Chinese exorcists
W.G. Stirling’s “Chinese Exorcists” (1924) is a first-hand ethnographic account of spirit-mediumship and exorcism rituals practised by China-born Hokkien members of the vegetarian sect in early twentieth-century Malaya, drawing on direct observation at festivals in Malacca, Taiping, Singapore, and Penang. The article documents the full cycle of a procession-based exorcism—from the God’s departure from his temple to the medium’s possession, the identification and punishment of evil spirits, and the God’s triumphant return—while also recording the physical self-mutilation, symbolic iconography, and medical divination that underpin the practice.
Summary
Stirling situates exorcism as a weekly occurrence in Malacca, though by 1924 it had declined in popularity in Singapore and Penang. The practice is concentrated among Hokkien adherents of the vegetarian sect, and Stirling’s account is grounded in personal attendance at multiple seances and festivals, including a notable vegetarian festival at Taiping in 1912 where participants walked barefoot across a coal fire and self-flagellated with spiked iron balls (p. 41). The article’s central narrative follows the structure of a procession: it opens with the God’s palanquin being carried through the streets, flanked by drummers, cymbal-players, and the medium standing on the palanquin poles in a state of delirium, wielding a spirit sword and spirit whip against invisible evil spirits (pp. 41–42). The medium, called a “Shan tung” (messenger from the Gods), is described as a pale, physically weak young man of highly strung temperament who cannot sustain the practice for many years (p. 44).
The second half of the article shifts to the domestic setting, where the God is carried to a sick patient’s house on a litter. Here the medium performs a more extended ritual: dancing with the spirit sword over the patient, lashing the air with the spirit whip, slashing his back with the spiked ball, running a needle through his tongue to collect blood on paper charms, and in extreme cases thrusting a devil-dispelling dagger through his cheek (p. 46). The medium identifies the location of the offending spirit—sometimes a tree that must be felled—and the God remains in the household for several days to ensure the spirit keeps its bargain (p. 46). Stirling notes that the written answers obtained through the medium are generally medicinal prescriptions, and that temple attendants appear to know the patient’s prognosis in advance, framing the medium’s incoherent shrieks accordingly to protect the God’s reputation (p. 47).
Key Findings
- Exorcism was a weekly practice in Malacca but had declined in Singapore and Penang by 1924; it was practised mainly by China-born Hokkiens of the vegetarian sect (p. 41).
- The medium’s possession is triggered at a religious ceremony and follows a recognisable sequence: sudden trance, guttural noises escalating to falsetto shrieks, physical convulsions, and guided movement to the altar, with the priest burning incantation papers and an attendant accelerating the drumbeat (p. 45).
- The medium’s “release” is effected by the interpreter spitting a mixture of water and ash from burnt incantation papers onto the medium’s face, after which he revives almost immediately with no recollection of the episode (p. 45).
- The five daggers used in cheek-piercing bear carved heads of the Five Generals (North, South, East, West, and the General of the Devil-destroying army of Heaven); the belief is that the General’s power travels down the blade into the medium, enhancing his efficacy against evil spirits (p. 47).
- The “Pat Kwa” (eight-sided diagram) and the constellation of the Great Bear (denoted by the character tau, “a peck”) appear on black flags carried in the procession; the former controls the spectre world and the latter rules the seasons and the course of the universe (p. 44).
- Blood collected from the medium’s tongue or cheek is written on paper and distributed to the crowd as charms against evil spirits, to be worn on the person or pasted over doors (pp. 42–43).
Conclusion
Stirling presents these exorcism rituals as a coherent, internally consistent system of popular Chinese religion in colonial Malaya, in which the God, the medium, the symbolic weaponry, and the community of worshippers each play a defined role in diagnosing and expelling the evil spirits believed to cause illness and misfortune. His account, while written in the observational idiom of a colonial administrator, conveys a degree of respect for the practice’s internal logic and notes the practical medical function of the mediumship—most consultations yield medicinal prescriptions—without reducing it to mere superstition.
Context
- The article appears in the second volume of the Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, a periodical that in its early years published a mix of colonial administrative reports, linguistic studies, and ethnographic observations on the Chinese, Malay, and Indian communities of the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States.
- Stirling’s account of the Taiping festival (1912) and his references to the “days of the queue” (p. 46) place the observations firmly within the late Qing / early Republican transition, capturing a moment when traditional Chinese religious practices in Malaya were still largely unregulated by colonial authorities.