Ministry of Rites
In the Shang and later Zhou dynasty (c. 1046 BCE – 256 BCE), shamans had an important role in the political hierarchy, and were represented institutionally by the Ministry of Rites (). The emperor was considered the supreme shaman, intermediating between the three realms of heaven, earth and humanity. The mission of a shaman ( "wu") is "to repair the disfunctionalities occurred in nature and generated after the sky had been separated from earth":