The Occult Elite: Spiritualism and Mystery in Republican China

In 1918, the magazine "Lingxue Congzhi" emerged as a rare cultural artifact that integrated Western spiritualism with traditional Chinese beliefs, revealing a hidden "backside" of history during an era defined by political revolution. Prominent elite figures like Wu Tingfang and Lufei Bohong led organizations such as the Shanghai Spiritualism Society, using practices like séances and spirit photography to explore the supernatural through a lens of modern inquiry. The movement achieved national fame through sensational cases, most notably when the scholar Wu Zhihui allegedly received precise answers to complex ancient linguistic questions from a summoned Tang Dynasty spirit.