Chinese Magic Centered on Transactions

Chinese cultures stressed participation in the world, so it is no surprise that magic was so central to cultural and political life. Chinese magic in turn [centered] on transactions, a series of bargains sought with the ancestors, so that the dead might aid the living. Through the emphasis on the ancestral dead, the working of qi (which animates all things, human and non-human), the influence of celestial bodies or earthly directions on people, in China, people and the world are closely interwoven. Imbalances in the human world, such as those brought about by an autocratic ruler, could occasion disasters in the physical world: a ruler who overstepped the mark might be seen as responsible for a bad flood or an earthquake. The Han likened these connections to stringed musical instruments: the resonances set up by people will cause similar notes to sound on the strings of the natural world. Harmony begets harmony, while imbalance also echoes through the cosmos.

— Magic: A History, p. 118