spread the most basic knowledge among the people… Not only among the general populace, but also among ordinary cadres, knowledge of the natural sciences is extremely scarce. To popularize scientific knowledge, more scientific lectures should be organized, and elementary and intermediate-level natural science reading materials should be compiled.” Schools such as the Central Party School, the Marx-Lenin Institute, and the Lu Xun Academy of Arts specifically offered courses on the natural sciences. In particular, the Central Party School, by offering corresponding natural science courses, undoubtedly raised the scientific concepts of leading cadres at all levels, providing conditions for them to implement and carry out the downward shift of New Democratic culture. Many students (including numerous cadres) not only increased their relevant scientific knowledge but also promoted the further dissemination of scientific concepts. After graduation, they carried advanced scientific concepts deep into the countryside and waged struggle against the backward dregs, superstitions, and witches of the rural areas.

其次，边区还通过学校教育深入推进科学教育。《解放日报》社论中强调：“把最为基础的知识普及到人民中间去……不仅在一般民众中间，而且在一般的干部中间，自然科学知识也是极为缺乏的，为普及科学知识，应多组织科学演讲，编写初中级的自然科学读物。”中央党校、马列学院与鲁艺等学校专门开设了有关自然科学的课程。尤其像中央党校通过开设相应的自然科学课程，无疑提升了各级领导干部的科学观念，为他们贯彻落实新民主主义文化下移提供了条件。许多学生（包括众多干部）不仅增长了相应的科学知识，还促进了科学观念的进一步传播。毕业以后，他们携带先进的科学观念深入乡村，同乡村落后的糟粕、迷信和巫神开展斗争。

Finally, the Border Region also continuously raised the theoretical level of cadres and the masses through various Marxist study movements. The most powerful and effective critique of the “theism” in the Border Region was to adhere to the standpoint of dialectical materialism and historical materialism. By carrying out the Marxist study movement and the Yan’an Rectification Movement, the Border Region, while raising the theoretical level of cadres and the masses themselves, also continuously constructed materialist scientific concepts in their minds, expelling existing superstitious ideas. [16]16 The Yan’an Rectification Movement (1942–1944) was a Party-wide campaign to study Marxist texts, criticize subjectivist and sectarian tendencies, and establish Mao Zedong Thought as the guiding ideology.

最后，边区还通过各种马克思主义学习运动不断提高干部和群众的理论化水平。对边区“有神论”最有力和最有效的批判，即必须坚持辩证唯物主义和历史唯物主义的立场。边区通过开展马克思主义学习运动和延安整风运动，在提升干部和群众 自身理论化水平的同时，也不断在他们脑海中构建唯物主义的科学观念，驱逐既有的迷信思想。

(2) Constructing an Information Flow Space

（二）建构信息流动空间

The launching of ideological education initially shook the foundation on which witches depended from the ideological level. However, to make the entire Border Region masses understand the facts of witches deceiving and harming people and to extend its sphere of influence, it was also necessary to rely on a certain information flow space. Lenin believed: “Marxists should provide the people with various kinds of atheistic propaganda materials, tell them facts from all aspects of real life, approach them by various methods, and arouse their interest.” [17]17 V. I. Lenin, “On the Significance of Militant Materialism” (1922). It was in the process of the dissemination and diffusion of these propaganda materials that a unique information flow space gradually emerged in the rural society of the Border Region. This flow space used newspapers as the medium and rural interpersonal network relationships as the link, causing the transmission of information to present a two-way model of “newspaper → audience, interpersonal communication → audience.” In this way, various pieces of information about the anti-witchcraft movement were conveyed to every household and integrated into every corner of the countryside.

思想教育的发动，从思想层面初步动摇了巫神赖以存在的基础，然而若想使整个边区群众都了解巫神骗人害人的事实，延伸其影响范围，还需要借助一定的信息流动空间。列宁认为：“马克思主义者应该向人民提供各种无神论的宣传材料，告诉他们实际生活各个方面的事实，用各种办法接近他们，引起他们的兴趣。”正是在这些宣传材料的传播与扩散的过程之中，边区乡村社会逐步出现了特有的信息流动空间。这一流动空间以报纸为媒介，以乡村人际关系网络为链接，使信息的传递呈现出“报纸—受众、人际传播—受众”的双向模式，反巫神运动的各种信息也由此传达到每家每户，融入乡村各个角落。

Newspapers played an important role in introducing and spreading the anti-witchcraft movement. In the Border Region, newspapers were not only an important theoretical and propaganda front for the Party but also an important vehicle for reflecting rural social life in the Border Region and guiding various constructions in the Border Region. Newspapers had long assumed an important function of information dissemination and were also seen as an effective tool for eliminating illiteracy and transforming social customs, receiving the Party’s attention. “Our newspapers should strive to help Party members and the masses remove the backward state left by the old system before the revolution for the broad masses: illiteracy, superstition, and unhygienic conditions.” [18]18 “Strive to Develop the Mass Education Movement,” *Liberation Daily* editorial, 6 April 1944. After the anti-witchcraft movement began, the Border Region’s *Liberation Daily* published a large number of reports on witches deceiving and harming people. (See table, omitted.)

