Humor is not a laughing matter–it has deep significance. In Western philosophical tradition since Plato, laughter, particularly of derision, has often been taken as an archetypal expression of superiority. In Biblical literature, laughter frequently indicates offenses, hostilities, and God’s scorn toward earthly kings.[1] In Chinese history, what would be characterized with the modern concept of “humor” was already in abundant existence in early canonical Confucian and Daoist texts, and historical sources portray court jesters as royal counselors since at least from the Zhou Dynasty (1045–256 BCE).[2] During the late imperial period, the expansion of the printing industry led to a surge in joke collections, comedies, and other farcical literature.[3] While some of these works depicted officials using humor to promote Confucian values, popular worship of the laughing Buddha or comic gods like Crazy Ji offered a sense of compassion as well as liberation from societal and cultural norms.[4] The early 20th century, marked by immense social and political upheaval, also ushered in what Christopher Rea calls an “age of irreverence,” in which literary mockery became a powerful force in shaping modern Chinese cultural politics.[5] Under Mao, political rituals and rhetoric propagated not only class hatreds but also laughter as a social practice and ideological tool.[6] Across both imperial and modern history, laughter reveals much about the tensions, conflicts, and power dynamics that shape people’s everyday lives.
This paper contributes to the emerging field of research on emotions and Chinese religion by focusing on the laughter of derision directed at female spirit mediums. These women occupy an ambiguous place in Chinese historical texts. Some accounts depict them as vital intermediaries who communicate with the unseen for the benefit of local communities, while others condemn them as charlatans who undermine social morality. By exploring the trope of mocking female mediums in various historical sources, this paper seeks to shed light on gender and laughter in Chinese cultural and political arenas.
The paper’s analysis unfolds in three parts. First, it traces the origins of this trope to a well-known story in the Shiji 史記 (Records of the Grand Historian, 2nd century BCE), one of the great works of Han Dynasty historical literature. The story, known in later times as Ximen Bao, the Prefect of Ye County (Ximen Bao zhi Ye 西門豹治鄴) or The Marriage of the River God (Hebo quqin河伯娶親), celebrates an imperial official’s witty ploy that exploited a sacred ritual of female mediums to humiliate and punish them. This narrative established a literary and political theme—pitting an imperial bureaucrat against female ritual specialists—that would resonate throughout both imperial and modern China.
Next, the paper examines the development of this trope during the late imperial period. Different retellings of this story appear in literati anecdotal writings as well as vernacular literature, the latter of which reached a wider audience beyond elite circles. The mockery directed at female mediums in these literary sources not only illustrates the efforts of Confucian scholar-officials to reform local communities but also highlights the common presence of female ritual specialists in both rural and urban households. This trope thus encapsulates both elite sentiments of moral superiority as well as subversive intents from the lower strata of society.
Finally, the paper looks at the resurgence of this trope in the 20th century, especially during the Maoist period, when it became central to the campaign against “feudal superstition.” The victory of the Han Dynasty official over female shamans appeared in many forms—from school textbooks and cartoons to newspapers, folk stories, and local operas. These new versions of the tale in Maoist literature demonstrate how propaganda workers used gendered ridicule of spirit mediums and “superstition” as a tool for bridging the rural-urban divide and promoting modernist ideals from the revolution’s northern heartland to China’s diverse regions.
By examining how the trope of mocking female mediums evolved across two millennia, this paper argues that elite writings consistently reflect the ongoing tensions between central state power (both imperial and modern) and local religious practices, especially those featuring female ritual specialists, in different historical contexts. Through their laughter at female mediums, Chinese political and cultural elites crafted narratives about civilization, modernization, and revolution. Yet, even as these women became objects of ridicule, their portrayal in elite texts inadvertently reveal their critical role in local religious life. The power dynamics of laughter thus offer important insights into the intersections of gender, emotion, and politics in Chinese religious history.
[1] John Morreall, Comic Relief: A Comprehensive Philosophy of Humor (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), 1-24.
2 Christoph Harbsmeier, “Humor in Ancient Chinese Philosophy,” in Philosophy East and West, 39.3 (1989), 289-310; Weihe Xu, “The Classical Confucian Concepts of Human Emotion and Proper Humour;” Shirley Chan, “Identifying Daoist Humour: Reading the Liezi,” in Jocelyn Chey and Messica M. Davis, eds., Humour in Chinese Life and Letters: Classical and Traditional Approaches (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2011), 49-72, 73-88.
3 Jocelyn Chey, “Youmo and the Chinese Sense of Humour,” in Chey and Davis, eds., Humour in Chinese Life and Letters, 1-29; Jessica M. Davis, “Humour and Its Cultural Context: Introduction and Overview” in Davis and Chey, eds., Humour in Chinese Life and Culture: Resistance and Control in Modern Times (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2013), 1-21.
4 Meir Shahar, Crazy Ji: Chinese Religion and Popular Literature (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, 1998).
5 Christopher Rea, The Age of Irreverence: A New History of Laughter in China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2015), Chapter 4, especially 79-80.
6 Ping Zhu, “Introduction: The Study of Laughter in the Mao Era,” in Zhuoyi Wang, and Jason McGrath, eds., Maoist Laughter (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2019), 1.
This paper contributes to research on emotions and Chinese religion by examining the laughter of derision directed at female spirit mediums. These women occupy an ambiguous role in Chinese historical texts. Some accounts depict them as vital intermediaries who communicate with the unseen for the benefit of local communities, while others condemn them as charlatans who undermine social morality. The article analyzes the literary trope of mocking female mediums in three stages: from the Han dynasty, through the late imperial period, and into the Maoist era. Through their derisive laughter at female mediums, Chinese elites crafted narratives about civilization, modernization, and revolution. Yet even as these women became objects of ridicule, their portrayal in elite writings inadvertently reveals their crucial role in local religious life. The power dynamics of laugher offer important insights into the intersections of gender, emotion, and politics in Chinese religious history.