Abstract
From the perspective of legislature, this essay challenged a popular old belief that the Song government occasionally imposed complete bans on witch and witchcraft throughout the country. This essay found out that neither witch as a profession nor witchcraft as a professional means had ever been banned. The ones that were banned were the “illegal” witchcraft or black magic, such as human sacrificing, ku poisoning (蠱毒) and magical cursing, most of which had long been defined as illegal in the Tang Code and followed suit by the Song dynasty. Other religious practitioners like Buddhist monks and Taoist priests who performed black magic were also banned and punished like the witches, but it should not be called bans on Buddhism or Taoism. The only new legislature might be the ban on witches (or witch-doctors) isolating their patients from healing by human effort and using only divine healing. It must be noted that witches using both divine healing and healing by human effort were not banned. This new legislature may be seen as a big step forward of the Song toward modernity.
Keywords
Song, ban on witch, ban on witchcraft, witch doctoring and healing by human effort
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