报纸对反巫神运动的介绍和传播起到了重要作用。在边区，报纸不仅是党重要的理论和宣传阵地，也是反映边区乡村社会生活和指导边区各项建设的重要载体。一直以来，报纸承担着重要的信息传播功能，而且还被看作消除文盲、移风易俗的有效工具，受到党的重视。“我们的报纸应该努力帮助党员和群众除去革命前的旧制度对于广大民众所遗留的落后状态：文盲、迷信和不卫生等。”反巫神运动肇始以后，边区的《解放日报》就刊载了大量巫神骗人害人的相关报道，表略。

From the table above, it can be seen that to make the masses understand the facts of witches deceiving and harming people, the *Liberation Daily* published many reports. According to the author’s incomplete statistics, there were nearly a hundred reports on witches in total. In terms of publication time, they were mostly concentrated between February and October 1944. Newspapers, as a powerful weapon for propagating, organizing the masses, and promoting work, played an important role as the mouthpiece in conveying the Border Region’s policies and guidelines. Many people only recognized the facts of witches deceiving people after reading the relevant reports on witches. But the problem was that the illiteracy rate in the Border Region reached over 95%. How could the masses truly understand the specific circumstances of witches deceiving and harming people, thereby changing their own social concepts? In fact, this also indicated that the one-dimensional linear communication path of “newspaper → audience” was somewhat disconnected from the revolutionary goals required by the Chinese Communist Party.

从上表可见，为了让群众了解巫神骗人害人的事实，《解放日报》发表了诸多报道，据笔者不完全统计，总共有近百篇关于巫神的报道。从发表时间来看，多集中于1944年2月至10月间。报纸作为宣传、组织群众，推动工作的有力武器，它在传达边区方针政策方面发挥了重要喉舌作用。许多人正是在阅读了巫神的相关报道后，才认清了巫神骗人的事实。但问题是边区文盲率达到95%以上，如何让群众能够真正了解到巫神骗人害人具体情况，从而改变自身的社会观念？其实这也说明了单向度的“报纸—受众”的线性传播路径与中国共产党所需的革命目标存在一定的脱节。

The Border Region Party and government actually also took note of this phenomenon. At the 1944 Cultural and Educational Conference, Propaganda Department Head Li Zhuoran summarized: “Over 90% of the common people and most rural work cadres are illiterate and cannot read newspapers, so the connection between newspapers and the masses is insufficient. The mass newspaper-reading groups, blackboard newspapers, and worker-peasant-soldier correspondents discussed at this Cultural and Educational Conference are meant to solve this problem.” [19]19 Li Zhuoran (1899–1967) was a senior CPC propaganda official; the 1944 Cultural and Educational Conference was a major meeting of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region. To change the disconnection between news reporting and reality, methods such as newspaper-reading groups and blackboard newspapers gradually combined with rural social networks and relied on interpersonal networks to achieve secondary dissemination of information. In fact, the interpersonal network communication system had important communicative value in traditional Chinese rural society. Various rural opinions could be continuously disseminated outward through interpersonal networks, breaking through the existing shackles of the Border Region’s cultural barriers, allowing the Border Region masses to understand various pieces of information to the greatest extent, and ultimately forming a unique folk public opinion sphere.

边区党和政府实际上也注意到了这一现象。在1944年文教大会上，宣传部长李卓然总结说：“百分之九十以上的老百姓和大多数乡村工作干部还不识字，不能看报，所以报纸和群众的联系是不够的，这次文教大会所讨论的大众读报组、黑板报与工农通讯员就是要解决这个问题的”。为了改变新闻报道与现实的脱节情况，读报组和黑板报等方式逐步与乡村社会网络相结合，并依托人际网络实现信息的二次传播。事实上，人际网络传播系统在中国传统乡土社会中具有重要的传播价值。乡村的各种言论通过人际网络能够不断对外传播，突破边区文化藩篱的既有桎梏，最大程度上让边区群众了解到各种信息，最终形成特有的民间舆论场。

Taking newspaper-reading groups as an example, through the reading of the newspaper reader and the listening of the audience, newspaper-reading groups effectively achieved knowledge sharing and mass interaction. Generally speaking, newspaper-reading groups had three key elements: the newspaper, the reader, and the listeners. In the anti-witchcraft movement, newspaper-reading groups had to select relevant reports on witches harming people from newspapers like the *Liberation Daily*, while the reader also had to combine the actual situation and selectively carry out the reading (autonomy included the choice of time, place, and content). A good emotional interactive relationship also needed to be established between the reader and the listeners, so that the listeners could both understand and be interested.

