Why was the ancient reaction to "witchcraft" so sensitive that it was necessary to strike at the sight?

In my opinion, the reasons for cracking down on "witchcraft" in ancient times include: witchcraft is contrary to traditional ethics, and the rulers' cracking down on it is conducive to maintaining their own rule; Witchcraft is usually associated with political goals. Rebels use it to seek status, and rulers use it to destroy dissidents.

Witchcraft, that is, cursing with words, stabbing people to death, puppets and other ways to hurt the enemy, can originate from primitive society at the earliest, and its growth environment is low productivity in ancient times, and people can't explain various social phenomena.

The rulers of ancient dynasties hated witchcraft because:

Witchcraft is against traditional ethics.

Since the Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty has established the orthodox position of Confucianism founded by Confucius. This makes other thoughts and theories move towards the space of existence, such as Taoism and Legalism, and some even gradually disappear in the long river of history. However, witchcraft is obviously contrary to Confucianism. Confucius once taught students not to believe in "Machamp's chaotic gods", which put them on the opposite side. The most important thing of culture is to trace back to the source, and witchcraft has naturally become the object of discussion among monarchs of past dynasties.

Witchcraft is usually associated with political goals.

The process of witchcraft is linked with various purposes. In the folk, it will make people panic all the time, and then it will be used by the rebels to form a rebel organization with it as its core.

This is especially true in the palace where politics is the most concentrated, and the situation of achieving political goals through witchcraft events is more prominent. For example, in the Han Dynasty, when Emperor Wudi was ill, he suspected that Liu Yuxin cursed himself in this way, so he was furious and believed it. He took the opportunity to abolish the prince and kill many people, thus consolidating his rule.