Can a real witch tell a fortune _ Can a real witch tell a fortune? Zhihu

There are no witches in China. Witches are characters in western culture. They use witchcraft, magic and astrology and act with such supernatural abilities.

Witches are women who can communicate with ghosts and gods, use witchcraft and astrology, and claim to be possessed by ghosts and gods for a living. In primitive society, with the help of the divine power of nature or the power possessed by gods, the professionals who pray for people to exorcise evil spirits and treat diseases are usually older women, similar to Japanese witches.

Broadly speaking, there were shamans and psychics in ancient China who were engaged in divination and communication between heaven and earth. They can dance and communicate with God, or they can exorcise evil spirits, cure diseases, pray for rain and good weather. These women are roughly equivalent to "witches" in the west.

Extended data:

China's "witch":

Shamans and psychics in ancient China did not have the flying ability of western witches, but, like ritual experts, based on their belief in some supernatural power, signed contracts with gods and performed "magic".

In addition to positive magic such as divination and praying for rain, there are also "witchcraft" such as "evoking souls", "stealing yin", "casting spells" and "stealing vitality".

According to the field investigation and the description in Liaozhai and other books, in some places, girls can get money by having sex with the five gods (the name of the evil spirits in the south of the Yangtze River, originally the god of wealth). (See Wang Shizhen's My Talk on the Red Monument Destroying the Yindian and Pu Songling's Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio. A similar situation can also be seen in the sum of Yu.

However, due to the fact that China's great history books always focus on the upper level and are shaped by elite culture, and the materials of rural social history are relatively scarce, it is difficult to make an accurate quantitative and qualitative analysis of witches in China history. At present, most related studies are based on historical anthropology, medicine, alchemy, ethnography and other perspectives.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Witch (a woman who uses magic in western legends)