以读报组为例，边区通过读报员的读和受众的听，读报组有效实现了知识共享与群众互动。一般而言，读报组存在三个关键要素：即报纸、读报员与听众。读报组在反巫神运动中既要挑选《解放日报》等报纸上关于巫神害人的相关报道，同时读报员还要结合现实情况，自主选择性地开展读报（自主性包括时间、地点和内容的选择）。读报者与听报者之间还需要建立良好的情感互动关系，让听众既能听得懂，也要感兴趣。

Furthermore, members of newspaper-reading groups also used their interpersonal relationships to achieve multiple transmissions of information, thereby helping more masses accept new revolutionary concepts. Rural society is a society of acquaintances. An important method in a society of acquaintances is the supervision and moral condemnation of acquaintances. The parties involved in inappropriate behavior and their families often suffer varying degrees of condemnation, discrimination, and contempt from acquaintances due to a certain inappropriate act. During the anti-witchcraft movement, newspaper-reading groups also utilized the characteristics of the acquaintance society to mobilize the families and relatives of witches to persuade the witches to reform.

此外，读报组成员还利用其所处的人际关系，实现消息的多次传递，进而帮助更多的群众接受新的革命理念。乡村社会是熟人社会，在熟人社会中很重要的方法就是熟人的监督和道德谴责，作为失当行为的当事人及其家人往往会因某个不当行为而受到熟人不同程度的谴责、歧视和不齿。反巫神运动过程中，读报组也利用熟人社会的特性，动员巫神的家人和亲人劝说巫神改正。

(3) Contesting the Discourse Power over Rural Healthcare

（三）争夺乡村医疗话语权

The anti-witchcraft movement in the Border Region required not only the impact of scientific concepts and the construction of an information flow space but also an actual encirclement and suppression of witches. Since witches often gained widespread support from the Border Region masses by “curing diseases and saving people,” if the Border Region government wanted to strike at witches, it also had to start from the source of the witches’ livelihood, promote a rural medical revolution, ultimately seize the discourse power over rural healthcare, and deprive the witches of their living space.

边区的反巫神运动不仅需要科学观念的冲击和信息流动空间的建构，还需要对巫神开展实际性的围剿。由于巫神往往依靠“治病救人”获取了边区群众的广泛支持，边区政府若想打击巫神，还需从巫神的生活来源入手，推进乡村医疗革命，最终夺取乡村医疗话语权，剥夺巫神的生存场域。

The struggle between doctors and witches had a long history. However, due to high fees, the extreme dispersion of health personnel, and the lack of scientific pharmacology among many traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, the effectiveness of treatment was often unsatisfactory, so doctors were frequently at a disadvantage. What is more, “in some remote villages, there were not even traditional Chinese medicine practitioners. When people got sick, they had no habit of early treatment. They only saw a doctor when the illness became severe, and sometimes they would find witches to perform exorcisms and drive away ghosts, wasting a lot of money and still losing their lives.” [20]20 “The Anti-Witchcraft Movement in the Border Region,” *Liberation Daily*, 29 May 1944. The masses were very eager to have a large number of doctors go to the countryside to solve their predicament of “prosperity in wealth but not in people.” [21]21 “Prosperity in wealth but not in people” (财旺人不旺) is a folk saying meaning that a family may accumulate property but suffer from illness or death, leaving few healthy members. After the Border Region’s economy and politics stabilized, under the advocacy of the health movement, large numbers of medical workers went to the countryside one after another, treating diseases and saving people, and eliminating many witches.

