Witch trials in medieval and early modern Europe / America are well documented, well known. I am curious if similar existed outside of Christian countries, especially in China and Japan. Both China and Japan have rich mythology about supernatural beings, who often discuss themselves as human and commit smaller or bigger harm to people. One would assume that similar fear among the common folks from these beings existed, and also neither the Chinese nor Japanese were shy if someone had to be tortured to death. So in principle, one would expect that incidents similar to witch trials might have occurred there, too. I am looking for incidents that:
- formal trial or some other ways formalized (supervised by some laws, authorities), not just lynching or spontaneous violence of a mob;
- not a one-time occasion, but at some extend typical to the region;
- has a mythical or religious motivation (at least officially), and the victim is accused to be a supernatural being or possessing supernatural powers, but it doesn't need to be a witch;
- it doesn't need to be gender-specific (ie not only women).
As per request about prior research:
"Asian_witchcraft" of Wikipedia (same as linked in the comment) mentions that folklore indeed has witches both in China and in Japan. No info about law-enforcement or trials or other "non-which-like" candidates.
"Which hunt" of Wikipedia almost exclusively focuses on European / American cases, without a word about China or Japan. Briefly mentions some very recent (post2000) cases around the world. This lack of information is kind of strange, considering that the second sentence of the article is "The belief in magic and divination, and attempts to use magic to influence personal well-being (to increase life, win love, etc.) are human cultural universals." and even explicitly states: "Reports on indigenous practices in the Americas, Asia and Africa collected during the early modern age of exploration have been taken to suggest that not just the belief in witchcraft but also the periodic outbreak of witch-hunts are a human cultural universal" with a reference to "Behringer, Wolfgang (2004). Witches and Witch-Hunts: A global history."
"List of people executed for witchcraft" of Wikipedia (strangely ambitious title, to be frank) almost exclusively European / colonial. The only possible candidate on the list is Zhang Liang (Tang dynasty), who was technically trialed for witchcraft. Based on related wiki article Zhang Liang was a general/chancellor to the imperial throne and his trial is primarily politically motivated. While the wiki article mentioned that witchcraft was a major taboo in ancient China, it doesn't mention any similar other cases.
Google search brought up some online articles about which crafts accusations in present China, mostly from gender/patriarchy angle (eg. https://theconversation.com/why-are-women-accused-of-witchcraft-study-in-rural-china-gives-clue-89730; https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2128393/witches-are-banding-together-after-rural-chinese-communities).
In summary, I haven't found any information about regular, formal, or semi-formal prosecution of witches in this region, though similar characters of folklore exist.