医生和巫神的斗争由来已久，但由于收费昂贵，卫生人员又极为分散，且许多中医缺乏科学药理，治理效果往往不尽如人意，所以经常处于下风。更有甚者，“有的偏僻乡村连中医也没有，老百姓病了就没有早期医治的习惯，除非病重了才看，有时就找巫神跳神打鬼，浪费许多金钱还要送命。”群众十分渴望能够有大批医生下乡，解决他们“财旺人不旺”的困境。随着边区经济和政治稳定以后，在卫生运动倡导之下，大批医务工作人员纷纷下乡，治病救人，清除了许多巫神。

Delving into the underlying logic of doctors going to the countryside to expel witches, it is not difficult to find that the cost of medicine, the effectiveness of medicine, and the cooperation between Chinese and Western medicine were important foundations for the masses’ trust in doctors. First, the health institutions and public hospitals at all levels in the Border Region gradually achieved free medical treatment, greatly alleviating the problem of the masses “finding it difficult to see a doctor.” In the past, although there were many traditional Chinese medicine practitioners in the Border Region, their fees were high, and many people could not afford them. Only wealthy political and business figures had the conditions to seek medical treatment, while many poor common people had to turn to witches. After the Chinese Communist Party arrived in northern Shaanxi, although this situation had greatly improved, it was still very common in remote villages. The Yan’an Subregion Cultural and Educational Work Team found during a rural survey that many families always sought medical treatment indiscriminately, and some spent a lot of money; one dose of traditional Chinese medicine cost 12,000 yuan. [22]22 12,000 yuan in Border Region currency in 1944 was a very large sum for a poor peasant household.

深究医生下乡驱逐巫神的背后逻辑，不难发现，医药成本、医药成效和中西医合作是群众信仰医生的重要基础。其一，边区各级卫生机关和公家医院逐步实现免费医疗，极大缓解了群众“看病难”的难题。以往，边区虽然有很多中医，但他们要价昂贵，许多人负担不起，多是些富裕的政商人士才有寻医问药的条件，许多贫苦百姓不得不去寻找巫神。中国共产党到达陕北后，尽管这种情形极大改善，但在偏僻的乡村该情形仍然十分常见。延属文教工作团在乡村调研时发现，许多家庭总是乱投医，有的花钱花了很多，一副中药就花了12000元。

In response to the problem of high medical costs, Fu Lianzhang proposed at the health administration meeting: “It is the task of every health unit to treat the common people unconditionally and to manage rural health.” For example, the hospital in the Longdong Subregion, 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 vast majority of medical fees were waived and diagnoses were made, the number of people coming to the hospital for treatment continuously increased. Many of the masses, after receiving free treatment, one after another expressed gratitude to the Border Region government and the hospital. For instance, after Zhang Shengliang’s son was cured by medicine, he appealed at a mass meeting, saying, “The public doctors don’t charge money, and even drew their own blood to give my child an injection, saving my son’s life. Only the Eighth Route Army has such doctors. From now on, don’t invite witch doctors when you get sick; it costs money and does no good.”

针对医药费昂贵的问题，傅连暲在卫生行政会议上提出：“无条件给老百姓看病和办理乡村卫生，是每一个卫生单位的任务”。像陇东分区医院从去年下半年成立到现在，总计免收群众的医药费已达44万元。绝大多数医药免费诊断后，前往医院看病的人数不断增加。许多群众经过免费治疗后，纷纷感激边区政府和医院。例如，张生亮的儿子在医药治好后，他在群众大会上就呼吁说“公家的医生不要钱，还将自己的血抽给孩子打，救了我娃的命，只有八路军才有这样的医生，以后生病不要再请巫神，又花钱又不顶事。”

Second, the effectiveness of medicine is the key factor determining the masses’ choice. Generally speaking, therapeutic efficacy often occupies the first place in the masses’ choices. When doctors go to the countryside to struggle against witch doctors, they must necessarily make an issue of “efficacy.” “In Yanchang County’s Fengfu District, two women fell ill; one was treated to death by a witch doctor, the other was cured by a doctor. After that, the villagers in that area no longer invited witch doctors to treat illness.” But it must also be seen that, for the masses, medicine and witch doctors are actually no different; whichever has better results, they believe in that one, and efficacy becomes their actual criterion of judgment. For example, when seeking medical treatment at temple fairs, although some people urged them not to be superstitious, many still burned incense on the one hand while on the other hand still inviting local doctors to diagnose their illnesses. Therefore, doctors in the Border Region should focus on improving the efficacy of medicine, while at the same time organizing and carrying out mass medical education, deepening connections and interactions with the masses, and truly implementing medical and health work.

其二，医药效力是决定群众选择的关键。一般来说，疗效在群众的选择中往往占据首位。医生下乡后要和巫神进行斗争，势必在“效力”上做文章。“延县丰富区，有两个婆姨生了病，一个被巫神治死，一个被医生治愈，此后该村群众就不再请巫神治病了。”但也要看到，医药和巫神对群众来说其实并无区别，哪种效用好，他们就信服谁，效力成为了他们实际的判断标准。如在庙会求医诊治时，尽管有人劝说不要迷信，但还是许多人一面进香，一面仍请当地医生诊病。所以边区医生应着重提高医药效力，同时也要组织开展群众性医药教育，加深与群众之间的联系与互动，把医药卫生工作真正落到实处。

Third, carry out cooperation between Chinese and Western medicine, oppose witch doctors, promote epidemic prevention and hygiene, and ensure “both people and resources flourish.” [23]23 “Both people and resources flourish” (人才两旺) is a slogan used in the Border Region to mean increasing the population and improving agricultural and economic output. If the Border Region wanted to compress the living space of witch doctors, it had to necessarily carry out cooperation between Chinese and Western medicine, and on the basis of “the scientification of Chinese medicine and the Sinicization of Western medicine,” [24]24 “The scientification of Chinese medicine and the Sinicization of Western medicine” (中医科学化和西医中国化) was a policy line promoted in the Border Region to integrate the two medical traditions. further transform witch doctors and promote epidemic prevention and hygiene. In order to implement the policy of close cooperation between Chinese and Western medicine to defeat witch doctors, and adhering to the principle of “publicly initiated and privately assisted,” [25]25 “Publicly initiated and privately assisted” (民办公助) was a policy in the Border Region whereby the government provided support for projects initiated by local communities. the Border Region established health cooperatives, midwifery training classes, etc. Many Chinese and Western doctors used these as platforms, frequently going to the countryside to treat the masses, propagating health knowledge and opposing superstition. At the same time, the Border Region also trained a large number of Chinese and Western medical and health cadres, striving to establish a village clinic in every township. For instance, “Ansai once held a symposium of Chinese doctors and witch doctors. At that time, the masses said: ‘In the past, we believed in witch doctors because there was no other way; we always had to do our human duty, and only then believed in ghosts and gods. If in the future we can really have one clinic per township, who would still believe in gods and ghosts! This task will undoubtedly have to be borne by the cooperation of Chinese and Western medicine.’”

其三，开展中西医合作，反对巫神，推进防疫卫生，保证“人才两旺”。边区若是想压缩巫神的生存空间，势必要开展中西医合作，在“中医科学化和西医中国化”的基础之上，进一步改造巫神，推进防疫卫生。为了贯彻中西医密切合作打倒巫神的方针，在坚持“民办公助”的基础上，边区成立了卫生合作社、接生训练班等，许多中西医以此为平台，经常下乡为群众治病，宣传卫生常识和反对迷信。同时，边区还培养大批的中西医药卫生干部，争取在每个乡都成立乡村医务所。像“安塞曾召开过中医和巫神的座谈会，当时群众说：‘过去信巫神，是因为没办法，总要尽尽人事，才相信鬼神。以后真能办到一乡一个医务所，谁还信神信鬼呢！这个任务，无疑是要由中西医合作来负担的。’”

In summary, through the health movement, the Border Region set off a medical revolution in rural society. It not only changed the health habits of the masses and popularized and improved related medical personnel and facilities, but also, by relying on the health movement, carried out a further encirclement and suppression of witch doctors. In the game between medicine and witch doctors, witch doctors were widely questioned by the masses, and the masses gradually established faith in medicine and doctors.

总之，边区通过卫生运动掀起了一场乡村社会的医疗革命，不仅改变了群众的卫生习惯，普及和完善了相关医药人员和设施，而且还凭借卫生运动对巫神展开了进一步的围剿，在医巫博弈之中，巫神受到群众广泛地质疑，群众逐步树立起对于医药、医生的信仰。

III. The Border Region’s Anti-Witchcraft Movement and the Reshaping of Rural Society

三、 边区反巫神运动与乡村社会的重塑

In the operational practice of the Border Region’s anti-witchcraft movement, the Chinese Communist Party consistently integrated the anti-witchcraft movement into the transformation of rural society, reshaping new social individuals, reconstructing mass identification, re-establishing new social customs, and rebuilding social order, causing the face of rural society to take on an entirely new look.

在边区反巫神运动的运行实践之中，中国共产党始终将反巫神运动融入于乡村社会改造之中，重塑社会新人、重构群众认同、重树社会新风、重建社会秩序，使乡村社会面貌焕然一新。

(1) The De-Deification of Mass Disease Treatment and Daily Behavior

（一）群众疾病治疗与日常行为的去神化

Marx believed: “Science is a revolutionary force that plays a driving role in history.” [26]26 This is a paraphrase of a well-known statement by Marx; the exact source is often cited as a speech or a passage from his writings on science and technology. The Communists fully inherited Marxist thought. In the Border Region’s anti-witchcraft movement, they actively propagated scientific health knowledge, breaking the situation of feudal superstition and the proliferation of witch doctors in the Border Region. Under the influence of this scientization, many of the masses transformed their superstitious ideas and their belief in witch doctors, achieving de-deification in disease treatment and daily life.

马克思认为：“科学是一种在历史上起推动作用的，革命的力量。”共产党人充分继承了马克思主义的思想，在边区反巫神运动中，积极宣传科学卫生知识，打破了边区封建迷信和巫神泛滥的情况。许多群众都在这种科学化的影响之下，转变了迷信和信仰巫神的思想，实现了疾病治疗和日常生活中的去神化。

First, “de-deification” in disease treatment. During the Border Region’s anti-witchcraft movement, Border Region doctors gradually grasped the discourse power over rural medical treatment, gradually reversing the masses’ old concept of “believing in gods rather than medicine,” enabling them to gain further understanding and faith in medicine, and promoting the “de-deification” of their medical concepts. Many of the masses began to spontaneously “expose” the fraudulent activities of witch doctors. There were even cases where the masses, unable to stand witch doctors cheating people, beat them. For example, in Washi, the masses spontaneously beat witch doctors in anger; the patient Gao Shuan angrily beat the witch doctor An Weilin, and so on. In addition, some of the masses spontaneously established various medical cooperatives, midwifery training classes, etc., which also effectively struck at the prestige of witch doctors. In short, with the rise of the medical and health movement, the traditional pseudo-medical treatment of witch doctors was inevitably pushed further and further away, and scientific faith gradually took root in people’s hearts.

其一，疾病治疗时的“去神化”。在边区反巫神运动时，边区医生逐步掌握了乡村医疗话语权，逐渐扭转了他们“信神不信医”的旧有观念，对于医药有了进一步的理解和信仰，推动了他们医疗观念的“去神化”。很多群众开始自觉“揭发”巫神的欺诈活动。甚至还出现了群众因看不惯巫神骗人，而殴打巫神的案例。例如，瓦市群众自发地怒打巫神，病人高拴怒打巫神安维林等。另外，一些群众还自发成立各种医疗合作社、助产训练班等，也有效地打击了巫神的威信。总之，随着医药卫生运动的兴起，巫神传统的伪治医疗势必就渐行渐远，科学信仰逐渐深入人心。

Second, “de-deification” in daily behavioral activities. Besides not seeking out witch doctors when ill, the masses also greatly reduced activities of “worshipping ghosts and gods” in their daily lives, allowing a new scientific ethos to gradually establish itself in the Border Region. After the anti-witchcraft movement arose, many of the masses no longer believed in gods and ghosts. The incense fairs and temples to the Goddess of Fertility, which in the past were for “averting disasters and relieving difficulties” and “praying for sons,” were all transformed into “cultural sheds” and “cultural markets.” [27]27 “Cultural sheds” (文化棚) and “cultural markets” (文化市) were makeshift venues set up in the Border Region to spread literacy, propaganda, and new cultural forms, replacing traditional temple fairs. Some of the masses even said: “We no longer believe in gods and ghosts; we poor people are ourselves the God of Wealth.” [28]28 “The God of Wealth” (财神爷爷) is a traditional Chinese folk deity associated with prosperity. At the same time, with slogans such as “Saving lives first” and “Prevention first” echoing in the Border Region, many ordinary people changed their habits of not bathing and not washing clothes, and cultivated good habits such as not drinking raw water, building latrines, and cleaning up excrement.

其二，日常行为活动的“去神化”。群众除了患病后不找巫神以外，他们日常生活也减少了大量“敬鬼拜神”的活动，使科学新风逐步在边区树立起来。反巫神运动兴起后，许多群众不再信神信鬼，以往“消灾免难”“祈求生子”的香烟会和娘娘庙也都变成了“文化棚”和“文化市”。更有一些群众说：“再也不信神信鬼了，咱们穷人就是财神爷爷。”同时伴随着“救命第一”“预防第一”等Koukao在边区的回响，很多老百姓改变了不洗澡、不洗衣的生活习惯，养成了不喝生水、修建厕所、打扫粪便等好习惯。

(2) The Revolutionary Writing of the Anti-Witchcraft Movement on Rural Society

（二）反巫神运动对乡村社会的革命书写

Through the large-scale anti-witchcraft movement, the Border Region government broke feudal superstition, reconstructed the rural social order, shaped the masses’ revolutionary identification, mobilized the masses’ revolutionary passion, and sounded the clarion call of rural social revolution.

边区政府通过大规模的反巫神运动，打破了封建迷信，重构了乡村社会秩序，形塑了群众的革命认同，调动了群众的革命激情，奏响了乡村社会革命的嘹亮号角。

First, it changed the scattered state of rural society, and the government achieved effective governance over rural society. Witch doctors were one of the groups that, after the Agrarian Revolution, still controlled some rural resources. Although they were not a hostile force, they were an unstable factor in rural society. After the anti-witchcraft movement was launched, the Border Region government gradually occupied the marginal areas of rural society, swept away this group of defenders of the old order, enabling all groups in the countryside to be brought within the scope of government mobilization, thereby effectively guaranteeing the Communist Party’s survival and the supply of the front lines, strengthening the Border Region’s governance of grassroots society, and consolidating the stability of the Border Region’s political power.

其一，改变了乡村社会分散的状态，政府实现了对乡村社会的有效治理。巫神作为土地革命后仅存控制部分乡村资源的群体之一，他们虽非敌对势力，但却是乡村社会中的不稳定因素。反巫神运动开展以后，边区政府逐渐占据乡村社会边缘地带，扫荡了这群旧秩序的维护者，使乡村中的所有群体都能被纳入政府的动员范畴之中，进而有力地保障了共产党的生存和前方战线的补给，强化了边区对于基层社会的治理，巩固了边区政权的稳定。

Second, rural society cultivated new customs and habits suited to the new-democratic society. In the anti-witchcraft movement, the Chinese Communist Party adhered to the unity of destruction and construction, promoting the transformation of customs in Border Region rural society by means of simultaneously destroying and constructing. The so-called “destruction” refers to the destruction of feudal superstition and the transformation of witch doctors who used superstition as a means of livelihood. “Construction” refers to the establishment of many new social customs and habits during the anti-witchcraft movement. For example, using the themes of witch doctor transformation and feudal superstition, many new literary and artistic works appeared. These included new yangge operas [29]29 Yangge opera (秧歌剧) is a form of Chinese folk performance combining song, dance, and drama, which was adapted by the CCP for propaganda purposes in the Border Region. such as “Divination,” “The Divine Insect,” “The Nurse Pays a New Year’s Call,” “The Transformation of Old Lady Zhao,” and “The Witch Doctor Tian’s Reform,” which presented some superstitious activities in the form of yangge opera.

其二，乡村社会培育出了与新民主主义社会相适应的新风尚。中国共产党在反巫神运动中坚持破与立的统一，以破立并举的方式推动了边区乡村社会的移风易俗。所谓“破”即是破除了封建迷信，改造了以迷信作为谋生手段的巫神。“立”是指在反巫神运动过程中确立了诸多社会新风俗和新风尚。例如，以巫神改造和封建迷信为题材，出现了许多新的文艺作品。像新秧歌剧《算卦》《神虫》《护士拜年》《赵老太太转变》《田巫神自新》等，将一些迷信活动以秧歌剧的形式呈现出来。

Third, the masses gradually formed identification with the Chinese Communist Party. Although the anti-witchcraft movement was only a movement led by the Border Region Party and government to transform the group of superstitious professional practitioners, strictly speaking, it implied the Chinese Communist Party’s determination to transform the old society and establish a new society. It conformed to the peasants’ longing for a new society and matched the masses’ value judgments about the state. From the anti-witchcraft movement, the masses saw the hope of a new life and gradually formed identification with the Chinese Communist Party. In particular, through the construction of a unique information flow space, the Border Region not only allowed the masses to understand the facts of witch doctors cheating and harming people in the process of reading newspapers, but also conveyed the Chinese Communist Party’s revolutionary ideas. That is, the Chinese Communists, as thoroughgoing atheists, [30]30 “Thoroughgoing atheists” is a term used by Marx and Engels to describe the communist position on religion, as distinct from mere disbelief. their task is not to lead people to seek the protection of gods and pray for the afterlife, but to lead people to break the old world and build a new world. The masses also gradually came to realize that under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, their lives were not immutable.

其三，群众逐步形成了对中国共产党的认同。反巫神运动虽然仅是边区党和政府领导的一次改造迷信职业者群体的运动。但严格说来，它暗含了中国共产党改造旧社会，建立新社会的决心。符合了农民对于新社会的向往，契合了群众对于国家的价值判断。群众从反巫神运动看到了新生活的希望，逐渐形成了对中国共产党的认同。尤其是边区通过构建特有的信息流动空间，不仅让群众在读报过程中了解到了巫神骗人害人的事实，同时也传递出了中国共产党的革命理念。即中国共产党人作为彻底的无神论者，他们的任务不是引领人们寻求神灵庇佑，祈求来世，而是带领人们打破旧世界，建立新世界。群众也逐步认识到了在中国共产党的领导下，他们的生活并非一成不变。

Fourth, it mobilized the revolutionary enthusiasm of the masses and achieved effective revolutionary mobilization. On the one hand, after the anti-witchcraft movement was launched, many people were liberated from superstition and belief in witchcraft, devoting more energy to developing production, thereby effectively ensuring the logistical supply of the border region and the War of Resistance on the front lines. On the other hand, the Chinese Communist Party also used communist ideals to educate the masses, changing their traditional concepts and behaviors. In the overall situation of the War of Resistance, the anti-witchcraft movement in the border region was a “cultural war” in which the CPC propagated revolution, mobilized the people to participate in the War of Resistance, and eliminated various potential hostile forces. In the anti-witchcraft movement, the CPC spread revolutionary ideas, penetrating the conceptual world of the masses with revolutionary concepts, prompting them to change both old habits and their “minds.” [31]31 “Minds” (脑筋, nǎojīn) here is a colloquial term referring to the masses’ way of thinking or worldview, which the CPC sought to reshape through ideological education. In particular, many masses, through repeated rural social changes such as the anti-witchcraft movement, strengthened their belief and power in the inevitable victory of the War of Resistance and the development of production.

其四，调动了群众的革命热情，实现了有效地革命动员。一方面，反巫神运动开展以后，许多人从迷信、信仰巫神中解放出来，将更多的精力放在发展生产上面，从而有力地保证边区后勤的补给和前线的抗战。另一方面，中国共产党还用共产主义的理念教育群众，改变了他们的传统观念和行为。在抗战 的大局中，边区的反巫神运动是中共宣传革命、动员民众参与抗战和消灭各种潜在敌对力量的一次“文化战争”。中共在反巫神运动中传播了革命的理念，将革命的理念深入到群众的观念世界之中，促使着他们既改变着旧习惯，也改变着“脑筋”。尤其是许多群众从反巫神运动等一次次乡村社会变迁中，增强了抗战必胜和发展生产的信念和力量。

In summary, social revolution, as an inherent part of communist revolution, is precisely how Chinese Communists continuously realize their own ideals and, to a large extent, gain the recognition and support of the masses, thereby providing strong support for the mobilization of the War of Resistance. The anti-witchcraft movement, as an attempt by the Chinese Communist Party to carry out social revolution, while cleansing feudal superstition, continuously transformed traditional rural society. The originally backward and closed rural society constantly took on a new atmosphere. An organized, mutually supportive, revolutionarily warm, and lively rural society gradually replaced the traditional state of lazy and undisciplined life, rampant superstition, and lack of ambition.

总之，社会革命作为共产主义革命的应有之义，中国共产党人正是通过社会革命不断实现着自身的理想，也很大程度上获取了群众的认同与支持，从而为抗战动员提供了有力支撑。反巫神运动作为中国共产党开展社会革命的一次尝试，在荡涤封建迷信的同时不断改造传统的乡村社会。使原本落后封闭的乡村社会不断呈现着新的气象。一种组织化的、团结互助的、有革命温度的、活泼的乡村社会逐渐取代了传统慵懒散漫、落拓不羁、迷信盛行和不思进取的生活状态。

Conclusion

结 语

From transforming people to transforming society, from reshaping life to reshaping the ideal society, from cleansing old ideas to accepting new ones, the Chinese Communist Party, through the anti-witchcraft movement, enabled the masses in the border region to truly feel the tremendous changes taking place in border region society. From a longer-term perspective, the experience of the anti-witchcraft movement in the border region is far-reaching and enduring. On the one hand, the experience of the border region Party and government in reforming witches provided an important reference for reforming various “people of all sorts” [32]32 “People of all sorts” (三教九流, sānjiào jiǔliú) is a Chinese idiom literally meaning “three religions and nine schools,” historically referring to diverse religious and philosophical traditions, but used here pejoratively to denote various marginal or disreputable social groups, such as fortune-tellers, geomancers, and itinerant performers, whom the CPC targeted for reform after 1949. groups after the founding of the state. On the other hand, the experiences embodied in the anti-witchcraft movement, such as Party leadership and a sense of responsibility, emphasis on propaganda and education, and full respect for the subjective will of the masses, can still radiate new value for the times after being tempered by the passage of years.

由改造人到改造社会，由重塑人生到重塑理想社会，由荡涤旧思想到接纳新思想，中国共产党通过反巫神运动让边区群众切切实实地感受到了边区社会所产生的巨大变化。从更长远意义来看，边区反巫神运动的经验是深远持久的。一方面边区党和政府改造巫神的经验，为建国后改造各种”三教九流”群体提供了重要借鉴。另一方面，在反巫神运动中所体现的党的领导和责任意识、注重宣传教育以及充分尊重群众的主观意愿等经验仍然能够在历经岁月洗礼后，焕发着新的时代价值。

Online editor: Tongxin

网络编辑：同心